The Honors College at Southern Oregon University in partnership with The Institute for New Writing Ashland ( INWA) is sponsoring a poetry contest centered on this year’s campus theme of RACE.
The poetry contest is open to all SOU students, one entry per contestant, in however many words and in whichever style, with the first prize winner taking home a $100 dollar prize.
The deadline for entry is on or before November 11, 2013, and should be sent to INWA@SOU.EDU as attachments in MS Word file.
There have been several guest speakers at SOU who have shared their experiences and insight regarding the topic of race this year, but now it’s time for students to join the conversation. This is a good time to offer some input and discuss how race affects students as a whole in their educational career, professional career, or personal life in a fun and artistic way.
Many things come into play when speaking about race: popular conceptions depict race as a human classification system based on a person’s biological genetic inheritance, and instead it has been created by society as a social constructwhichhas a lot to do with where somebody will live, what schools they will go to, what jobs they will get, etc.—-but does that really define who a person is and what they are capable of?
Discussions about race is a very complex idea, because it takes into account many other aspects and contingencies of a person besides their physical traits which many people use in a negative way (racism).
This is a very good opportunity for students to share their experiences, and to say what they think on the subject of race. Happy writing to all of those who participate.
