Equity and Advocacy
Who We Are
The purpose of this committee is to explore and utilize research and practices for integration of equity and advocacy. The committee addresses and supports the Hunter College School of Education’s commitment to diversity as expressed in its Vision Statement and Conceptual Framework. The committee is driven to create a school climate that is inclusive and responsive to the assets of all faculty, staff, and students with a wide range of backgrounds, cultures, languages, genders, sexualities, abilities, and prior knowledge and lived experiences. As such, this committee plans and creates institutional structures, educational experiences, and restorative spaces for our Hunter communities so as to both heal and to collaboratively dismantle bias and stereotypes. Our intention is to build and foster more inclusive, humanizing environments both within our Hunter College School of Education and with our community partners.
The committee facilitates events series each semester and brings in a notable scholar whose research is based in culturally responsive education practices. Events are open to all students, faculty, staff and community members.
Event Series
Community Connections
Community Connections, sponsored by the Equity and Advocacy Committee, are gatherings open to all students, faculty, staff and community members. Share in our collective efforts to build equity through events, recruitment and retention, and research.
The first hour will be devoted to building community and getting to know each other through potlucks, informal conversation and art therapy; the second hour will be devoted to discussions about ways to enhance our equity-and justice-oriented initiatives at Hunter College.
Review Upcoming Events listed below for more information and to RSVP.
Equity Eats
Equity Eats is an informal space open to all students, faculty, staff and community members to discuss various texts (i.e. books, podcasts, articles, and videos) related to equity, justice, diversity and inclusion. Special emphasis is placed on how these practices can be infused within our school contexts.
This semester the focus will be Gholdy Muhammad’s new book Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning.
Review Upcoming Events listed below for more information and to RSVP.
Critical Cafe Conversation Series
- Open to students, faculty, staff and community members.
- Discuss issues of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and advocacy as they impact our teaching and learning in diverse urban schools.
- Connect as a community to collaborate and meet other educators and community members dedicated to addressing these issues.
- Transform our educational settings to create culturally sustaining educational environments where students lived experiences are accounted for and where students feel represented and included.
Critical Friends
These workshops are open to all part and full-time Hunter faculty. Participants will have opportunities to collaborate with others around ways to integrate anti-racism, equity, justice, diversity and inclusion into their coursework. We would also like to encourage folx to use this time to review and incorporate our School of Education Equity and Advocacy Guiding Principles for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Many of us will be including these into our syllabi for the Fall and Spring semesters as a way to guide our objectives, assessments, and curriculum.
Resources to Support Anti-Racist Practice and Advocacy
For Educators
- How to Organize a Teach In
- Resources for Talking to PreK-12 students About the Current Demonstrations in Response to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Thousands of Others
- Reading Towards Abolition: A Reading List on Policing, Rebellion, and the Criminalization of Blackness
- Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education by Cheryl Matias
- We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
- This Is the Casual Racism That I Face at My Elite High School by Rainier Harris
For Everyone
Read
- Black, Disabled, and Proud: College Students with Disabilities
- What is Racism? Unpacking the Seven I’s by David E. Kirkland
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Pedagogy of fear: toward a Fanonian theory of ‘safety’ in race dialogue by Zeus Leonardo and Ronald K. Porter
- Safe Spaces and Brave Spaces by Diana Ali (links to pdf)
- From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens (links to pdf)
Listen
Watch
- Dear White People Video by Emmanuel Archo
- Cornell University History Professor Lawrence Glickman Discusses “How White Backlash Controls American Progress” with CBS News
Black-owned Bookstores in New York City
Contact
For additional questions, suggestions, or to join the committee, please email equity@hunter.cuny.edu.