UTA Libraries Hosts Essraa Nawar in Diversity Speaker Series

Author's professional headshot

by Library News
September 30 2019

UTA Libraries welcomed Essraa Nawar, Leatherby Libraries Development Librarian and Chair for Arts, Exhibits and Events Committee at Chapman University, as the second speaker in its Diversity Series on Sept. 25.

Nawar presented on her topic, “Diversity: between staged and organic” to about 30 members of Libraries staff.

“We are honored that Essraa accepted our invitation to share her work and personal experiences with us at UTA Libraries,” said Dean Rebecca Bichel. “Diversity is a core strength for UTA, and conversations like this encourage all of us to broaden our perspectives and open ourselves to engage broadly with our community.”

The Diversity Series, curated by the University Libraries Deans Council (ULDC), highlights librarians from across the country for their effort to promote diversity in their work. Talks from additional speakers are expected by the end of 2019-2020 school year.

Librarian and ULDC member Peter Zhang says the series highlights the Libraries’ strategic priority to promote diversity and inclusion.

“We are a diverse campus, and the City of Arlington is a diverse community,” Zhang said. “UTA Libraries strives to offer programming that speaks to the variety of populations that make our community strong. We know we have work to do, and hope this series inspires important conversations about inclusion.”

Zhang proposed bringing Nawar to UTA Libraries after seeing her present at the Academic Library Advancement and Development Network (ALDN) conference in 2018 in Fort Worth. UTA was a sponsor of that conference.

In her presentation, Nawar shared case studies on how Leatherby Libraries not only capitalizes on current campus, national and international events but also uses their own staffs’ and students’ diverse skills, background and connections to bring their programs to life.

She also says sharing personal stories from marginalized groups has the power to fight stereotypes. The hashtag #ChangeTheNarrative gives others a way to connect as they go about their everyday lives—all while debunking myths and challenging prejudice.

“I want to change the perspective of people who see someone looking like me, wearing a headscarf, and wonder, ‘where are you from?’” Nawar said. “I also want us to, all together, redefine the concept of diversity. I want us not to focus just on race, religion, and gender—you’re defined by your life experiences, your travels, even the books that you read. I think we really need to redefine that concept and use it in a more organic way.”

Maria Baagala, Organizational Excellence Library Specialist Lead, was inspired by Nawar’s discussion, which resonated with her own experiences.

“Essraa’s talk was very, very good,” Baagala said. “I also did not grow up [in the United States], and I related to what she was saying. This really needs to be taught everywhere, especially at universities as diverse as UTA.”

Nawar’s next stop was Amman, Jordan, where she met with more than 200 librarians from the region to help bolster their libraries’ programming.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <button> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.