Author and commentator Ruha Benjamin will be the keynote speaker at Oregon State University’s 43rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration on Jan. 30. Her keynote address will be delivered at 7 p.m. in The LaSells Stewart Center on the Corvallis campus and streamed online. There will also be a hybrid event at the OSU Portland Center. Registration is free and required.
Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. Her commemoration talk will explore the intersection of technology and imagination: "Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination.”
A prolific author and incisive commentator, Benjamin’s work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, knowledge and power. She is author of the award-winning books “Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code” and “Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want.”
Commemoration events kick off Monday, Jan. 20 at the annual Peace Breakfast in the CH2M HILL Alumni Center on the Corvallis campus. During the breakfast, which will be held from 9-10:30 a.m., four legacy awards will be presented by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Committee. Registration is free and required until capacity is reached. Childcare will be provided at no cost by KidSpirit.
Following the breakfast, a Peace March, led by OSU students, will take place beginning at 11 a.m. along a 1-mile route concluding at the SEC Plaza with a brief program and refreshments.
Accommodation requests related to a disability for the breakfast and march events should be made by Jan. 13, and accommodation requests related to a disability for the keynote event should be made by Jan. 23 to University Events at 541-737-4717 or [email protected].
For more information on the 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration, please contact Miguel Arellano Sanchez, assistant director of outreach and chair of the event planning committee, via email, [email protected].
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