Upper School Assembly Presentation by Professor Don Sawyer

Professor Don Sawyer was the keynote speaker at the New England Youth Identity Summit in March. Dr. Sawyer is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.. He teaches Sociology of Hip­-Hop Culture, based on his research of urban education, visual sociology, youth culture, hip-­hop culture, and youth critical media literacy. His studies are founded on his belief in the importance of community based education.  He is active at the University helping to facilitate difficult conversations about race.  Here is the link to his page on the university site.   An article on the Summit is linked here.

His participation in the Summit was part of his fourth trip to Waynflete in a year.  He attended a meeting of RAaW last winter, keynoted the RAaW movie night last spring, and Skyped into the Upper School retreat in the fall to discuss how to talk about race with our students.  The day before the Summit, he spent a full day on campus visiting classes, consulting with faculty, and speaking at the Upper School Assembly.  Following is a video of his assembly talk.