Anti-Bullying Celebrate Diversity Institute

Fall 2018

By: Lari’onna Green  

    Bowling Green State University’s (BGSU) School of Media and Communication (SMC)  supports anti-bullying campaigns and strongly supports inclusivity.

    SMC faculty member Lisa Hanasono was invited to the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac’s Anti-Bullying Celebrate Diversity (ABCD) Institute conference, to serve as this year’s keynote speaker.

    “It [ABCD Institute Conference] aimed to promote diversity and to address issues of bullying” said Dr. Hanasono. “Also, in its delivery, the program planner did a brilliant job giving some students valuable professional experience, in terms of how to run an institute, how to run an event, etc.”

    As the opening speaker of the event, Dr. Hanasono framed the topic and the theme of the conference. She executed a three-part presentation. First, she established the message by sharing her own story of gender and racial bullying she experienced growing up. Secondly, Dr. Hanasono shared statistics with the audience on how bullying could affect people physically, mentally, and relationally. Lastly, she asked individuals from the audience to participate, having an interactive keynote.

    Dr. Hanasono used this conference, not only as a teaching experience, but as a learning experience as well. Through Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURS), Dr. Hanasono and an undergraduate research team have received a grant to conduct research on bystander intervention when it comes to them witnessing prejudices and discrimination in interpersonal contexts.

    “For me, this was an incredible opportunity to share cutting edge research that my undergraduate and graduate students and I have been doing this semester,” said Dr. Hanasono. “This was a really important opportunity to signal the need for more bystander intervention […] and highlight the power and agency each of us has.”

    Dr. Hanasono wanted to express that bystander intervention is merely “a” solution and not “the” solution, as well as being firm that people know that bystander intervention is only helpful if it is able to be done in a safe manner.

    Following the conference, Dr. Hanasono was interviewed by Greg Stenslund from Radio Station 97.7 WFDL on bystander intervention, anti-bullying and diversity.