For more information on these workshops or how we might tailor workshops to meet your needs, please contact us.
Past Workshops
Scholar Activist Handout
Many self-identified activists choose to pursue graduate degrees to further social justice and reduce inequality. Yet, once they are graduate students they can experience frustration over the competing demands and norms of being a student-scholar and being an activist. In this workshop, participants explore both the challenges and opportunities that emerging scholar-activists encounter with an eye towards naming and normalizing the tensions that can exist, and finding healthy and sustainable ways to embody both identities.
Love in the Classroom Handout
The noted educator and author Bell Hooks had much to say about teaching and life. In this conversation we engage her ideas about love and how they are made manifest in the classroom. “Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. ” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Teaching Challenging Materials Handout
This workshop is focused on helping instructors teach challenging materials related to race, class, and gender. Topics include: facilitating class discussions, preparing the class to talk about difficult issues, what to do when things blow up, and taking care of yourselves.
Dumb Things Well-Intentioned People Say Handout
“I don’t see color.” “Some of my best friends are…” “I know how you feel.” “It was only a joke.” Have you ever made any of these statements? We think just about everyone has—they seem to be part of our everyday conversations. Our intent is never to harm, yet the outcome can often be just that. In this workshop we use “35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say” by Dr. Maura Cullen as the basis of our conversation about these and other statements and the impact they can have on others.
GTF Series – Teaching Challenging Race, Class, and Gender Materials Handout
This series is focused on helping GTFs teach challenging race, class, and gender materials.
Part One: Preparing to teach—creating a syllabus, choosing course materials, selecting class activities, assessment and grading.
Part Two: Facilitating class discussions—preparing the class to talk about difficult issues, what to do when things blow up, taking care of yourself.
Community. What do we mean? How do we get there? Handout
People on university campuses use the term “community” a lot. But what exactly do they mean? What is it and how will we know when we’ve achieved it? In this workshop we will have a (hopefully) lively conversation about the idea of community and what each of us can do to help make the University of Oregon a community in which we all can prosper and enjoy.
Red or Blue – Political Conversations in the Classroom Handout
An article in “The Chronicle of Higher Education” was entitled “What Not to Say in Class During an Election Season” (September 19, 2008). In it the author described classroom situations involving political issues that can be challenging for faculty, one example being what do you do when a student asks for your political beliefs? In this workshop we will discuss this and related situations and explore what faculty can do to handle these potentially loaded issues in a way that is productive and fair to all students.
Speech Communities, Cultural Competence, Privilege, Whiteness, & Color-Blindness: An Introduction to Diversity Handout
An understanding of cultural competence, privilege, whiteness, and color-blindness are essential when learning about diversity. In this workshop we introduce each of these concepts and facilitate a discussion on how this information can help staff do a better job of working with students and colleagues.
Generations in the Workplace Handout
Building and sustaining effective work teams that are comprised of multi-age team members can be exciting and challenging. In this workshop we discuss the challenges of generations in the workplace and strategies that allows all team members to bring their resources and strengths to the workplace.
Generations in the Classroom Handout
Non-traditional students at the UO face a number of different challenges. They are juggling jobs, families, and other responsibilities while returning to school after several years away from the classroom. In this workshop we briefly review the challenges being faced by this growing population of students and share strategies on how to best reach and teach them.
Working Effectively with Diverse Students in the College Classroom Handout
We as faculty invest years in developing knowledge and expertise in our chosen disciplines. Yet few of us have had sustained opportunities to consider what is involved in teaching effectively within multiculturally complex organizations. In this workshop we explore best-practices on how to work with and effectively engage a diverse student audience. Topics that will be explored include: structuring your classroom: what to do in advance, how to convert tense moments to teachable moments, and how to recover when you or others make mistakes.
Using Technology to Respond to Differences Among Learners Handout
Teaching in a manner that embraces a diversity of learning styles and abilities in the classroom is a challenging task. In this workshop, we describe how technology can be used to help instructors meet this challenge by offering strategies that effectively address these situations.
