In Fall 2020, the college hosted Jacinta Yanders, PhD, for the workshop, "Decolonizing Your Syllabus." This workshop interrogated the ways white, straight, male, cis and Western perspectives and voices have been historically centralized in academic discussions.
In a follow-up microtraining, we challenged faculty to:
- Carefully review their course syllabi and readings for Winter 2021.
- Reflect on the diversity (or lack thereof) of scholars, case studies and examples that were presented in their course material.
- Commit to making at least two meaningful changes in course materials this quarter (and then two additional changes every quarter moving forward).
- The college provided resource support for faculty to take up the challenge.
In a follow-up assessment survey of faculty in Winter 2021:
- The vast majority of reporting faculty took the challenge seriously (86%), engaged in significant reflection (83%) and sought out new and diverse voices (88%)
- While faculty made changes to their course materials, only 43% felt satisfied with their results, marking a desire and an understood commitment to keep doing better.
The work of decolonizing our courses and dismantling systems of oppression in our institutions is ongoing, and we want to hear what you think.
- Which class readings have a made an impact for you?
- Where can we better represent a range of voices, identities and perspectives in your courses and areas of study?