Schedule & Breakout Session Descriptions 2023

Facilitated by Adrianna E. Crossing, Chieh Li, and Felicia Waldron | Curry 320

The objective of this session is to explore how critical consciousness (CC) concepts and strategies can be applied to empower women of color in the academy. In this session, CC refers to a process of developing a person’s analysis of structural oppressions and building agency to enact change to transform oppressive systems. CC includes critical reflections and critical actions. Participants will (a) explore how critical consciousness can be applied to their lives, (b) discuss issues related to power and privilege, identify indicators of structural racism, and (c) share their strategies and tools to empower themselves and other women of color.

Facilitated by Dr. Michelle Miller-Groves | Curry 340

Every revolution has underground communications efforts. Networking can act as a form of rebellion when BIWOC communities leverage it to elevate one another. During revolutions, back channels must be set up to ensure that collective efforts aren’t compromised. Active communication within your network fosters trust and breeds opportunity: job placement, access to privileged information, access to emerging trends to capitalize on, etc. Networking allows us to simultaneously build and heal our community from generational poverty and trauma. Access to life-saving resources is critical to our rebellion.

Facilitated by Tracy Robinson-Wood and Janie Victoria Ward | Curry 322

This invitational session will present a model of intentional mentoring designed to strengthen mentors’ ability to read, name, oppose and replace racism with Black female college mentees. Optimal psychological resistance as a framework for effective mentoring will be central to our interactive discussion. Using case vignettes from Sister Resisters: Mentoring Black Women on Campus (authors Drs. Janie Ward and Tracy Robinson-Wood), this session will identify mentoring challenges, including race-talk tentativeness, particularly in interracial mentor/mentee dyads. Attendees will emerge with tools for resolving impasse and growing mentoring competency with Black female mentees.

Facilitated by Trina Yearwood and Dana Fusco | Curry 318

In academia, institutions boast that they uphold equal employment opportunity laws and are free from discrimination. Yet when women of color arrive, they are often silenced, undervalued, disrespected, and marginalized. In this session, participants are invited to learn how two School of Education administrators intentionally create safe and welcoming spaces to inspire women of color and build community. Through storytelling, experiential learning, and arts integration, this session will also illustrate how the influence of Black women shaped these administrators’ leadership styles.

Facilitated by Shanae Chapman | Curry 344

Apply human-centered design principles to create change and support equity. Brainstorm how to create more diverse and inclusive products, services, and workplaces. Demystify Anti-Racism in academia and tech by exploring research and stories specific to academia, the tech industry, and the startup ecosystem. Brainstorm and prioritize actionable outcomes for Anti-Racism in your organization that you can start crafting immediately. Take action with an Anti-Racism MVP to make the greatest impact on your community starting now. Continue the journey and plan for long-term success with methods for tracking progress.

Facilitated by Christine Montecillo Leider and Christina L. Dobbs | Curry 346

In 2018 we began a duoethnography (Norris & Sawyer, 2016) project where we made visible how we process our experiences as brown women academics (Dobbs & Leider, 2020, 2021; Leider & Dobbs, 2022). To us, duoethnography has become a way of being in academia where together we critically examine higher education and our experiences within it. We have come to find this dialogic method as a useful tool to heal the pain we experience in the academy. In this workshop, we will introduce participants to duoethnography as a transformative method for processing academic trauma.

Facilitated by Latesha Fussell and Shannon Musgrove | Curry 318

Black women faculty require space to be seen, heard, and nourished within the academy. Black women create spaces for themselves that value autonomy, collectivism, and validation, laying the foundations for experiencing joy. This workshop will engage participants through collaborative group work, authentic discussion, and mindful meditation activities that introduce and reinforce Black Sis Joy. We use meditation practices to help us achieve being fully present, calm, and grounded in the moment. Through evidence-based practices, participants will identify stressors, thoughts, and emotions that negatively impact their joy and help them re-establish wellness practices.

Facilitated by Yamini Adusumelli, Anvitha Sathya, Nidhi Lal and Prasida Unni | Curry 340

Our workshop showcases a short film created by medical students, exploring the journey of a South Asian woman with postpartum depression, through Indian classical dance. This will be followed by a panel and focus group discussion to explore the use of humanities media to culturally contextualize health inequities and stigmatization in medicine. Objectives for discussion are:

Facilitated by Ziza Delgado Noguera and Elianny Edwards | Curry 320

This workshop is guided by two women of color who met in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and began a journey of co-mothering while navigating academia. The facilitators will share lessons learned about developing communities of care as first-generation professionals and first-time mothers, and draw upon Critical Sisterhood Praxis (Reynold et al., 2021) to discuss how their sisterhood provided necessary emotional and material support at critical junctures in their early careers. The workshop will be interactive and generative, creating a space for participants to share their own stories, tools, and resources so we can move from survival to thrivance (Jolivette, 2020) in the academy and beyond.

Facilitated by Clareese Hill | Curry 322

A workshop that is partially a meditation and partially a conversation on restorative care in the academic community, based on Tricia Hersey’s book Rest Is Resistance. The first portion will be a sound bath guided meditation that will transition to a conversation including an informal presentation on a syllabus assembled from various sources, including writing promotions, somatic breathing exercises, books, and dietary wellness. The workshop will close out with an open conversation and free writing exercise.

Facilitated by Inette Bolden | Curry 344

Facilitated by Dyann C. Logwood, Sadaf Ali, and Cassandra Barragan | Curry 346