SPEAKER: Joe Lurie, Director Emeritus, International House, UC Berkeley“International House and the Little Known, Groundbreaking Origins of Desegregation in Berkeley and Beyond”
Why not choose Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley to “strike bigotry and exclusiveness right hard in the nose”? With a vacant Spanish-Moorish building and a concentration of fraternities and sororities already there, why not try to change the world with some students from various countries and have them live together? Joe Lurie did. For 20 years. He upheld a tradition started in 1924 by Harry Edmonds in NYC with funding from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1924 - and then in Berkeley in 1930. The start of something big?
Author and activist Joe Lurie has spent most of his adult life fostering cultural understanding. A celebrated author of such works as ‘Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures’. Since his retirement from Cal, Lurie has been a teacher, intercultural trainer and consultant. In 2106 he published a book drawing together all he had learned about understanding – and misunderstanding – one another.
Former residents of I-House and clients read like a Who’s-Who of the world. A prior Peace Corps volunteer, Joe has directed programs in many countries and chaired a range of study abroad and international educator organizations. His writings have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, U.S. News & World Report. He was featured in a PBS documentary and on NPR.