Indiana University Northwest’s One Book…One Campus…One Community… reading initiative welcomes Sarah Schulman, author of this year’s common campus read, “Conflict is Not Abuse,” to campus on Tuesday, March 6.
Schulman’s talk, set for 1 p.m. in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium, located in the Savannah Center, is the highly anticipated lecture concluding this year’s reading initiative.
Throughout the 2017-18 academic year, the book has been integrated into classroom curricula, giving IU Northwest faculty and staff the opportunity to reflect on the diversity of themes. The book, and Schulman’s lecture, bring to light notions that are especially timely in the midst of current events, sparking ongoing conversations surrounding racism, sexual harassment and assault and identity politics.
Schulman’s talk will be followed by a book signing and reception in the Savannah Center, concluding by 3:30 p.m.
About ‘Conflict is Not Abuse’
In “Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair,” Schulman observes a continuum, “that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between conflict and abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating.”
Schulman discusses how personal and collective self-criticism becomes punishment and that differences are somehow used to justify cruelty and shunning. She describes the ways that various group relationships bond through their refusal to change their self-concept.
The book rejects the notions of blame, cruelty and scapegoating and describes how individuals in powerful positions use fear of others to achieve their goals.
The book’s description on Amazon notes that “this important and sure to be controversial book illuminates such contemporary and historical issues of personal, racial, and geo-political difference as tools of escalation towards injustice, exclusion, and punishment, whether the objects of dehumanization are other individuals in our families or communities, people with HIV, African Americans, or Palestinians.”
About Sarah Schulman
A novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and AIDS historian, Schulman has authored 18 books. She is a Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellow, and a distinguished professor of the humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island.
Additional resources about the book, as well as information about IU Northwest’s One Book … One Campus … One Community … reading initiative, are available at www.iun.edu/onebook.
About Indiana University Northwest
One of eight campuses of Indiana University, IU Northwest is located in metropolitan Northwest Indiana, approximately 30 miles southeast of Chicago and 10 miles from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The campus has a diverse student population of approximately 4,000 degree-seeking students and 1,500 dual-degree-seeking students. The campus offers Associate, Baccalaureate and Master’s degrees in a variety of undergraduate, graduate and pre-professional degree options available from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health and Human Services, the School of Business and Economics, and the School of Education. The campus is also host to IU School of Medicine-Northwest-Gary, which actively involves students in research and local healthcare needs through its four-year medical doctorate program. IU Northwest emphasizes high-quality teaching, faculty and student research and engagement on campus and in the community. As a student-centered campus, IU Northwest is committed to academic excellence characterized by a love of ideas and achievement in learning, discovery, creativity and engagement. Indiana University Northwest is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to achieving excellence through diversity. The University actively encourages applications from women, minorities, veterans, persons with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups.
