Every day at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University celebrates scholarship and creativity.

But one day each spring, CSB and SJU formally recognizes the achievements of students, faculty and staff who have undertaken significant research, scholarship or creative works during the academic year.

This year, a Virtual Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity (CSC) Day is set for Monday, April 19. A schedule of presentations is available here.

Presenters for CSC Day have the option of presenting live via Zoom or submitting a pre-recorded presentation for the Virtual Poster Session. Although the Virtual Poster Session will be available for viewing all day, viewers are encouraged to watch between 8:30-9:30 a.m. as the student presenters will be able to answer questions on their research.

There will be three to four live Zoom sessions scheduled each hour with sessions beginning at the top of the hour from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

There are several sessions to note.

New this year, CSC Day will include a special session highlighting research and creative work that aligns with the institutional learning goal of “Embrace Difference.” Those presentations are scattered throughout a variety of sessions.

And, to celebrate the recent work of the Becoming Community grant for transformative inclusion, members of Dialogue Groups will offer a panel presentation at 3 p.m. via Zoom about their varied action plans for institutional change at CSB/SJU, working to build equity in many different ways.

Undergraduate Research is hosting its annual Scholars Reception via Zoom at 4 p.m. The reception will honor students and faculty who have received research awards, including the CSC Day Spotlight, Emerging Scholars Program and 2020 Summer Collaborative Grant teams.

The reception will conclude with honoring nine seniors who have recently completed their Distinguished Thesis and the announcement the winner of this year’s Outstanding Thesis Award.

The CSC Day kicks off at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 18 with the presentation, “Afro-descendants, Crises and Resistance in Latin America” with Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her speech is the keynote presentation at the North Central Council of Latin Americanists Conference, which is being held April 18-19 at CSB. Register here for the speech.

Mitchell-Walthour will discuss the continuous crises Afro-descendants face as they tend to have higher rates of poverty and suffer more police violence than whites in Latin America. She will also discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Afro-Latin Americans, and the innovative way Afro-Latin Americans have mobilized during the pandemic and how they increased national and transnational dialogues with activists and scholars throughout the Americas.

Her presentation will be moderated by Pedro dos Santos, associate professor of political science at CSB and SJU.