Peaceful Protest and Social Movement Organizing

Join us on April 19 to learn about peaceful protest and social movement organizing. The event will take place at the Science Education Center Room 115 at Metropolitan State University. At the event Kathleen Cole, Assistant Professor in Social Science at Metropolitan State University, and Commander Joshua Lego of the Saint Paul Police Department, will talk about:

• Getting involved in planned protests—the roles you can play, when to get involved and when to step back, how to be a good ally to people from marginalized communities
• Planned arrests—what they are, why they are a useful tactic for social movements, how they are planned
• Role of the police department—how are they involved in planning, how do they respond to unplanned protests, what is the biggest challenge they face
• Protest safety tips—what (not) to wear, identifying organizers, signs for when to leave

About the Speakers

Kathleen Cole is an assistant professor of political science in the Department of Social Science at Metropolitan State University. She earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her research is in the subfield of political philosophy and focuses on the effects of white racial identity formation and motivated cognition on political judgment. She teaches courses in American politics and political philosophy.

Dr. Cole is also involved in Minnesota politics. She is a community organizer in the Twin Cities, active in the areas of racial and economic justice. She regularly publishes essays on racial justice issues in Minneapolis in MinnPost, the area’s preeminent political news outlet. She also serves on the Government Relations Council of her faculty union.

Commander Joshua Lego is assigned to the Special Operations Unit. He prepares police department responses to permitted and unpermitted assemblies in the City of Saint Paul. He has 10 years of experience leading the Mobile Field Force crowd management team.

Josh has earned a master’s degree from the University of Saint Thomas in Leadership and Training. He was also recognized in 2006 as the Dr. Duane Orr Teacher of the Year at Mankato State University; and in 2014 as Distinguished Alumnus. He is married to his high school sweetheart Melissa and they have three children: Maddie (16), Elias (13), and Amina (11).

We are working on identifying an additional speaker. This event will be updated once the speaker is confirmed.