Cultivating a Multicultural Organization in University Housing Handout
This workshop introduced CoDaC and the concept of the Multicultural Organization from an individual and systems perspective to University Housing staff.
The Impact of Privilege in the Classroom Handout
The concept of privilege can impact many different aspects of teaching. It can influence the content one chooses, the manner in which one teaches, and the relationship that one has with students in the class. In this workshop we explore the concept of privilege, examine the many ways it impacts teaching and learning, and offer ways that having this awareness can help us become better instructors.
Cultural Competency: A Conversation Handout
The term cultural competency has been around for almost 20 years and has been commonly used in health care and K-12 educational settings. Yet for many in higher education, it remains a mystery, or even worse, an attempt at thought control. In this session we provide some definitions, examples, and uses of cultural competency in a variety of settings.
Embedding vs. Adding on: Multicultural Approaches to Everyday Work Handout
Working effectively in a multicultural environment can be challenging, whether you are conducting a meeting, interacting with students or colleagues, or developing policy statements. In this workshop participants begin to explore what it means to work effectively in diverse environments by generating their own lists of “best practices” around a variety of workplace activities and sharing them with colleagues.
Teaching, Facilitating, or Mediating? Handout
How do teaching, facilitating, and mediating overlap in the classroom? Instructors and mediators can serve as a catalyst to bring about important cognitive responses between students and their experiences and curriculum. What are the similarities and differences between these models and how can they complement each other in the classroom?
Language & Labels Handout I, Handout II
Is it OK to use the term “Hispanic”? “I thought ‘queer’ was a degrading term.” “How do I know what they want to be called?” Conversations related to diversity are often challenging for a variety of important reasons. One of the barriers to talking about issues of diversity is the fear of saying the “wrong” thing, hurting others, or being hurt ourselves. In this workshop, we begin to explore the language of diversity and its multiple impacts, and talk about the evolving nature of related vocabulary.
Facilitating Difficult Discussions Handout
In this workshop, we talk about one of the scariest aspects of teaching – how to facilitate difficult class discussions. Find out what you can do from the first day of class to encourage lively and respectful discussions and share ideas about what you can do if eruptions occur.
A Conversation about Whiteness and Colorblindness Handout
An understanding of privilege, whiteness, and color-blindness are essential when learning about diversity. In this workshop we introduce each of these concepts and facilitate a discussion on how this information can help staff do a better job of working with students and colleagues.
A Conversation about Office Celebrations Handout
Celebrations are part of the university culture and happen throughout the year as we commemorate special occasions, birthdays, and holidays. Sometimes events cause hard feelings as individuals feel tokenized and stereotyped. In this conversation, we explore the world of celebrations and attempt to find ways to make them culturally appropriate and inclusive for all.
The Privilege of Whiteness: A Conversation Handout
“Being white means never having to think about it. James Baldwin said that many years ago, and it’s perhaps the truest thing ever said about race in America” (Membership Has Its Privileges by Tim Wise). In this conversation, we explore the concept of whiteness and investigate what it might mean when someone says “I don’t see color”. Finally, we examine the impact of both of these ideas on cross-cultural dynamics.
Teaching Controversial Subjects Handout
Whiteness. Power and privilege. Creationism and evolution. In this workshop we will explore specific strategies for creating optimal learning environments when teaching controversial subjects such as these. Specifically, topics will include syllabus development, preparation for the first day and week, collaborating with students to create a safe learning environment, and dealing with difficult situations that inevitably arise.
Being a Good Ally Handout
Being a good ally to students of color and members of other marginalized groups is an essential element in the struggle for systemic change. But being a good ally is not as easy as it may seem. In this workshop we uncover the basics of what it means to be a “good ally” and then explore how best to do this. This session is very interactive with lots of discussion, brainstorming, and case studies.
Exploring the Underpinnings and Implications of the Diversity Movement in Academia
How to be an Advocate