What’s new with the CTLT Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Team.
Happy summer everyone!
Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning (A-RTL) programming allows staff and faculty to cultivate teaching and facilitation practices that support anti-racist solidarity. With the aim of creating equitable learning environments and caring classroom spaces where learners who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour can thrive, A-RTL provides opportunities for educators to deepen their understanding of anti-racism and anti-racist practices at an individual, community, and institutional level.
We want to take this opportunity to share some updates from the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning program.
Changes to the Team: Goodbyes, Hellos & More
Goodbye to Freda Maideen
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Freda for the hard work, reflections, insights and knowledge brought to the A-RTL team. Freda will be dearly missed but has not gone very far. She will continue working at UBC in another department.
Hello to Lauren, Shannon and Nathalie
We would like to welcome 3 educational consultants to the to the A-RTL team who bring with them a wealth of personal, community and professional experience and knowledge. Click here to read their full bios.
Lauren Casey: Anti-Racist and Indigenous Initiatives
Indigenous sovereignty is so intimately entwined to anti-racist work, that we cannot create change and further one movement without the other. As an Indigenous person I know that my liberation from a colonial system that continues to threaten the very existence of my communities cannot happen separate from the struggle of all BIPOC folks. Rather than working apart and fighting over the limited resources given to this work, I recognize that I can be a part of bringing communities together, in creating intentionally relational pathways to working together to fight oppression, and work towards the resources we desperately need to address inequity. So, I choose to work in the intersection of harm and care, for all who live marginalized in this world. I do so holding the values and ways of being my culture have taught me at the centre. In the next year, my work will focus on supporting the strategic alignment of priorities within CTLT related to this work as well as creating new PD offerings for faculty and staff.
Shannon Robinson: Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning
I care about engaging in anti-racist work because I want to do my best to contribute towards building a future where people are living in better relations with one another, where the world is not only survivable but joyful, and where reciprocity and respect are centred in our engagement with one another, as well as with lands, waters, plants and animals. I know that I can only support a very small piece of this work in my lifetime, but I’ve been taught about the importance of intergenerational thinking, and I believe in the radicality of hope!
In the coming year, Shannon hopes to help build strong connections between ARTL and other anti-racist and Indigenous initiatives across campus.
Nathalie Lozano Neira: Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning
I feel I have a commitment to the communities that surround me. I grew up doing anti-racist work with people that became my communities and families, it was part of understanding how we come to build relationships with each other and with the lands that we inhabit. For me anti-racist work must be grounded in Indigenous and Black liberation and as such it feels vital and the root of how I chose to live in community, navigate the academy and be in relation with all the beings that surround us. Nathalie’s work in the coming months will focus on adapting ARTL programming to meet the needs of faculty and staff.
Programming
- We delivered the “Identity Matters” workshop in March and the “Anti-Racism and Solidarity in University Settings” workshop in May. Thank you to all those who attended for your input and reflections, we look forward to delivering more programming in the coming year.
- In June and July, we will continue with our ongoing partnership with the Faculty of Applied Sciences to offer a cohort for faculty members from Science, Forestry, and Applied Science on anti-racist topics such as power, privilege, positionality, identity, solidarity, intersectionality, and anti-oppression. We look forward to rich discussions and fulsome learning as we continue this journey towards anti-racist approaches to education!
There is still time to register! For more information go to:
https://apsc.ubc.ca/EDI.I/news-events/anti-racist-stem-faculty-cohort
What would you like to see from our office over the next year?
This summer we will be in full planning mode to identify how as an Anti-Racism in Teaching and Learning team we can mobilize knowledge and resources to respond to arising needs. We would love to hear from you if you have any ideas about any themes/spaces we can facilitate organizing.
Please contact: nathalie.lozano-neira@ubc.ca
Stay tuned for specific programming in the fall and spring.