ITHACA, N.Y. -- Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Research Project's Summer Institute at Cornell University shifts into high gear with a series of thematic symposia July 29-31 that feature presentations by outstanding scholars and university leaders. FMS is an academic think tank and research team composed of minority scholars and others from more than 25 campuses in the United States and abroad.

All four events are free and open to the public.

The four symposia:

• Friday, July 29: "Historical Research and Political Commitment," 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the A.D. White House Guerlac Room.
• Friday and Saturday, July 29-30: "Disability Studies and the Realist Theory of Identity" begins Friday at 3 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall and resumes Saturday at 9 a.m. in the same location.
• Saturday, July 30: "Diversity and Excellence in American Higher Education: The Road Ahead," at 1 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium. Includes five current and former university presidents and a Stanford scholar. For full details see http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June05/diversitysymposium.html.
• Sunday, July 31: "Transnational Feminisms," at 9:30 a.m. in the A.D. White House.

For further details, visit the events link at the FMS Web site, http://www.fmsproject.cornell.edu/index.htm.

The symposia coincide with the summer institute's ongoing seminar for FMS fellows, "Feminist Identities, Global Struggles," which begins Monday, July 25, and runs through Friday, Aug. 5. The FMS seminar is co-led by Beverly Guy-Sheftall, the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies and English, Spelman College, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, professor of women's studies and the Dean's Professor of the Humanities, Syracuse University.

Founded in 2000, FMS brings together scholars to examine questions about the role of higher education in a multicultural democracy and the need for an adequate conception of minority identities as the basis for progressive social change. The FMS project's long-term goal is to make the humanities departments of American colleges and universities more diverse, both culturally and intellectually, says Satya P. Mohanty, Cornell professor of English and director of the FMS Summer Institute, which is funded through a three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For more information, contact Mohanty at spm5@cornell.edu.