Reflecting on Diversity and Inclusion: Who decides what counts as knowledge?

“The right to decide what is true is not independent of the right to decide what is just.”

Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition (a selection is available here)

As I reflect on the past academic year and my participation in the Diversity and Inclusion FLC, I return to the need to facilitate and promote real engagement with the concepts we have focused on. Where, when, and how do we—at UCBA, in the academy, and in society at large—grapple with, process, reflect on, even share our experiences with diversity? Even something as simple as how we think of “diversity” seems at times to me to be very limited. How can we as an institution help broaden our minds and lives? How can we move beyond diversity towards the promise of meaningful inclusion?

Hosting in-laws provides outside experience right at home

During my in-laws visit, I often felt like I was in a quirky indy movie, 2 Days in New York without the pot.

Mandating Diversity

An interesting point we discussed in our most recent FLC meeting is the role of requirements in diversity. In principle, I tend not to support mandatory workshops, trainings, or projects. At the moment, the best arguments in support of such a proposal that I can think of are, one, that a required diversity and inclusion program […]

Teaching as cultural facilitation

For me as a professor, on a practical level, I think that being a cultural facilitator means taking the time to focus on culture as a concept and on cultural challenges and opportunities, while remaining alert to the emotional significance of culture, including the academic culture into which many of my students are entering for […]

BaFa BaFa

What struck me most forcibly about the BaFa BaFa activity was how different my group’s social norms were from the norms we generally would follow in a group of colleagues, and how quickly we provisionally embraced them (to varying degrees and in different ways). Basically, we had an age-based hierarchy of a sort, were to […]

College Lectures and Culture — NYT article

This recent NYT article “Are College Lectures Unfair?” isn’t exactly full of surprises, but it’s interesting

An English major/professor’s understanding of the IDI

In one sense, it is a test made up of a series of questions designed to puzzle and provoke the hapless test-taker who is left to wonder what, exactly, test creator Mitchell Hammer thinks he is up to. In another, it is a fascinating instrument made up of a series of questions susceptible to a variety of interpretations designed to puzzle and provoke the thoughtful participant who will be inspired to further consideration of her response to intercultural situations.

Welcome

Welcome to my 2015-2016 UC Blue Ash Diversity FLC blog. I will be updating this blog regularly during the academic year.