Day of Understanding 2026 explores the power of research,kindness, global connection
A day of conversation and discovery brings the Bryant community together to build understanding, celebrate differences
Bryant University’s Day of Understanding (DOU), a university-wide day of learning, connection, and reflection, is based on a simple idea: There can be no community without conversation, and we are at our best when we engage with and value one another.
Hosted by the Office of Community & Belonging, this year’s DOU brought together students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners for more than 60 workshops, conversations, presentations, performances, and interactive experiences.
“The Day of Understanding at Bryant is an opportunity to step outside of our routines and make space to learn from one another,” noted Inge Lise-Ameer, Ph.D., vice president of student affairs and dean of students. “We all bring different experiences, perspectives, identities, and ideas to the same campus, and those differences can deepen our learning when we approach one another with curiosity, listen with intention, and remain open to perspectives beyond our own.
Global culture
A wide range of researchers, professionals, and social advocates lent their expertise to the day to aid the Bryant community in better understanding the world they live in, from refugee resettlement to the trends that shape global culture. South Korean pop music and dance, for example, “has an unprecedented scale of fandom,” said Chuyun Oh, Ph.D., professor of dance theory and practice at San Diego State University, during her “K-pop Dance Entrepreneurship: From Social Media to the Global Classroom” session.
It even serves as a Korean cultural ambassador, said Oh, noting that “in the U.S., it’s seen as a symbol of diversity.”
The global K-pop social media universe, Oh explained, includes TikTok “cover dancer” challenges and money-making YouTube tutorials by “dancefluencers.” Part of South Korea's highly competitive talent-development system, “Idol Academies” even teach pre-teens to become the next generation of K-pop stars.
Oh did her own part to contribute to this global education by explaining the basics of K-pop dance moves, and then led the audience in a choreographed performance.
Exploring America
In a panel led by Patricia Gomez, senior lecturer of Communication Studies, Bryant faculty and staff offered insights into the challenges and successes they’ve experienced as immigrants. The group shared firsthand accounts of their experiences crossing borders and exploring new cultures — as well as the evolving perception of the word “immigrant.”
Though there are difficulties to starting a new life in a new country — “There are some things that just don’t translate across cultures,” noted Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs & Title IX Coordinator Mailee Kue, Ph.D. — there are also many virtues. “I feel like this status makes me stronger because I always feel like I need to learn more about the world around me,” said Associate Professor of Actuarial Science and Department Chair Gao Niu, Ph.D.
Opening eyes
Students also played an active role in the day, whether it was Adjunct Professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Paul Roselli’s GEN 390 Capstone Class reviewing what they had learned from their in-depth dive into fast fashion, or the participants in recent service trips to South Dakota and Puerto Rico sharing how their experiences had changed their outlook.
Social psychologist and Professor of Psychology Melanie Maimon, Ph.D., led a session designed to help students turn their curiosity into action. Offering examples of projects she had worked on with students in her own lab, including exploring responses to bias incidents and the challenges prisoners face on re-entering society, Maimon encouraged her audience to focus on the questions that mattered to them and to open their eyes to the world around them.
“In order for research to be able to promote positive change in the world and help us to address social problems, we have to first recognize the problems that exist,” she advised. “If social problems remain a mystery to us, we can't do anything about them.”
Conflicting science
The community also received a powerful look into how powerful social research can be. “Science is not neutral,” said David Upegui, Ph.D., during his presentation, “Same Tree, Different Branches: Science, Race, and Justice.”
For more than 250 years, he said, scholars used biased research to try to justify slavery on the grounds that some races were naturally genetically inferior. However, “every time racists and supremacists have tried to show that they are genetically superior, science proves that while humans have differences, it has thoroughly discredited race as a biological category,” said Upegui, an assistant teaching professor of education at Brown University, who called science a “tool of liberation.”
Doing good and doing well
Several presenters gave their audience a look behind the scenes at the business of social impact. They exist to do good, but they need to follow solid business practices to , reinvest and expand their impact, said Stefanie Engelhardt, chief program officer at Providence’s Social Enterprise Greenhouse.
In a session on “Entrepreneurial Thinking for Community/Social Challenges,” Engelhardt detailed how Rhody Wild Sea Gardens grows kelp in Narragansett Bay, which helps clean carbon and excess nutrients from the water. But the company also profits from selling kelp and offering aquaculture tours.
“The payees are restaurants, farms, and tourists,” she said. “The beneficiary is the environment.”
Consider kindness
Bryant students Emerson McCormick ’29, Kamilla Mridan ’27, Samantha Ward, Ali Viggiano ’28, Ben Schiron ’28, and Grayson King ’27 took part in an open conversation, led by Student Accessibility Specialist Jay Calibri and Director of the Office of Disability Services Autumn Grant, Ed.D, about campus life, accessibility, and inclusion.
Their reflections underscored how awareness, empathy, and understanding can help create a more inclusive Bryant community.
“True inclusion means understanding, and appreciating, people for their multifaceted-ness,” noted Schiron. And even if you can’t fully understand their experience, he suggested, “give that person kindness, give that person grace.”