Activities at West campus celebrate Free Speech Week

The national celebration of Free Speech Week will be observed at ASU’s West campus with a variety of activities during the week of Oct. 22.

An interactive installation, Free Speech and Feminism, will be on display from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Oct. 22 and 23, in Fletcher Library. The installation is designed to ignite authentic dialogue surrounding constructions of gender in music, television, magazines, health care and politics.

“Mentors from the Communication Assessment Learning Lab (CALL) and students in the master of arts in communication studies (MACS) program are combining concepts from National Free Speech Week and the national ‘Who needs Feminism?’ campaign,” said Bonnie Wentzel, CALL’s faculty director and a lecturer in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “Through the Free Speech and Feminism project, we seek to reframe the concept of feminism and address two key questions – what is the face of today’s feminist, and how is feminism still relevant in the 21st century?”

On Oct. 23, at 4 p.m., the top 10 speakers in the Free Speech and Citizenship speech contest will compete at the ThinK (Tuesdays Here in Kiva) event. Speakers are encouraged to speak for themselves or represent their club or organization. Undergraduates, graduate students and citizens-at-large are invited to participate. The top prize winner will receive an ASU Bookstore gift certificate. Auditions take place in CALL through Oct. 12. Auditions may be scheduled via email at comm.lab@asu.edu or by phone at 602-543-5766. The contest is a cooperative effort of CALL and COMM Club on the West campus.

Two events are planned for Oct. 24. CALL’s Homecoming Open House from noon to 2 p.m., in room 334, of the Sands Classroom Building will show off the newly expanded communication lab. The special guest is Meg McConnaughy, founding faculty director of CALL. Starting at 6 p.m., the CALL booth at the outdoor Sparky’s Big Top Carnival Homecoming event will feature “Ducking the Issues,” an opportunity for everyone to show off their impromptu speaking skills. The top three speakers will star in their own video on the CALL website.

The week’s activities wrap up at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 25, in room 299 of the CLCC Building with Civil Dialogue (CD), a structured format for public dialogue that provides a tool to build bridges across the chasm of public viewpoints. “Is it possible to agree to disagree? Can cool heads prevail when the topic heats up? We invite you to join us for this guided discussion surrounding an issue in the upcoming election,” Wentzel said. 

For more information about Free Speech Week activities, contact Bonnie Wentzel at bonnie.wentzel@asu.edu.

The School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, part of ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, offers a bachelor’s degree in communication as well as the MACS degree. More information about these and other New College degrees is available at newcollege.asu.edu/.