Lipscomb hosts 2022 Lilly Fellows national conference on diversity

Lipscomb's scholarly expertise and proposed theme on implicit bias lured national conference to campus

Kim Chaudoin  |  09/01/2020

Lipscomb University was selected from among universities across the nation to host the Lilly Fellows Program’s 2022 national conference. Lipscomb’s winning proposal was based on the theme “Implicit Racial Bias and the Academy.” 

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities in the Arts conference will take place on Lipscomb’s campus and is co-chaired by Richard Hughes, scholar-in-residence in the College of Bible & Ministry, and William Turner, distinguished professor of leadership and public policy and special counsel to the president for diversity and inclusion. 

“Lipscomb’s hosting of this conference is an important hallmark for Lipscomb,” said Turner. “It’s a major national conference among faith-based colleges and universities, and the topic is timely. There is an awareness in Christian higher education that there needs to be much more emphasis and focus on implicit bias, diversity, inclusion and equity. 

“Additionally, having two scholars whose life’s work has focused on these issues — one who happens to be African American and one who happens to be white, and who have worked together will allow Lipscomb to speak to this topic in unique ways,” Turner said.

Formerly at Vanderbilt and now the Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Public Service at Lipscomb, Turner has done much work on race and racism in the context of family, community and public health. He served as an advisor to President Barack Obama as his administration developed the Affordable Care Act.

Hughes is the author of Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning. He followed up that work by coordinating a conversation series for Lipscomb faculty with four of Nashville’s other Christian universities: two that are historically black and two that are historically white. Hughes is one of the foremost Church of Christ scholars in the nation.

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of higher learning in the twenty-first century. 

“It speaks to the commitment of (President L. Randolph) Lowry and the university that, in addition to the substantial grant money we have received from the Lilly Fellows for this conference, the university has also made a substantial contribution to augment these funds to support this endeavor,” Turner said.

Keynote speakers for the 2022 conference will include:

• Eddie Glaude, Jr., the James S. McDonnell distinguished university professor of African American studies at Princeton University, where he is also the chair of the Center for African American Studies and the chair of the Department of African American Studies. Glaude is the former president of the American Academy of Religion, the largest professional organization of scholars of religion in the world.  He is the author of the 2020 book Begin Again, about James Baldwin and the history of American politics. He will deliver the opening plenary. 
• Tabatha Jones Jolivet, director of the ethnic and race studies program at California Lutheran University and co-author of White Jesus: The Architecture of Racism in Education and Religion, will deliver the second plenary. 
• Turner will lead the closing panel discussion. 

“This is a very important milestone for the university to host a conference with the national prominence that the Lilly Fellows Program has and to convene a conversation about such a critical topic in our society,” said Provost W. Craig Bledsoe. “I look forward to the impact that this conference will have on our community, and I am grateful for the leadership of Dr. Turner and Dr. Hughes in this work.”

Previous host universities include Baylor University, Pepperdine University, University of Notre Dame, Valparaiso University, Mercer University, Hope College, Loyola Marymount University, Xavier University, Augsburg University, Belmont University, Samford University, University of Indianapolis, Calvin College, Seattle Pacific University, College of the Holy Cross and St. Olaf College.

More information about the conference will be released in early 2021.