President Elaine Tuttle Hansen has announced the program and speakers for the third annual presidential symposium at Bates College.

Titled The Teaching and Learning Shift: Diversity and Technology in the Twenty-First Century, the event explores ways in which Bates faculty and staff must both expand their knowledge of how students learn and deepen their capacity to engage them.

The symposium will focus on the intersection of two key differences between contemporary students and the generations of their parents and professors: their understanding and experiences of diversity and their uses of technology.

Panelists and speakers include:

Hansen, Bates' seventh president, whose achievements to date include leadership of an integrated series of recruitment, retention and post-Bates networking initiatives aimed at increasing diversity at Bates;

Leslie I. Hill, associate professor in the Department of Politics and special assistant to the president. In her role as special assistant, Hill works closely with the director of affirmative action and the deans of students and the faculty to develop diversity initiatives and policies at the College;

Anna Everett, professor and chair, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. Everett works in the fields of digital media technologies, film and TV history/theory, and African-American film and culture;

and Eszter Hargittai, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and faculty associate of the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of information technologies with a particular interest in how IT may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities.

The symposium takes place on Thursday, April 30, in the Olin Arts Center. See the program.