Day of Dialogue

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025

This campus-wide alternative day of education will suspend regular day classes to ensure full participation by students, faculty, and staff in meaningful conversations about insecurity and its impact on individuals, communities, and systems. 

This year's Day of Dialogue will feature three distinguished keynote speakers: 

Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist, and is professor of postcolonial literature at Bennington College. He is the author of a book of essays, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020), among many other works.  In 2016, Duplan founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color.  He is the recipient of the 2021 QUEER|ART|PRIZE for Recent Work, and a 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction. 

Dr. Timothy Callahan, leader of the North Adams Public Schools, has spent 27 years in the district, beginning as a substitute teacher, then holding various roles from English teacher to high school principal and district leader before becoming superintendent in 2025. Dr. Callahan is also a pop culture and role-playing game writer who has written for Fantagraphics, Goodman Games, Macmillan Publishing, and Marvel Entertainment. He is the author of Grant Morrison: The Early Years (2007), the editor of Teenagers from the Future (2008), and the designer of numerous adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics. In 2021, Dr. Callahan completed his doctoral dissertation on “Principal Actions in Massachusetts in Relation to School Accountability Status,” and has presented at local and regional conferences on topics such as Rethinking Discipline, Public Education as Equity, and Blended Learning Models for an Online World. He believes deeply in the power of public education to build community and create a positive shared futur