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IU McKinney has partnered with the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library to present the program “Talking About Banned Books: Negotiating Values and Conflicts” on September 27.

Visitors to the Vonnegut Library may view items that were in Vonnegut's study, a recreation of which is depicted in the photo at left.

Panelists will include:

• Kristin Beeson, a teacher at Carmel High School
• Professor Stephen L. Fox of the IUPUI Department of English
• Professor Robert A Katz of IU McKinney
• Professor Joseph McKinney of Ball State University
• Jan P. Mensz, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana
• Max Goller, director of education at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library

The library’s partnership with IU McKinney was a natural fit, said Julia Whitehead, executive director of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.

“Vonnegut really loved IUPUI,” Whitehead said. He thought an urban school in Indianapolis was really important. He valued the great reputation IUPUI has academically.”

Partnering with IU McKinney also was a no-brainer considering how many Vonnegut fans also are attorneys, Whitehead said. Many of the people she reached out to when starting the library also were attorneys. “Vonnegut cared about words, and obviously, attorneys care about words, too,” she said.

Daniel Griffith, ’90, director of the Office for Intergroup Dialogue and Civil Community at IUPUI who also teaches in the law school’s Public Policy Mediation Course, serves on the Vonnegut Library Board of Directors. He also worked to organize the September 27 event. He has mediated disputes involving parents who object to books their children are assigned to read in school.

“How do we have a good conversation about these issues,” he asked. “We don’t always resolve them, but we strive to create a better understanding among the sides.”

The program will begin at 5 p.m. in the Inlow Hall Wynne Courtroom, and carries with it 1.5 hours of CLE and CME credit with a registration. The event is free and open to the public.