FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information:
Ashley Sherry Brown, APR
Director of Marketing/ YWCA Central Carolinas
Office: 704-525-5770, ext 206
Email: asherry@ywcacentralcarolinas.org
Local Authors and UNC Charlotte Professors to Speak at YWCA Central Carolinas
Dr. Margaret Quinlan, Dr. Dan Grano and Elliot Hamer to present
"Did Race and Money Matter? Discrimination in the NC Eugenics Program"
Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 17, 2013 —YWCA Central Carolinas will host a breakfast session on Jan. 29, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. where UNC
Charlotte professors Drs. Daniel Grano and Margaret M. Quinlan, along with graduate student Elliot Hamer, will discuss the recent
discourse surrounding eugenics in North Carolina. Recently North Carolina came close to being the first state to financially compensate
victims of a sterilization program, but that effort ultimately failed. The session will focus on how that failure was based on the idea that
the past cannot be repaired by those living in the present. The group will discuss how this idea typically undermines efforts to address
public, moral obligations to past injustices, and how it disproportionately affects women, people of color, the poor, and the disabled. The
goal is to open up conversation for how to understand our continuing obligations to the past and how to move forward with meeting
those obligations.
The event will be held at the YWCA and is open to the public but requires an RSVP and has limited seating. If interested, please
contact Ashley Brown at 704.525.5770 or asherry@ywcacentralcarolinas.org.
About the Researchers
Dr. Grano teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at UNC Charlotte within his interest areas, including Rhetorical Theory,
Political Communication and Cultural Studies. His research focuses on how power shapes moral judgment, especially surrounding
issues of race. He has published in various journals within the communication studies discipline, including the Quarterly Journal of
Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and The Southern
Communication Journal.
Dr. Quinlan teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at UNC Charlotte within her interest areas, including health, gender and
disability communication. Her research explores and critiques existing power structures and works towards the empowerment of groups
marginalized in society. Her research relates primarily to issues of equality and to the structures that constrain and empower all who are
involved in giving and receiving care within and outside the U.S. medical establishment. She has published in various journals within
the communication studies discipline, including Health Communication, Text & Performance Quarterly, Disability Studies Quarterly and
Sex Education.
Elliot Hamer is a graduate student at UNC Charlotte working towards an M.A. in Communication Studies and is expected to graduate
with his master's degree this spring. As an undergraduate he majored in Communication Studies at UNC Charlotte with a concentration
in mass media and a minor in film studies. In his studies he focuses on the organizing power of language, and especially how it pertains
to tension with new media. He also currently works in the department as a graduate assistant where he helps teach large lecture
courses and assists professors with their research.
About YWCA Central Carolinas
YWCA Central Carolinas is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for
all. YWCA supports more than 300 youth from fragile neighborhoods a day, as well as unaccompanied homeless women and families.
In addition, it boasts an award-winning co-ed fitness center. For more information, visit www.ywcacentralcarolinas.org.