OIIE will continue to host, collaborate on and support a variety of opportunities for support, community, healing, reflection, education and action for the TU community. The first step in promoting necessary change is acknowledging the discrepancies that are the basis for many of our systems as our society is not inherently equitable. We call on the TU community to take an active role in this journey of learning, growth and change.
We will update this space as additional information is available. If you have suggestions, questions or other feedback please email Inclusion AT_TOWSON.
Participants are welcome to enjoy refreshments while joining these virtual sessions!
These drop-in sessions are designed for all faculty to share challenges, concerns, ideas, and tangible classroom strategies for acknowledging the variety of current events that are weighing on the hearts and minds of students and the larger TU community.
Contact Dr. Shaunna Payne Gold, Assistant Provost for Diversity & Inclusion at spaynegold AT_TOWSON with questions or requests for accommodations.
Office of the Provost, OIIE, and Dialogue at TU
To further our ongoing work on race, racism, and anti-racism, OIIE is organizing Affinity Space Dialogues to foster community, support, healing, reflection, and deeper understanding. During this tumultuous point in American history, TU is uniquely positioned to continue its momentum concerning equity, inclusion, and racial healing. We see facilitated dialogue as an integral part of this ongoing process.
These virtual spaces are grounded in racial identity development (PDF), providing specific frameworks for understanding how individuals function in the community, family, and organizational settings. All spaces are designed to prioritize dialogue and community by reaching deeper levels of understanding of recent current events, as well as building shared language related to anti-racism.
All members of the TU staff and faculty community are invited to join the Affinity Spaces that reflect their identities. Each space is offered as stand-alone, you are invited to attend one or more for your affinity community, and will be hosted by trained co-facilitators. Live Virtual Affinity Spaces will be provided. Over the next few months, we will continue to offer Affinity Spaces for healing, truth, dialogue, and community for the TU community.
For more information, please contact dialogue AT_TOWSON.
OIIE, Office of the Provost and other TU partners
To further our ongoing work on race, racism, and anti-racism, OIIE is organizing Reading Groups for staff and faculty to join guided and frank discussions around important concepts in anti-racism. During this tumultuous point in American history, TU is uniquely positioned to continue its momentum on equity, inclusion, and racial healing. We see facilitated dialogues as an integral part of this ongoing process. Each group, led by a pair of staff and faculty facilitators, will discuss and wrestle with important concepts – rather than lecture or teach a text.
Each selected book engages with a specific aspect of anti-racism; see the chart below for help in selecting a book group, followed by the registration link.
| If you are here and interested in doing deeper work on the following ideas |
consider this book | to work on |
|---|---|---|
|
"I want us to all be color-blind, and not see race/color" "I think too much focus on race maintains racism" "I feel some level of guilt for being white" |
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria (Beverly Tatum) Whistling Vivaldi (Claude Steel) |
Developing strategies for educating yourself proactively, instead of relying (consciously or unconsciously) on people of color to help educate you. |
|
"I’ve learned a lot from having a black friend, colleague, relative, loved one" "I sometimes feel the need to justify or defend my point of view when talking about race" "I feel that because I was born white, I am unfairly being required to dismantle racist systems that I didn’t create" |
Me and White Supremacy (Layla F. Saad) | Developing personalized and realistic strategies for moving forward. |
|
"I’m confident that privilege is not based solely on merit, but on bias and racism" "I want to know more about how to be both white and anti-racist" "I want to build confidence in directly addressing racism" "I want to go beyond just “being a good person.” I want to actively tear down systems of racism and oppression" |
So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo) |
Developing skills for navigating difficult conversations with white friends and family about racism and inequality Identifying personal strategies for supporting anti-racist work Create personal strategies for becoming an active bystander by interrupting racist acts, statements, and experiences. |
|
"I feel ready to focus on working against oppression at the systemic level" "I feel ready to work on processes, policies, procedures, and environments that are oppressive, not just individual relationships" "I’ve been able to do work on whiteness and white identity" |
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Isabel Wilkerson) How to be An Antiracist (Ibram Kendi) |
Developing strategies for regularly thinking critically at the systemic level. |
Each book group will meet for six consecutive one-hour weekly virtual meetings on Zoom (Session 2 groups will not meet during Thanksgiving week).
Many local public libraries provide electronic access to these books. Also, refer to Cook Library’s Anti-racism Resource Guide for additional ways to access them.
Office of the Provost, OIIE, and Dialogue @ TU
TU’s Dialogue Program is pleased to offer Level 1 of the 3-part training and certification program for staff and faculty. Level 1 focus on theories and concepts central to sustained and intergroup dialogue initiatives, strategies for managing difficult conversations around our social identities, and tools for facilitating conversations in our offices, classrooms, teams, organizations and communities. Contact dialogue AT_TOWSON for more information.
We are pleased to share with the TU community our strategic plan for diversity and inclusion. This plan provides a critical piece of the roadmap for the future of Towson University as we enter our 155th year.
Learn More About the Diversity Strategic Plan Town Hall
Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet.
Find out your implicit associations about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other topics!
Community Organizations
Resources for Taking Action
Reflection
In what ways have I been conditioned to believe in the superiority of whiteness?
In what ways have I engaged in rhetoric that promotes othering or stereotyping of Black people?
What can I do to better educate myself on the historical context of race in the country and community I exist in?
Financial Contributions