Equity Across the Curriculum
Historically pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred...Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
- Arundhati Roy, The Pandemic is a Portal
How can UW Bothell foster a community of learners ready to “imagine another world,” one that advances UW Bothell’s goal to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion? The Equity Across the Curriculum Initiative explores this question as it relates to liberatory pedagogy and faculty development. It is a peer-to-peer faculty development project co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, the Learning and Teaching Collaborative and the Office of Diversity and Equity.
2021-2022
The Equity Across the Curriculum group will focus on three key areas of focus identified by EAC members during the 2020/2021 academic year. These are: Navigating Difficult Conversations, Designing Inclusive Syllabi, and Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students. In addition to these three areas, we are committed to building knowledge on pedagogies that are trauma-informed and which center harm-reduction for those students who are marginalized within higher education.
Members
- Natasha Merchant (Chair, SES)
- Ching-In Chen (IAS)
- Gavin Doyle (IAS and FYPP)
- Jason H. Morse (IAS and FYPP)
- Alexandria T Musselman (STEM)
- Sarita Shukla (SES)
- Penelope Wood (Campus Library)
with administrative support from Cinnamon Hillyard and Richie Meyer (Office of Student Academic Success).
Our Approach
Strategy Per Track
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Navigating Difficult Conversations
The terms used to describe social inequities in universities are varied and hold a variety of political meanings. In this track we are prioritizing understanding and discussing the frame of white supremacy culture and its manifestations in the classroom. We plan to introduce the frame of white supremacy culture and allow instructors to reflect on the ways in which this culture shows up and even organizes our syllabi, expectations, content, and even our interactions. While moving toward change is important, our session for this academic year will focus primarily on understanding how white supremacy culture exists in the classroom and reflecting on the ways we, as instructors, perpetuate or resist it.
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Designing Inclusive Syllabi
A series of three workshops will be planned throughout the academic year that focus on designing a syllabus that is inclusive of learners with a wide variety of learning styles/abilities, social positions/identities, and comfort levels in the university and that uses student-focused and supportive (rather than authoritarian and punitive) language. The first session will be held in Autumn quarter, the second will be held in early Winter, while the third will be held toward the end of Winter quarter. This way, faculty can workshop a syllabus they plan to teach during Spring.
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Supporting Trans & Non-Binary Students
Both of the engagements in this area center student impact. Geared toward instructors and staff across the campus, the first event in this area will present case studies for participants to work through. The second event will bring a student panel to share their educational experiences at UWB.
Building Infrastructure for Faculty Support
The EAC would like to work with the office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and others to discuss the learning from the past year as well as how faculty can be better supported at UWB when they do design anti-racist and liberatory pedagogies. Specifically, our goals are to:
- Address the ways equity work ‘counts’ for promotion and tenure across various departments
- Along with senior colleagues and administration, create support mechanisms for instructors who adopt liberatory pedagogies, particularly those instructors (faculty and staff) who are marginalized within the institution.
- Work with senior faculty and administrators to create a power-map of the ‘big gaps’ in order to strategically identify where resources should be focused in terms of equity work, specific to the UWB campus. This will help reduce redundancy and clarify a vision for faculty and staff development rather than a reactionary posture.
Fall 2021
Winter 2021
| TRACK |
EVENT |
| Designing Inclusive Syllabi |
Workshop: Reviewing and implementing strategies for inclusive syllabi (Session 2 of 3) Zoom, January 21, 2022 ,10am
Register here.
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| Designing Inclusive Syllabi |
Workshop: Review first two sessions and work off a checklist to revise and peer-review syllabi, March 4, 2022
Register here.
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| Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students |
Student Panel: Trans and Non-binary UW students discuss classroom and campus experiences and the role of instructors, staff and campus community in creative inclusive/exclusive environments, February 11, 2022, 11am
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qipzYEdyP64
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| Navigating Difficult Conversations |
Guest Speaker: 'What is white supremacy culture and how does it function in the classroom?' This talk will include time for instructor reflection, March 10, 2022, 3pm
Presented by Dorinda Carter Andrews
Register here.
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