Antiracist Learning Opportunities

Updated on January 22nd, 2021

Earlier this summer we detailed our recommitment to become an anti-racist institution not just in words, but in practice. As we enter the new academic year, we encourage all members of our campus to review this recommitment and work with your colleagues to strategize on your efforts.

This will require us to look at our policies, procedures and practices at all levels. This ongoing process will also require us to engage all members of our community in capacity building and training that aids in understanding of the realities of race, racism, anti-Blackness, and systemic oppression.

The Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement (DICE), Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service (CELTSS), and the Office of Human Resources (HR) will coordinate trainings and professional development efforts. See below for a complete list of offerings:

Continual Departmental Conversations on Antiracism

It is essential that all areas of campus engage in discussions that aid in common understanding on these topics. DICE, CELTSS, and HR will release four (4) guiding documents that provides a framework (learning outcomes, readings, discussion questions) to have these cross-campus conversations. Department leaders should schedule or make time at a staff meeting to engage your teams in these conversations.

Topics and Recommended Timeframe:

  • Mid September – Mid October: Defining antiracism and applying it to our work
  • Mid October – Mid November: Understanding systemic racism and change
  • Early February – Early March: Identifying racial equity detours
  • Mid March – Mid April: Evaluating and redefining department goals and objectives through an antiracist lens

Antiracist Pedagogy Academy for Faculty

The "Anti-Racist Pedagogy Academy" will bring faculty of all disciplines together to examine, discuss and work together for the purpose of supporting FSU’s transformation into an anti-racist and equitable institution. The Academy will create a space for faculty to reflect on the historical foundations of racism in the United States, discuss how racism affects our practice as teacher scholars and engage in concrete steps to transform the university into a space where our students can feel a sense of belong and can thrive.

Participants will explore a variety of pedagogical and culturally responsive communication practices that emphasize anti-racist and equity driven topics such as:

  • What is anti-racist pedagogy? Why is anti-racist pedagogy relevant to me as a teacher scholar?
  • Whose stories can we emphasize in the classroom?
  • How can we help our students of color thrive in the classroom?
  • How can we help our students of color thrive in our discipline?
  • The impact of my syllabus on students' success.
  • How to help our students of color thrive in our university?

Please look for a faculty email in late August detailing the program and sign up process. For more information email Lina Rincón, Ph.D., CELTSS Assistant Director, lrincon@framingham.edu.

Remote Workshop Series Focused on Race

Session: Exploring White Privilege and White Fragility

Description: This session will be an introduction to the concepts of white privilege (that people who present as white benefit from unearned advantages in society) and white fragility (discomfort and defensiveness by whites when their ideas about race and racism are challenged), both of which are routed in white supremacy. This is not a conversation about being a good person or a bad person- it’s about recognizing the gaps in our perspectives, bridging those gaps, giving context to our communications with others, and ending complicity in societal systems that oppress some and profit others.

Facilitator: Kim R. Dexter, Executive Director of Equal Opportunity, Title IX, and ADA Compliance

Date & Time: Friday, February 5th 11-12pm

Optional Debrief: Want some time and space to process the concepts from the White Privilege session with colleagues? Stay on the Zoom call to join the Anti-Racist Dialogues for FSU Employees debrief session from 12pm-1pm.

Please RSVP for this session using the Workshop Registration Form. Zoom link will be sent to registrants.

Session: Daily Mentoring as an Equity-Minded Practice

Description: In this interactive session, participants will learn strategies to improve the power of daily mentoring. Given the real time pressures we face every day, it is important to identify ways to bring greater intentionality to our interactions with students in and out the classroom, whether in office hours, classrooms, advising, student services, and co-curricular spaces. We will explore why daily mentoring is an equity-minded practice, and how conversations among colleagues can help move us forward. Packard will draw from her research underscoring the experiences of minoritized students in higher education with a focus on STEM fields, as well as her experience supporting dozens of campuses striving to build synergy and momentum for improving racial equity across their university contexts.

Facilitator: Becky Wai-Ling Packard is Professor of Psychology and Education at Mount Holyoke College where she has been on the faculty for over two decades. Packard is an expert in the area of strategic mentoring and the persistence of minoritized students in higher education, to include first-generation college students, low-income students, community-college transfer students, nontraditional students, people of color, and women in technical fields.

Date & Time: Monday, March 15th, 12-1pm

Please RSVP for this session using the Workshop Registration Form. Zoom link will be sent to registrants.

Session: A Mental Health Perspective on Understanding and Addressing Racial Trauma

The objectives of these workshops shall be to:

  • Broadly understand the scope and meaning of the "trauma" as a clinical term, the general impact of trauma on individuals and systems, and appropriate ways to respond and mitigate trauma
  • Identify and describe racial trauma from a historical perspective
  • Understand the intergenerational impact of trauma and racial trauma
  • Describe the ways in which racial trauma is likely to show up among students and colleagues of color
  • Discuss the impact of racial/cultural trauma on faculty, staff, and students who do not identify as persons of color or who do not identify with a cultural history of oppression.
  • Learn to recognize behaviors and attitudes that support, promote, or exacerbate racial trauma
  • Learn appropriate ways to respond to trauma
  • Receive resources for continued and active learning in the area of racial trauma and injustice

Facilitator: Sasheen Hazel, Psy.D., Psychologist, www.HazelApproach.com

Dates & Times: Choose 1.

Option 1: Campus Professional Development Day, January 8, 2021 2:30-4pm. Please RSVP through the system provides by the event organizers.

Option 2: Wednesday, March 31st, 2021 12-1:30pm. Please RSVP for this session using the Workshop Registration Form. Zoom link will be sent to registrants.