The John C. Livingston annual Faculty Lecture celebrates the academic life and legacy of the late Dr. Livingston, professor of Government at Sacramento State from 1954 to 1981. Its purpose is to honor a distinguished faculty member who has played an active role in the life of the University.

This year’s recipient of the Livingston award is Dr. Rita Cameron Wedding. She is the Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies and a professor of Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State. Dr. Cameron Wedding’s scholarship focuses on race, gender and social class disparities in public youth-serving institutions such as child welfare, education and juvenile justice. She co-edited "Ethnic America: Readings in Race, Class and Gender" (2004) and co-authored "Institutions, Ideologies and Individuals: Feminist Perspectives on Gender, Race and Class" (2004, 2008). Her curriculum, Bias: Impact on Decision-Makers, has broadly informed the discussion of race and social justice locally, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Cameron Wedding’s work on gender, diversity and social justice is international in scope and includes work in Africa, Costa Rica, China and the Middle East. In 2008 as a member of Global Majority, she taught at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica and the United Nations University International Leadership Institute Conference on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in Amman, Jordan. In 2012, she was invited by the government of Rwanda to participate in the International Conference on Governance and Democracy. She has been a visiting scholar for the Gender Institute at the University of South Africa (UNISA). She was a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania and South Africa, and she serves on the Governing Board of Global Majority, an organization that promotes world peace through conflict resolution education, mediation and advocacy.

She teaches a wide array of courses at Sacramento State, including Women of Color; Gender Race and Class; Race and Ethnicity; and Black Women in America. In 2004, she received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award for the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Dr. Cameron Wedding will present her lecture “A Challenge to Colorblindness: Racial Inequality in the 21st Century” on Tuesday, November 6, at 3 p.m. in the University Union Ballroom I. A reception will be held immediately following the lecture.