Conference Attendance Hours: 1.5
NBCC CE Hours: 1.5

Session Sponsored by: University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Department of Human Development and Family Studies

LIVE STREAM SESSION

Pre-Address Agenda

Welcome from Debra L. Berke, Ph.D., Wilmington University, 2022 NCFR Program Chair

Welcome from the 2022 Conference Host, Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota: Stacey Horn, Ph.D.

Welcome and Permission to use this Land

Welcome from the NCFR President: Norma J. Bond Burgess, Ph.D., Lipscomb University, 2021-2023 NCFR President

Introduction of 2021 NCFR Fellows, Jodi B. Dworkin, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, and Brenda J. Lohman, Ph.D., University of Missouri: **Norma Bond Burgess, Ph.D. **

Presentation of the Reuben Hill Award to Kristin Turney, Ph.D., University of California-Irvine; and Naomi Sugle, Ph.D., University of California-Irvine; Presenter: Isaac Washburn, Ph.D., Award Selection Committee

Welcome from the Plenary Sponsor, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Department of Human Development and Family Studies: Ramona Faith Oswald, Ph.D.

Summary
Award-winning Hmong American author Kao Kalia Yang will reflect on the power of stories in her journey as a writer from a refugee community, the ways in which narratives have shaped her identity as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and as artist, teacher, and public speaker. Ms. Yang's work builds on the legacy of memories, challenges us to reflect deeply on who owns a memory, who accesses them, and asks us how our most powerful memories can alter not only the shape of our lives but the ways in which we engage with a bigger world. In the words of her poet father, Ms. Yang belongs to a people whose gifts to the world consist of words and tears. It is through this lens that Yang will share her remarks.

Objectives

• Participants will be able to engage with a Hmong American perspective on the meaning of story and its impacts on worldview.
• Participants will be able to reckon with the fact that we live in a world that is constantly creating more refugees.
• Participants will be able to tangle with notions of home and belonging; and reflect on one’s own personal stories as both inheritance and pathways to the future and others.