Teaching for Racial Justice Symposium

Scholars of antiracist pedagogy concur that educating for racial justice requires fundamental disruption of normative teaching and learning paradigms. Authentic antiracist work is based in conscious, self-reflective choices to decenter whiteness and confront challenge white supremacy. Yet antiracism itself is a contested term, and antiracist initiatives must be designed thoughtfully to reject meritocratic myths and other forms of racial bias that sustain systemic inequality. The challenges of developing an authentic antiracist pedagogical practice are marked where the teaching and tutoring of writing is concerned, given how deeply whiteness is embedded in the ways writing is viewed, valued, and evaluated.

To reflect on these issues and strengthen the design of next year’s TRJ initiative, we invite your participation in the 2021 Spring TRJ Symposium. Over two half days on May 6 and May 7, this virtual symposium will invite teachers of first-year Composition and Texts & Contexts, Writing Center leaders and tutors, and guests from inside and outside the Fordham community to come together to share experiences, hear ideas, and invigorate our approach to antiracist instruction in AY 2021-22. In keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and moderated Q&As with scholars of antiracist pedagogy, we will consider big questions, including:

• How do we define antiracism? What does it mean to be antiracist teacher and tutor?
• How have our experiences with students amidst the pressures of the Covid -19 pandemic, online teaching, and BLM moment of the past year shaped our understanding of the challenges and opportunities of antiracist practice?
• How can the TRJ project most vibrantly help our diverse instructor and student populations articulate, refine, and enact their antiracist commitments?

Our hope is that symposium participants will be at the vanguard of antiracist pedagogical work in English, lending their ideas to shape the direction of the TRJ initiative and contribute to its long-term success.

Spring 2021 Agenda

"Visioning an AntiRacist Writing Program"- May 6, 2021

9:30-10 a.m. | Opening Session

• Crystal Colombini, TRJ Faculty Coordinator
• Rafael Zapata, Chief Diversity Officer
• Anne Fernald, Special Advisor to the Provost
• Ariana Chen, Representative of DAC

10-10:45 a.m. | Breakout Session #1

11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | “Directions in Antiracist Writing Pedagogy & Program Design”
Featuring Aja Martinez (University of North Texas), Louis Maraj (University of Pittsburgh), and Ashanka Kumari (Texas A&M University—Commerce)

12:30-1:15 p.m. | Breakout Session #2 and Final Discussion

“Visioning an Antiracist Writing Center” - May 7, 2021

9:30-10 a.m. | Opening Session

• Crystal Colombini, TRJ Faculty Coordinator
• TBD

10-10:45 a.m. | Breakout Session #1

11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | “Directions in Antiracist Writing Center Work”
Featuring Romeo Garcia (University of Utah), Frankie Condon (University of Waterloo), and Eric C. Camarillo (HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College)

12:30-1:15 p.m. | Breakout Session #2 and Final Discussion

In 2020, the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer awarded an Early Adopter Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) Grant to English for its project “Teaching Racial Justice” (TRJ), which aims to support antiracist teaching and tutoring in the high-impact contexts of the Fordham Writing Program and Writing Center. Key goals of the TRJ initiative are:

• To provide professional development and training in inclusive, antiracist pedagogical practices that can be adapted across different instructional contexts;
• To facilitate the (re)design of courses that support productive engagement with racial histories and racial justice in many intersectional forms; and
• To foster recognition of the ways antiracist commitments are inspiring pedagogical innovation from instructors as well as outstanding work from students.

The centerpiece of this project is the inaugural 2021-22 TRJ Colloquium. The Colloquium will feature monthly workshops that will be open to anyone but that will function as a series to guide a cohort of participants through rigorous examination of their own pedagogical practices and revision of their Comp I, Comp II, and/or Texts and Contexts syllabi with attention to antiracist principles. Other initiatives associated with the TRJ project include workshops on antiracist Writing Center tutoring, an end-of-year showcase for presenting outcomes of the project, and awards that will recognize outstanding faculty teaching and student writing on racial justice. The opening of applications for the AY 2021-22 TRJ Colloquium will be announced in August 2021.