The Office of Equity Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility and the Elliot Undergrad Fund proudly present guest speaker Yashica Dutt as part of Women's History Month events at Pacific University.

Dutt will be speaking on her journey and her identity growing up as Dalit. The following is the description from her website on her award-winning and critically acclaimed non-fiction book, Coming Out as Dalit:

"In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret and how she was terrified of being found out. She talks about the tremendous feeling of empowerment she experienced when she finally stood up for herself and her community and shrugged off the fake upper-caste identity she’d had to construct for herself. As she began to understand the inequities of the caste system, she also had to deal with the crushing guilt of denying her history and the struggles of her grandparents and the many Dalit reformers who fought for equal rights.

In this personal memoir that is also a narrative of the Dalits, she writes about the journey of coming to terms with her identity and takes us through the history of the Dalit movement; the consequences of her community’s lack of access to education and culture; the need for reservation; the paucity of Dalit voices in mainstream media; Dalit women’s movements and their ongoing contributions; and attempts to answer crucial questions about caste and privilege. Woven from personal narratives from her own life as well as that of other Dalits, this book forces us to confront the injustices of caste and also serves as a call to action."

Learn more by visiting her website at: https://www.yashicadutt.com

This event is being sponsored by Pacific University Office of Equity Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility, and the Elliot Undergrad Fund.

Light refreshment will be provided by the Master of Social Work program.

If you're unable to attend in person, you may join via Zoom:

https://pacificu.zoom.us/j/91476008145

Meeting ID: 914 7600 8145