7 Wabash Center Webinars on Anti-Racist Teaching
Hosted by Wabash Center Director, Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D.
These seven illuminating conversations between Nancy Lynne Westfield, Director of the Wabash Center with Melanie Harris and Jennifer Harvey are meant to inform, inspire, and encourage colleagues who want their teaching to reflect and embody an anti-racist commitment.
In what forms does racism show itself in faculty cultures? What does it take to identify the performance of racism before it happens and while it happens? What can be done to combat the visible and invisible practices of racism in a faculty? The conversation with Dr. Melanie Harris and Dr. Jennifer Harvey will be hosted by Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield.
Why don’t white people know the tenets, behaviors, patterns, and core values of racism? What’s at stake for not knowing? What practices, rules, and policies might a faculty agree upon to combat white surprise? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield will host Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).
White America must challenge its high capacity to tolerate racism, to overlook racist acts, and to look past racist behaviors. Personal agency is required to become anti-racist. Disrupting systemic racism requires a shift in public policies as well as a rethinking of institutional norms, traditions, and procedures. These shifts require the work of dedicated people. Equally, personal agency is required to genuinely welcome persons targeted by racism. To shift personal and familial attitudes, beliefs and behaviors persons must speak out for justice. This requires education and action. Our questions for this webinar:
- If racism is so pervasive as to be like “smog in the air” (Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum) – how do we identify acts of racism?
- What does it mean to be complicit with racism?
- What kind of listening is needed to become anti-racist?
- Is there such-a-thing as “microaggression?”
What is white rage? What does it mean that racism so permeates school ecologies that white rage is not noticed by anyone other than its victims? What is the loss to the institution for white rage? How can white rage be counterbalanced? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).
Dismantling the systems and healing the wounds of racism requires a communal effort. What habits, strategies, and practices might a school undertake to learn together anti-racist work? The featured speakers for this event will be Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).
The everyday pressure of racist climates wears upon the body, mind and soul of teachers. What practices of health, wellness, and self-care might prolong the life of a scholar in a racist, toxic, climate? The featured speakers for this event will be Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).
Body indicators such as nose, hair, and flesh tones are relied upon for the perpetuation of prejudice, bias, and presumed privilege. What would it mean to unlearn, then relearn more liberative ways of reading the body? Can the truncated imagination which only sees value in the white body be rekindled to see worth in all bodies? The featured speakers for this event will be Dr. Melanie Harris (Texas Christian University) and Dr. Jennifer Harvey (Drake University).
Rev. Dr. Melanie L. Harris is Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of AddRan College and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies as well as Professor of Religion and Ethics, Texas Christian University. She is an ordained elder with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Dr. Jennifer Harvey is Professor of Religion at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her most recent book Raising White Kids: Bringing up Children in a Racially Unjust America brings her longtime experience in multi-racial activism to her journey as a parent. Dr. Harvey is also the author of Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation. Additionally, she serves as Faculty Director for the Crew Scholars Program Dr. Harvey is also ordained in the American Baptist Churches (USA).