Race and hatred will be the topics of two events in the upcoming weeks on Indiana University South Bend campus.

“The Challenge of Hate” will include two table talks and a speaker on Thursday, Nov. 13.

The first table talk will be at 11:30 a.m. in the cafeteria and will examine the criminal and political aspects of hate with panelists Professor Otis Grant, St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak and St. Joseph County Sheriff Frank Canarecci.

The second table discussion will be at 3:30 p.m. in the SAC lounge. Stacie Meyers-Sowala, Liz Dobbs and Barb Franklin will be the panelists. Meyers-Sowala and Dobbs are IU South Bend students and Franklin is an Osceola resident. Osceola is a town in eastern St. Joseph County that has previously experienced several KKK rallies.

The evening’s speaker will be Kathleen Blee, professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. She will discuss the role of women in organized racism at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building Alumni Room. Blee has written several books on the issue of racism.

“The Challenge of Hate” is sponsored by the Civil Rights Heritage Center.

“Conversations on Race” enters into its seventh year on campus Nov. 14. The event will begin with a leadership seminar for youth at 8:30 a.m. in Wiekamp 1001.

The conversations will begin at 10 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. in various rooms in Wiekamp Hall. The topics include literacy, Native Americans, academic achievement, homosexuality in the African American and Hispanic communities and popular music. Guests are invited to move from room to room to explore different discussions.

A poetry jam is scheduled from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in Wiekamp 2001.

The event will close at 7 p.m. in the campus auditorium with keynote speaker Carol Swain of Vanderbilt University. She teaches political science and law as well as being a writer and speaker.

Swain’s most recent book “The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration” was published in 2002 and caused debate from both the left and the right wings. In it she warns that new white nationalists are using affirmative action, immigration laws and other issues to stoke the fires of racial resentment. The new nationalism is drawing more people into the fold.

She fears a rise in racial conflict if America does not reform affirmative action and other hot button issues between blacks and whites. She writes that these issues are handled in a haphazard way that divides people and creates problems.

Swain was born in 1954, second oldest of 12 children. She dropped out of school, married at 16 and started a family. Later Swain earned her high school equivalency diploma in 1975, worked part time jobs, divorced and began to take night classes at a community college.

Encouraged and driven, she received her bachelor’s from Roanoke College, a master from Virginia Tech, a doctorate from University of North Carolina and a law degree from Yale.

In 1998, she turned to her faith after some medical problems. Being a Christian, she says, “has made me bolder.”

Conversations on Race is sponsored by the South Bend Tribune, WSBT and Bank One. The events are organized by the Office of Campus Diversity and co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science.

All events are free and open to the public.