Teaching in Times of National Racial Trauma: What Can Faculty Do?
by: Aaliyah El-Amin
The United States is in the midst of racial turmoil—and the impact of that context affects students and faculty members in higher education just as it does all teachers and learners in the nation’s schools. Ongoing police killings of unarmed Black adults and children have garnered significant national attention and community protest. Simultaneously, discourse in our election process is laced with racial tension. Whether or not we are prepared for it, these events are likely to be on students’ minds. This is especially true immediately after these tragedies occur. Even for students who are not members of targeted groups, acts of racial violence can produce high levels of stress, anxiety and fear or vicarious trauma (Honos-Webb, Sunwolf, Hart & Scalise, 2006) and interfere with a person’s ability to engage in class (Liverant, Hoffman & Litz, 2004).... Read more about Teaching in Times of National Racial Trauma: What Can Faculty Do?
The HGSE Dean’s Office launched the Act for Equity project in early 2016 as part of the School’s commitment to the Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity (FPD) community conversation. The inspiration behind the project was to leverage the power of theater-based learning to broaden and deepen the ways in which we as a community interact around critical topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion. According to Margie Zohn, the troupe’s director (Ed.M. AIE ‘12 and faculty member in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences): “Theater allows us to inhabit stories with not just our minds but also our hearts, and to be affected in deep and nuanced ways.” Act for Equity events combine prepared theatrical vignettes with improvisation driven by audience participation and facilitated discussions....