Patricia Parker Discusses Her Book “Ella Baker’s Catalytic Leadership: A Primer on Community Engagement and Communication for Social Justice

About this event

The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites you to a discussion with Carolina faculty member Patricia Parker about her book “Ella Baker’s Catalytic Leadership: A Primer on Community Engagement and Communication for Social Justice.”

Join us for this virtual event where Parker will be joined in conversation by Monica Figueroa, interim librarian for inclusive excellence at the University Libraries. Parker will also answer audience questions.

Ella Baker (1903–1986) was an influential African American civil rights and human rights activist. For five decades, she worked behind the scenes with people in vulnerable communities to catalyze social justice leadership. Her steadfast belief in the power of ordinary people to create change continues to inspire social justice activists around the world.

Parker’s book describes a case study that looks at Baker’s community engagement through the lens of catalytic leadership. Catalytic leadership is a concrete set of communication practices for social justice leadership produced in equitable partnership with, instead of on, communities. The case centers the voices of African American teenage girls who were living in a segregated neighborhood of an affluent college town and became part of a small collective of college students, parents, university faculty and community activists learning leadership in the spirit of Ella Baker.

“Ella Baker’s Catalytic Leadership” is part of the University of California Press’s book series Communication for Social Justice Activism.

Patricia Parker, Ph.D., is chair of the communication department, professor of critical organizational communication studies and director of the Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. In July 2021, she will begin a four-year term as director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at Carolina. She currently serves as co-chair of the University Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward and was the inaugural director of Faculty Diversity Initiatives for the University’s College of Arts and Sciences (2012-2015). She is founder and executive director of the Ella Baker Women’s Center for Leadership and Community Activism, a community-based organization. Parker’s work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the University’s Diversity Awards in 2014.

Monica Figueroa is interim librarian for inclusive excellence at UNC-Chapel Hill’s University Libraries, where she also serves as chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Council. In 2020, she was a recipient of the University’s Diversity Awards.