Below you’ll find articles hand-picked by the editorial team to assist you in having these conversations with colleagues, students, and friends. But these are just a starting place– if you have questions, concerns, or want help starting a dialogue on your campus, email us at [email protected] and we’ll work with you towards this goal.
Articles for Talking About Student Activism, Marginalization, and Race in Higher Education
In a recent Editor’s Note (On Empathy, Vol. 20, Iss. 3), Executive Editor Frank Shushok, Jr. wrote:
“Humanity’s most promising moments are when people listen, empathize, and seek to understand perspective, realities, or experiences that are diverse, unique, and different. It’s not easy; it takes will. When this occurs, however, it’s not unusual for both sides to change. In a time where race, gender, sexuality, and religion, among hundreds of variables, seem to divide us in profound ways, empathy and perspective seeking are necessities for interrelatedness. Without empathy, justice-making and peace-keeping are impossible. So cultivating empathetic practices among ourselves and our students must be among our highest priorities.”
Your work on campus is so important to students and colleagues around you. One way we can support each other as people and educators is to make a space to have difficult conversations. A space to work through issues of identity, oppression, and marginalization in our local communities and beyond is vital for improving self-understanding as well as understanding of those different from you. Below you’ll find articles hand-picked by the editorial team to assist you in having these conversations with colleagues, students, and friends. But these are just a starting place– if you have questions, concerns, or want help starting a dialogue on your campus, email us at [email protected] and we’ll work with you towards this goal.
Conflict as a Catalyst for Learning
by Rashné R. Jehangir
Rashné R. Jehangir challenges her students and herself to engage with tough issues like class, race, gender, disability, and homophobia. How does she help them learn from, and even embrace, the conflict that inevitably arises?
Confessions of a Recovering Racist
by Donna M. Hauer
Hauer shares an experience of making a misinformed judgement, and how the student she put in a box made her realize she was make assumptions that weren’t true.
Difficult Conversations
by Debra Miretzky and Sharon Stevens
It takes more than diversity of campus populations for individuals to interact in meaningful ways with others of different backgrounds. Debra Miretzky and Sharon Stevens share their experience launching a series of campus conversations focused on raising personal awareness and building relationships across difference.
Multiracial in a Monoracial World
by Samuel D. Museus, April L. Yee, and Susan A. Lambe
The authors interviewed four undergraduate students of color about their experiences on a ‘colorblind campus.’ The students tell their own stories of discrimination, frustration, and willingness to have the race conversation that their peers don’t want to engage in.
Racism and Sexism in Cyberspace
by Samuel D. Museus and Kimberly A. Truong
Museus and Truong report on the negative consequences of the ubiquitous radicalized and sexualized stereotype of Asian American college students that appear online.
Black Within Black
by Chrystal A. George Mwangi and Sharon Fries-Britt
The authors disrupt the idea of a monolithic experience among Black students by reporting on Black within-group diversity and the perceptions and experiences of Black immigrants in higher education.
Beyond Discourse to Emancipatory Action
by Penny A. Pasque and Hailey Neubauer
One undergraduate student’s transformational story of self-discovery and personal development frames this discussion of the importance of undergraduate involvement in social justice research.
A Candid Conversation about Schools, Culture, and the Widening Opportunity Gap in America with Professor Robert D. Putnam
by Frank Shushok, Jr.
Robert D. Putnam brings our attention to the worsening problem of inequality of opportunity in American society. Though it is a daunting problem that goes far beyond the realm of higher education, Putnam shares a hopeful message of the potential to return to our core values of fairness and equity.
A Sea of Change on the Horizon
by Jennifer Meyer Schrage
Jennifer Meyer Schrage contends that adjudication-only models of conflict resolution limit opportunities for restorative justice and student learning, for both those who have caused harm and those who have suffered harm. She advances the multi-pronged Spectrum Model as a more appropriate model for serving all stakeholders’ needs.
Taming the Madvocate Within
by Sydnee Viray and Robert J. Nash
Though social justice work often evokes strong feelings, Sydnee Viray and Robert J. Nash argue that advocates must move beyond anger in order to be effective.
Educating for Diversity
by Reginald Wilson
Wilson explains why achieving cultural diversity on campus requires nothing less than a complete transformation of our institutions of higher learning. This means reinventing everything, from the canon to the classroom and beyond.
Engaging Prospective and Admitting African American and Other Minority Students Before They Arrive on Campus
by Forest B. Wortham
With the effectiveness of traditional methods of connecting with incoming Wittenberg University minority students waning, Forest B. Wortham spans the virtual and physical worlds to help them find their place.