Weekly Three 09/29/21
Greetings Miami University,
Here is this week's diversity, equity, inclusion "weekly three" from the Office of Institutional Diversity:
Miami’s Third Annual Across the Divide Conference: Achievement and Opportunity
I invite all Miami community members to register and attend Miami’s Third Annual Across the Divide Conference: Achievement and Opportunity on October 8, 2021. This year’s hybrid conference features a joint keynote address, panel presentations, workshops, and research on diversity, equity, inclusion at Miami University. You can choose to attend in person or remotely.
This year we have an exciting lineup of Miami students, faculty, and staff including a special keynote, “We Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Re-envisioning Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education”.
One: DEI Implementation
The Myaamia Center is hosting Pakitahantaawi! Let’s Play Lacrosse!
Wednesday September 29, 2021 from 5:00-6:00pm | Central Quad between MacCracken and MacMillan Halls
The Myaamia Center staff and students invite you to come and play peekitahaminki- “lacrosse.” You’ll learn about the Myaamia history of the game and get to try it using wooden lacrosse sticks. No registration needed, just show up on Central Quad and be ready to give it a try. Note: in case of inclement weather this event may be cancelled.
Graduate School’s Cross Cultural Mentoring Program
The graduate school seeks doctoral level faculty & staff to participate in the Cross-Cultural Mentoring program. As a mentor, faculty & staff would engage a doctoral student not as an advisor, but as a role model, counselor, and experienced future colleague, providing support for the research process and preparing for life after the dissertation. Please contact Dr. Rose Marie Ward, Associate Dean of the Graduate School with questions.
Miami University Heritage Month Programming
We are kicking off the Fall semester with Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, and invite all to check out the calendar of events and more resources.
View Heritage Month Programming
Expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion "Behind the Scenes" Town Hall
In line with Pillar 5: Inclusion and Accountability, Recommendation 3, OIDI hosts “Behind the Scenes” Townhalls to provide insights and details of how DEI is embedded in the decision-making processes and practices of each division. This fall we invite the Miami community to join an expanded DEI Behind the Scenes Townhall Series, featuring College Deans.
Save the date for the next two webinar events:
- Graduate School, Tuesday, October 5, 11am-12pm Register Now
- College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences, Wednesday October 20, 12-1pm Register Now
Two: Community Updates
“Accelerating Ahead: Miami’s Focus on the Future”
This virtual conference is a compilation of presentations from Miami University educators and thought leaders. This nine-session virtual conference covers topics spanning from living, learning, and working amidst a pandemic to strategies for future success.These TedTalk-style presentations, featuring Miami’s administrators, faculty, and staff from various colleges, offices/departments, and disciplines, will share insight into how Miami has persevered, acquired new knowledge, developed new initiatives, learned best practices for going forward, discovered ways to build a better future and more.We hope that viewers will conclude each presentation with a desire to know more and the assurance that Miami University remains a vibrant, innovative, enduring, and compassionate learning community in a rapidly accelerating world of dynamic change, shifting demographics, and more competitive landscapes in higher education.
View Virtual Conference Presentations
Miami University Lecture Series 2021-2022 Features Juju Chang Anti-Asian Racism in American
Monday October 4, 2021 Hall Auditorium
One of the most prominent Asian Americans in broadcast news, JuJu Chang is the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of ABC News Nightline and a regular contributor to Good Morning America and 20/20. With the rise of hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, Chang leveraged her platform to become a much-admired champion of social change. She made U.S. broadcast history co-anchoring the 2021 ABC News Live special, Stop the Hate: The Rise in Violence Against Asian Americans alongside fellow Korean-American co-anchor Eva Pilgrim and a cast of AAPI journalists, thought leaders, lawmakers and celebrities. Chang also reported from the scene of the mass shootings at three Asian-themed spas in Atlanta, co-anchoring the ABC News 20/20 breaking news special, Murder in Atlanta.Chang’s highly visible reporting on Asian hate is the culmination of decades covering everything from natural disasters to terrorism, mass shootings, immigration, violence against the LGBTIAQ+ community and, most recently, the inequities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Diversity Officers Leadership Council
The goals of this new council are to identify, discuss and support unit-based and cross-unit efforts; develop new collaborative ways forward to foster inclusive excellence; share and coordinate programming; identify and proactively support the work and ongoing professional development of DEI leaders; provide a space for those directly engaged in DEI work to constructively discuss challenges and opportunities, and ensure broad-based input and discussions about university-wide DEI planning and strategies. The Diversity Officers Leadership Council meets monthly starting Fall Semester 2021.
