The University of Delaware will host a screening of the film Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower on Monday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Class of 1941 Lecture Room of the Morris Library.

The film features interviews with black women professors and administrators who share their life experiences and how those experiences shaped their professional careers in the academy.

After the film, there will be a panel discussion, moderated by Sharon Neal, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Joining Neal on the panel will be Patricia DeLeon, Trustees Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences; Ann M. Aviles, assistant professor of human development and family studies; and Regina Sims Wright, associate professor of nursing.

The event is a follow up to the Women of Color in the Academy conference organized by the UD ADVANCE Institute and held on campus April 29-May 1. The film was shown at the conference, where attendees had the opportunity to ask questions of the filmmaker, Roxana Walker-Canon, after the screening. The original screening and panel discussion was met with such tremendous support that faculty associated with the conference wanted to show it to the larger campus community. 

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and the University of Delaware Library.

Screening attendees are also encouraged to visit the exhibit "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?" which is on display on the first floor of the Morris Library. The exhibition opened this spring and was developed to complement the Women of Color conference. It highlights the library’s extensive holdings on diversity in higher education. The exhibition as well as the online version of the exhibit is curated by Carol Rudisell, librarian in the reference and services department, who also served on the ADVANCE Institute’s conference program committee.