In the Fall 2020 semester, 54 NYU Silver faculty and doctoral students completed the School’s inaugural Faculty Antiracism Pedagogy Seminar. The new, rigorous program was developed by Associate Professor Doris F. Chang and Master Teacher and Clinical Associate Professor Linda Lausell Bryant, co-chairs of the School’s Action Against Racism Pedagogy Supports Work Group, as part of a broader effort to more intentionally center NYU Silver’s pedagogy in antiracist and inclusive practices. It will next be offered in the Summer 2021 semester.
The self-guided training program, open to all full-time and adjunct faculty as well as doctoral students, consisted of readings, videos, reflection questions, and accountability group meetings that participants completed in five two-week cycles. It provided tools to promote racial equity; navigate discussions on racism and identity; facilitate self-reflection with regard to these issues; and prioritize the comfort, performance and learning of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students. Designed with the recognition that white and BIPOC faculty have different lived experiences of race, readings, tools, reflection questions, and discussion opportunities were tailored to address each group’s unique training needs. At the end of the seminar, participants submitted a teaching and learning plan, in which they reflected on personal strengths and weaknesses in the domains of Critical Knowledge, Critical Awareness, Critical Analysis, and Critical Actions. They then outlined a concrete plan to continue their growth and development and to apply what they have learned in their classrooms and other professional environments.
Drs. Chang and Lausell Bryant, who read participants’ reflection papers and teaching and learning plans and provided feedback during monthly cohort meetings, praised colleagues who completed the inaugural seminar. “Despite the unprecedented challenges of remote teaching, caring for family members at home, and juggling days of back-to-back Zoom calls, participants prioritized this important work and persisted to the very end,” said Dr. Chang. “We are inspired by their unflinching honesty, vulnerability, and dedication to helping to make Silver a place where everyone feels valued, seen, and heard,” added Dr. Lausell Bryant. Furthermore, Dr. Lausell Bryant said, “faculty interest in the training remains very high and offering it again in the summer will make participation more feasible for those who could not complete it this time.”
Dean Neil B. Guterman thanked Drs. Chang and Lausell Bryant for their extraordinary contributions to the School’s faculty development and congratulated the following faculty and doctoral students who completed the first cycle of the seminar and have been given the designation as NYU Silver Antiracism Pedagogy Champions:
Jeane Anastas | Barbara Biermann | Shari Bloomberg | Lynden Bond | Elisa Chow | Sabrina Cluesman | Christine Cocchiola | Gerri Connaught | Cora de Leon | Anne Dempsey | Danielle Esposito | Christine Fewell | Krystal Folk | Joan Greenberg | April Grigsby | Aminda Heckman | David Kamnitzer | Nicholas Lanzieri | Jacqueline Lefkowitz | Abigail Levites | Kelsey Louie | Dianne Mack | Juhi Malhotra | James Martin | Porsche Martin | Linda Mathew | Gabriella McBride | Joseph McCarthy | Lockhart McKelvy | Madelyn Miller | Diane Mirabito | Peggy Morton | Yuval Moses | Michelle Munson | Nancy Murakami | Jennifer Murayama | Meredith O’Boyle | Elizabeth (Libby) O’Connor | Dwight Panozzo | Joan Pastore | Andrée Pilaro | Alana Pudalov | Mary Ricciardi-Mastria | Panthea Saidipour | Stephanie Sarabia | Dayna Sedillo-Hamann | Susan Stone | Kathrine Sullivan | Pa Thor | Eric Thurnauer | Greg Tully | Elena Vairo | Christine Wilkins | Sejung Yang
Each of these Antiracism Pedagogy Champions has been given a special logo to place on their syllabi, webpages, email signatures, etc. to signal to the wider community their commitment to antiracist pedagogy.
In addition to offering the Faculty Antiracism Pedagogy Seminar to a new cohort in Summer 2021, in January 2021, Drs. Chang and Lausell Bryant introduced a new faculty-led initiative, the Peer Consultation Program, to provide full-time and part-time faculty and faculty-in-training peer support and resources to improve skills in culturally responsive and anti-oppressive pedagogy tailored to specific curricular areas. In response to a call for nominations for faculty peer consultants last year, a total of 167 students and 56 faculty members nominated 65 different faculty with strengths in anti-oppressive teaching. Based on the quantity and quality of their nominations, professors Zoila Del-Villar, Robert L. Hawkins, and Amanda Mays were selected to share their knowledge and expertise through pedagogy trainings and resource events, lunchtime discussion meet-ups, and one-on-one peer consultation throughout the Spring 2021 semester.
Dr. Hawkins, who is also Silver's new Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and oversees pedagogy development, applauded Drs. Chang and Lausell Bryant. “Under their leadership, the School is providing our faculty robust support to cultivate classrooms that reflect our shared values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Added Dean Guterman, “I am grateful to our faculty and student body for their investment in advancing antiracist pedagogy at Silver. Both the Faculty Antiracism Pedagogy Seminar and Peer Consultation Program are serving to materially strengthen our collective capacity for inclusive and antiracist approaches to teaching and mentoring at Silver.”