uxconferences & events.
The Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards is made possible
by a grant from Stanford University's Program in Writing and Rhetoric.
If you attended the 2015 Symposium, and/or wish to nominate someone you know for next year's Awards, please take a short 5 question survey here.
See you next year!
SPEAKERS.
JEFF CHANG
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Jeff Chang continues his long career specializing in culture, politics, the arts, and music as the Executive Director of Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts. He co-founded CultureStr/ke and ColorLines and was a Senior Editor/Director at Russell Simmons' 360hiphop.com. Jeff was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and with H. Samy Alim was the 2014 winner of the St. Clair Drake Teaching Award at Stanford University. Following Jeff's award-winning 2005 book "Can't Stop Won't Stop" is his latest publication, "Who We Be: The Colorization of America" which answers the questions, "How do Americans see race now?" and "How has that changed—and not changed—over the half-century?"
HARRY ELAM
CLOSING REMARKS
Harry J. Elam, Jr. is the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He has authored several publications and directed professionally for over twenty years, winning numerous awards in teaching, directing, producing, and writing including the Betty Jean Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching, Excellence in Editing Award, and Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Theatre Research. In April 2006, Harry was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
KATHLEEN TARR
MODERATOR
Kathleen Tarr is a lawyer, filmmaker, writer, performer, and lecturer in Stanford's Program in Writing and Rhetoric. She served in the "legal peace corps" as a Skadden Fellow representing disabled veterans prior to working for Legal Aid. Kathleen continues to assist veterans with claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs, and her law review article "Above and Beyond: Veterans Disabled by Military Service" was cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Kathleen's documentary "Getting Played: who's playing you?!" received Honorable Mention at the 2010 International Black Women's Film Festival and inspired this symposium.
DARRYL CHIANG
Darryl Chiang is a Director on the Google Legal Department's Products and Agreements team and Executive Director emeritus of the Asian American Theater Company. He began his legal career in 1994 by clerking for Chief Judge Judith N. Keep of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego, and in 1995, Darryl joined the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins, where he practiced both corporate law and commercial litigation. In 1996, Darryl became Associate General Counsel of Bio-Rad Laboratories, a Latham client in the Bay Area’s bio-tech sector. From 2000 to 2006, Darryl worked at Hitachi America, Ltd., where he focused on business transactions and employment law. He joined Google’s Legal Department in 2006 and is a member of the Legal Department’s Diversity Committee.
website
MIGDIA CHINEA
Migdia Chinea is a screenwriter and director who in addition to film and television has written for the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. Her short film anonymous (street meat) was screened at the Cannes Short Film Festival and received Honorable Mention at the California International Shorts Film Festival. Migdia is active with Women in Film and in 1997 testified before Congress about unfair and discriminatory practices in the entertainment industry which impede employment for Latino professional screenwriters. Her lawsuit addressing such practices paved the way for the $70 million settlement of a class-action age discrimination lawsuit brought by 165 television writers who long contended that they were ignored by television studios, producers, and agents for being over 40.
LESLIE KIRBY
Leslie Kirby is a psychotherapist practicing in Berkeley, California for over 20 years. She uses a human systems approach to examine the effects one's context and conditioning have on one's sense of self and security. Since 2008 Leslie has been teaching the Somatics of Adult Attachment to psychotherapists, a deep study of interpersonal dynamics in one-on-one relationships. Her approach integrates the emotions, thoughts, and physicality of the people involved in order to promote collaboration and identify impasses. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, she was a software developer who became the main liaison for internal relations in a fast growing high tech company. Leslie's appearance in the documentary "Getting Played - who's playing you?!" shares her insights into the role of neuroplasticity in the inequities of entertainment media.
KENT MANNIS
Kent Mannis is a lawyer, Bay Area native, and the Senior Editor at LawRoom.com, an online employment law service. For over 20 years, Kent has advised human resources professionals and employers about complying with state and federal labor and employment laws. He has also developed numerous online training courses, covering topics such as the prevention of workplace discrimination and harassment. His training materials, case briefs, and news articles reach thousands of employees, employers, and human resource professionals each week, and at a variety of organizations such as the American Cancer Society, Airbnb, the San Francisco Giants, Stanford University, and Burning Man.
EVA PATERSON
Eva Jefferson Paterson has campaigned for civil rights with passion, courage, and tenacity for more than three decades. Eva is the President and a co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, a legal organization transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts. Prior to taking the helm of the Equal Justice Society in 2003, Eva worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, thirteen of them as Executive Director. She led the organization’s work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. A self-described beneficiary of affirmative action, Eva is passionately in support of equal educational opportunities and co-authored several landmark lawsuits in support of affirmative action.
VALERIE WEAK
Valerie Weak is an actor, teaching artist, and gender parity advocate based in San Francisco. Companies with which she has worked include San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Word for Word Performing Arts Company. Valerie is on Theatre Bay Area’s gender parity committee and co-hosts Works by Women San Francisco, a group whose members attend and support theater made by women. Since June 2011 and begun on her own blog, she has posted a monthly tally of playwright, director, and actor gender of Bay Area Theater with the Counting Actors Project, now hosted by Works by Women San Francisco. On March 28, 2015 (SWAN Day/Support Women Artists Now Day), WomenArts will release a commissioned report featuring cumulative data on 500 shows from the Counting Actors Project.
TORANGE YEGHIAZARIAN
Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, Torange Yeghiazarian writes, directs, and acts for the theatre. She has devoted her professional life to exploring Middle Eastern culture and identity through theatre arts. A native of Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. Her plays (Call Me Mehdi, Waves, Dawn at Midnight, Behind Glass Windows, Abaga) reflect the perspective of the culturally displaced in tackling today’s world of contradictory realities and values. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth as part of the Each One Reach One program, incorporated theatre into social studies in Richmond’s Washington Elementary School as part of East Bay Center for Performing Arts’ Learning Without Borders program, and led acting and play development workshops for Golden Thread Productions.