In a recent post, I highlighted some resources for supporting our students at CUNY and across the country in the current political climate. It’s also important to note that CUNY students–whether doctoral students at The Graduate Center, or undergraduates at LaGuardia Community College–are also thinking through and responding to inequity and injustice. They’re doing so, in part, by educating their peers in and outside the classroom. This post highlights some recent and upcoming events led by Graduate Teaching Fellows of the Humanities Alliance, as well as students in our partner programs and institutions.
Upcoming Events
- Check out this call for contributors to a new Teach@CUNY series on Ableism in the Classroom from Series Curator and Humanities Alliance Fellow, Jennifer Polish. Submissions are due Tuesday, March 28.
- On April 3, The Futures Initiative is organizing a Fellows-led Spring Symposium on Pedagogy, Research, and Social Change. William P. Kelly Skylight Conference Room, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. RSVP here if you would like to join the waitlist! You can also follow the discussion online http://bit.ly/FI-spring2017 and on Twitter at #fight4edu.
- On April 26, The Futures Initiative will hold a Bystander Intervention and (De)escalation Training for Graduate Center students with the Center for Anti-Violence Education. The event will be held from 5:30-7:00 p.m., and is a follow-up from March’s event on Global Perspectives on the Fight for Higher Education. More details will be released soon through The Futures Initiative’s newsletter and listserv.
Past Events
- On March 17, LaGuardia Community College students led and organized a Sanctuary Town Hall open to all members of the campus community. Follow them on Twitter at @lagccSanctuary.
- On March 15, GC Ph.D. candidate Karen Lepri organized (with support from The Futures Initiative) two parallel events for GC students to explore issues of Race in the Classroom: One for graduate students who identify as people of color, and one for white-identified students.
- On March 6, The Futures Initiative hosted a University Worth Fighting For roundtable discussion on Global Perspectives on the Fight for Higher Education, The event featured a dynamic panel of speakers active in this fight in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and New York, and was organized and moderated by FI Fellow Allison Guess. Check out Allison’s great recap of the event for links to additional resources, an edited video of the event, a Google Doc of collaborative notes, and a Storify of event-related tweets.
- On March 3, Humanities Alliance Fellow Jennifer Polish, organized and spoke at an English Ph.D. program event on “Race, Dis/Ability, and the Specter of Violence in the Classroom.” (Be sure to also check out Jenn’s Visible Pedagogy post on Anti-Ableist Pedagogies and You.)
Do you know of other student-led events at CUNY this month or next? Let us know in the comments.