TEDxLSSU: Identity is just 5 days away! Will we see you next Wednesday at 7pm in the LSSU Library? It’s going to be a fantastic evening of “ideas worth spreading”!
Our final speaker profile is Dr. James Wilkerson, who currently serves as the Director of Equity and Diversity, Title IX Coordinator, and Greek advisor at Indiana University Southeast. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville (BA and Juris Doctorate) and Bellarmine University (MA). Since 2016, he has traveled to schools across the country, speaking on topics such as sexual assault prevention, masculinity, and black male identity.
James’ talk is titled, “When We Cry: Mental Health, Masculinity, and Male Identity”:
“Every day, millions of men live with mental trauma due to toxic masculinity factors taught at a young age and sustained through life, and are unequipped to deal with it. Left unchecked, this trauma can manifest itself into crimes such as domestic violence, sexual misconduct, and murder. It is important that men understand how the masculinity identity can act as a barrier on the path to mental health, and apply healthy masculinity methods in order to (1) bypass these barriers, (2) break the toxic cycle for future generations of young boys, and (3) help their fellow men remove toxic stigmas in approaching their own trauma, thus creating a healthy male identity. “