News Archive
IU McKinney Commemorates Banned Books Week with Vonnegut Memorial Library
09/28/2016
IU McKinney partnered with the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library to present the program “Talking About Banned Books: Negotiating Values and Conflicts” on September 27. The lively discussion took place in the Wynne Courtroom at Inlow Hall.
Panelists presented a mediation session related to books used in schools, with various points of view explored throughout the exercise. Those who took part in the talk included Kristin Beeson, a teacher at Carmel High School; Professor Stephen L. Fox of the IUPUI Department of English; Professor Robert As Katz of IU McKinney; Professor Joseph McKinney of Ball State University; Jan P. Mensz, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana; and 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 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, an adjunct professor at the law school, serves on the Vonnegut Library Board of Directors, and worked to organize the September 27 event. An expert in mediation, Griffith 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.”
In the photo from left are Kristin Beeson, Professor Fox, Professor Katz, Jan Mensz, Dean Andrew R. Klein, Professor McKinney, Daniel Griffith, and Max Goller.
