Dharma, Justice, and Kinship

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s the need for justice; however, how we define ‘right’ and ‘just’ are not always aligned. Aparna, Ranee, and Ashwini Ramaswamy of Ragamala Dance Company will set the stage with an inspiring artist introduction. Then, Kate Beane (Minnesota Museum of Modern Art), David Gore (University of Minnesota Duluth), and Tish Jones (poet, TruArtSpeaks) will host a lively conversation about our divergent understandings of right and wrong. As we span racial, environmental, and social justice, we will explore how the cultural stories that shape our identity and spirituality also influence our actions as part of a moral community.  

The University of Minnesota Spotlight Series is a collaborative partnership between the Institute for Advanced Study and Northrop to present conversations, performances, and exhibits around timely topics of interest throughout the academic year. The 2024-25 series will focus on cosmic justice and include discussions about dharma, identity, and the role community plays in imagining a just society.

About the Presenters

Dr. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Sioux Dakota and Muscogee Creek) holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is the executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art and serves as adjunct faculty in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is vice chair of the board for Vision Maker Media, a national organization based out of Nebraska, chair of the board for Wakan Tipi Awayankapi in St. Paul (Imnizaska), and in 2020 was appointed by Governor Walz to serve on the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board (CAAPB), which oversees Capitol complex preservation and development (including public art) in downtown St. Paul. Previously, Beane served on the leadership team at the Minnesota Historical Team where she was the director of Native American Initiatives engaging with both Native communities and tribes and advocating for and implementing Indigenous interpretation and involvement at historic sites throughout the state. In 2018 Kate and her father Syd Beane completed a documentary film, Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian, which shares the story of her grandfather, writer, reformer, and physician Charles A. Eastman, and in 2019 she presented a Minneapolis TEDX talk titled “The Lasting Legacy of Place Names,” which spoke to her family’s work restoring the Dakota name to Bde Maka Ska in south Minneapolis (Bdeota).

David Gore is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he served as department head from 2015 to 2022. He regularly teaches courses in rhetoric and public affairs, including a survey of American public address, a course on self-awareness and articulate precision, a course on global political economy and violence, and a survey of the history and philosophy of communication theory. He holds a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, where his studies in Rhetoric & Public Affairs focused primarily on the history and development of political economy. His recent work focuses on political theology and the development of political constitutions over time; he is at work on a book that brings these two interests together. He has an ongoing interest in the work of the Scottish moral philosophers Adam Smith and David Hume. Gore is especially interested in what constitutes us as individual characters, both in terms of human nature and social construction, as well as what constitutes the groups and societies in which we live.

Tish Jones: founder & executive director of TruArt Speaks, Jones is a poet, narrative strategist, cultural producer, and educator from St. Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people, arts & culture, youth development, and civic engagement. As a performance artist her work has been shared in venues throughout the United States. Her writing can be found in We Are Meant to Rise (University of Minnesota Press), A Moment of Silence (Tru Ruts and The Playwrights Center), the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press) and elsewhere. Currently serving as a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and an Arts Matters Artist2Artist Fellow, Jones is grateful to have been supported through grants, fellowships, and awards from The Intercultural Leadership Institute, Springboard for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, and more. The generous support she has received over the years has allowed her to excavate the kind of stories that chart new worlds—and she is eternally grateful.

UMN Conversations at Northrop is a collection of lectures, panel discussions, and other conversations focused on important and timely issues presented in collaboration among numerous University of Minnesota departments and held at Northrop.