Creating a Welcoming and Accessible Classroom Experience for Disabled Students Workshop
Dan Darkow, Assistant Director of Student Disability Services and Stephanie Dawson, Student Disability Services present this two-part workshop is designed to equip instructors with the knowledge and skills to champion access in their classrooms. The first session, September 28, 2:00-3:00 pm will focus on educating participants about student disability and access, including feedback on instructional practices received from disabled students at Miami. Building upon this learning, the second session, October 5, will interactively explore possibilities for integrating access into practice. Participants are encouraged to bring their syllabi and other course materials in order to identify ways to increase accessibility.
Collaborative Teaching, Learning, & Mentoring: Supporting Diverse Graduate Students at Miami
September 30, 12:30-2:00 pm, Laws Hall 320
Rose Marie Ward, Graduate School and Research Office Kinesiology and Health, and Kristen Budd, Sociology and Gerontology present this workshop on how effective mentoring plays a critical role at Miami in the teaching and learning process. In this interactive CTE workshop, participants will reflect on mentoring diverse graduate students, discuss the rewards and challenges of mentoring diverse graduate students, and, ultimately, develop strategies to improve mentoring diverse graduate students at Miami. This workshop is intended for all types of mentoring configurations: faculty/staff-graduate student mentoring, graduate student-graduate student mentoring, or graduate student-undergraduate student mentoring.
Better Teaching Through Understanding Sex and Gender Spectra
Thursday October 14, 2:00-3:30pm, 320 Laws Hall
Sex and gender are not the same thing, and both of them exist on a spectrum. This seminar will give participants a chance to firm up their understanding of sex and gender before discussing why teachers really need to have this understanding. What practices in our classroom help all of our students feel safe enough so they have the energy to learn? Participants will leave the seminar with resources and action places.
Three: Celebrations & Recognition
Miami receives Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT into Diversity magazine
INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine recognized Miami for its commitment in envisioning a clear DEI model at Miami, being more accountable and transparent about DEI, creating sustaining DEI resources, and creating a pathway to implementing the model. Those efforts build on the work of the President’s Task Force for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which last summer outlined an aggressive path to change based on five pillars. Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, said, “our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.” Miami is one of only seven Ohio schools to have received this award.
National Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month at Miami University
Check out our Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month page, with a calendar of events and more resources! According to the 2020 Census, the Latinx population makes up 18.7% (62.1 million) of the U.S. population and growth in Ohio reached a new record of 4.4%. The Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion invites you to submit programming content (lectures, events, and initiatives) connected to Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month. We encourage all members of our community to promote and participate in these events; please submit your event to the University Calendar and complete the Weekly Three Submission.
Upcoming events include:
Reclaiming the Streets: Youth and Resistance in Latin America
Wednesday, September 29, 4:30-6:00 pm, MacMillan 212
Presented by: Latin American, Latino/a, and Caribbean Studies faculty
Miami Alumni Association Presents: The Kissing Bug - A conversation with author Daisy Hernández
October 7, 2021, noon-1pm
Disability Identity & Culture Month
October is Disability Identity & Culture Month at Miami University. The Office of Institutional Diversity and the Miller Center for Student Disability Services will be sponsoring a keynote event featuring Imani Barbarin:
Ableds are Weird: Working Toward Disability Representation and Fighting Ableist Microaggressions
October 6,2021 at 7 pm
In this talk, Imani recounts her personal experiences with ableist microaggressions and how those interactions informed her of how she was seen as a disabled person moving through society. Imani will connect the dots from everyday interactions to public policy and how one may unlearn these biases. She will also describe the importance of disability representation in all aspects of society.
October is LGBTQIA+ History Month
LGBTQIA+ History Month was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson. October was selected to coincide with National Coming Out Day. LGBTQIA+ History Month recognizes the history and ongoing struggles of the gay rights and related civil rights movements and the experiences and achievements of the LGBTQIA+ community. At Miami, we recognize the resilience and determination of the many individuals who are fighting to live freely and authentically and support the right of every individual to live authentically. We encourage all Miamians to engage in dialogue and allyship, including through campus and community organizations such as Spectrum, Miami University Pride, Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, Graduate Student Pride Association, Queer & Trans* Faculty/Staff Association, Oxford Area PFLAG, and 1809 LGBTQ+ Alumni.
Upcoming Religious Holy Days and Holidays & Inclusive Scheduling
- September 28*: Shemini Atzeret (Jewish)
- September 29*: Simchat Torah (Jewish)
- October 6-14: Navratri (Hindu) – Festival of 9 nights celebrating the Goddess in her various forms, most typically as Ma Durga
“*” denotes holidays that start sundown the day before. Please note that individual practices may vary.
Please see the academic affairs calendar and complementing interfaith narrative calendar for policies and for more information, and regarding religious holy days and holidays observed by Miami Community members during the month of September.
With Love and Honor,
Cristina Alcalde, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion
Professor, Global and Intercultural Studies
vpDiversity@MiamiOH.edu