SDSU School of Communication Tackles Structural Racism Through Virtual Discussions
November 10, 2020
On the third Friday of each month through the Fall ‘20 - Spring ‘21 academic school year, find the School of Communication addressing structural racism and related topics in “(Re)Frame: Structural Racism Across the Disciplines.”
These discussions honor personal experiences and unite students, community partners and academic scholars. Typically, there are four panelists, a student, two community partners and a scholar expert, and each shares their experience and perspective for about seven minutes.
These discussions are open to the public and any interested students, faculty, staff and community members. All sessions are recorded and made available on the website of the Institute for Dialogue and Social Justice.
Registration to attend the next “(Re)frame” discussion on Nov. 20 at noon is available here. The Nov. 20 event will cover Structural Racism and Tourism, and panelists will include Lisa Gates, Alana Dillette, Jason Dunn, Martinique Lewis and Brylynn Smith.
Dr. Yea-Wen Chen from the School of Communication is one of the developers of this series and explains the origin of these discussions. “Dr. Jennifer Imazeki, Associate Chief Diversity Officer for faculty and staff first approached me with the idea of creating a space for a year-long discussion series on structural racism across disciplines and fields,” Dr. Yea-Wen Chen says.
“(Re)frame” is a collaboration between Dr. Yea-Wen Chen, the Institute for Dialogue and Social Justice, the Center for Inclusive Excellence, the Center for Transformative Justice, as well as Drs. Jennifer Imazeki, Alan Mobley and Lisa Gates.
Elzbeth Islas, a graduate student who attends these discussions, says “the expansiveness and critical lens this series puts forth, specifically how each session highlights the voices of scholars, community organizers, students, and practitioners” has greatly impacted her and “allows for the conversation to truly transgress the walls of the academy.”
Dr. Alan Mobley says, “[the collaborators of the discussion] quickly understood that [their] goal of presenting timely topics for dialogue would need to include actual training in dialogue practices. Holding such training will be [their] next priority.”
“One of the goals of the brown bag discussions this year is that we are trying out a process during double pandemics of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. We plan to assess and adjust in the next academic year.” Yea-Wen Chen says.
“(Re)frame” supports the SDSU Strategic Plan as it demonstrates “Equity and Inclusion in Everything We Do.” Check out the entire “(Re)Frame” series here.
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.
