race and equity

Alumni-Student Seminar: Interrupting Privilege

Race & Equity Programming Spring 2019

Applications for the spring 2019 sessions are closed. 

For a third academic year, Dr. Ralina Joseph leads this quarter-long seminar which examines issues of race, equity and social justice that are at the forefront of the national conversation. The curriculum includes compelling classes and activities, including a book talk with the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, a radical listening party and culminates in a workshop on interrupting micro-aggressions.

While the curriculum serves as the backbone to Interrupting Privilege, the most important and meaningful work lies at the intersection where alumni and students have rich conversations in a structured environment. This is a unique opportunity for alumni to reconnect with their university at a deeper level — directly with students and around a high-profile, complex topic. And students are provided with opportunities for inter-generational connectivity and exposure to help them explore how they might navigate their own collegiate experience. The role of mentor within this seminar is fluid, and depending on the moment, it might be the alum or student least expected!

Quarterly programming and curriculum are designed especially for a small number of undergraduate students and a matching number of alumni; total cohort size is capped at fifty. All participating alumni must commit to five classes as noted below and on the application.

Members of the alumni cohort agree to attend and participate in these five classes from April 3 – May 29, 2019:

Wednesday, April 3

5:30-7:30 p.m. Odegaard Library, Room 220
Class: Community Building Across Difference for Equity
Brief orientation followed by workshop with students to expose and explore identities and others’ views, to recognize difference across intersections of identities and understand how those identities can make an impact.

Wednesday, April 10

5:30-7:30 p.m. Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room
Workshop: Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity Book Talk
Strategizing together how minoritized people can enact to resist discrimination and the challenges and opportunities available from speaking back to power.

Wednesday, April 17

5:30-7:30 p.m. Odegaard Library, Room 220
Class: Language, Power and Privilege 
Building upon learnings from the first class, this workshop with students prompts reflection on privilege and inequality, and the beginnings of imagining what interruption of those oppressive systems might entail.

Wednesday, May 22

5:30-7:30 p.m. Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room
Workshop: ‘Generation Mixed Goes to School’ Listening Party 
Learning together why ‘listening’ is important for equity work that centers on dialogues across difference. Participation in a ‘serial testimony’ exercise and listen to curated stories with opportunities to reflect and discuss.

Wednesday, May 29

5:30-7:30 p.m. Odegaard Library, Room 220
Workshop: Interrupting Microaggressions 
The quarter ends with a workshop that explores microaggressions and their impact, with small group discussions and large group presentation. Participants will be able to leave with tangible tools for interrupting microaggressions.

For alumni-related questions and comments, please email Terri Hiroshima at terrih2@uw.edu. If you are a current UW undergraduate student or UW graduate student, please sign up for this 2-credit course via General Studies and/or send questions/comments to Gina Aaftaab at gaaf@uw.edu.