Day of Dialogue: Exploring the Concept of Erasure

The MCLA Day of Dialogue is a campus-wide alternative day of education, with suspended day classes to ensure full campus participation by students, faculty, and staff. This year’s event, held on Wednesday, October 23rd, will be in a hybrid format with remote and in-person sessions to allow for the greatest participation.  
 
Erasure is defined as “...the practice of collective indifference that renders certain people and groups invisible...it alludes to the tendency of ideologies to dismiss inconvenient facts and is increasingly used to describe how inconvenient people are dismissed, their history, pain and achievements blotted out.” (NY Times, 2016). There are many forms of erasure, including, but not limited to:  
 
Cultural Erasure- the intentional abandonment, and/or forgetting, of cultural practices. 
Historical Erasure- The (un)intentional suppression, or neglect of certain historical events, i.e. rewriting history. 
Self-Erasure- The process of hiding, and/or diminishing, one’s own identity for physical and psychological safety. 

We invite participants to explore the concept of erasure in its various forms. 

In examining what has been omitted, silenced, or forgotten, we aim to reclaim lost narratives that shape our understanding of the past and present. This exploration moves us toward truth and reconciliation, fostering critical discussions on how erasure impacts identity, memory, and society, encouraging a reimagining of inclusive narratives.

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