News
Posted on November 16, 2021 at: 12:34 pm
The UD Anti-Racism Initiative’s Indigenous Programming committee organized a visit with the historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. As a chronicler of white supremacy and Native American history, Roxanne spent much of the day with our students and colleagues. She was a guest speaker in Dr. McKay Jenkins’s Environmental Humanities class; then at an informal “coffee hour” with faculty and members of the Lenape and Nanticoke tribes; and lastly in a major lecture that was attended by some 270 people from UD and the surrounding community.
Lecture Recording
Passcode: UMSREC04!
Posted on August 4, 2021 at: 11:00 am
UDARI Grant Report: Asian American Subcommittee
Fighting for All: Legacies of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs
The Asian American subcommittee applied and received a grant in the amount of $1000 from
UDARI to support our project Fighting for All: Legacies of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs.
The project consisted of two major weeklong events, each comprising a public film screening, a
structured panel of discussion, structured questions from graduate students and undergraduate
students, and finally a Q&A period open to all participants. Both events are virtual. We had a
record of 237 registered participants for the first event, and 186 registered participants for the
second event. Panelists in the first event included the Kochiyama Family members (Audee,
Akemi, and Zulu) and renowned film producer Rea Tajiri. Grace Lee was the guest of honor for
the second event. Peter Feng and Madinah Wilson-Anton moderated both events. Participants
for structured Q&A sessions were: Angela Yu (undergraduate student, president of Asian &
Pacific Islander Student Association), Marissa McClenton (undergraduate student, vice
president of Black Student Union), Danni Statia (undergraduate student), Jessica Thelen
(graduate student, English), and Jennifer Semrau (faculty member, Women’s Caucus). Drs.
Michael Vaughan and KC. Morrison gave opening remarks at the beginning of each event.
The Asian American subcommittee also worked with UD’s Admissions Office to invite high
school teachers and students from Delaware and nearby states to participate in both events.
Additional funding (see below) allowed the subcommittee to acquire rights for participating
high schools to stream films about Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs for 14 days. We also
developed teaching materials and circulated them to participating high schools in advance of
the events.
For this project, the Asian American Antiracism subcommittee received a grant from UDARI in
the amount of $1000. We subsequently raised additional funds from the Center for Black
Culture ($500), Student Diversity and Inclusion ($1000), the Center for Global Studies ($200),
the Department of History ($100), the Department of Art Conservation ($200), the Department
of Art History ($200), the Department of English ($200), and the Japanese Studies Program
($100). UD’s Office of Equity, Equality, and Diversity generously financed all participants’
background check fees. UD Admissions kindly covered the costs of all PR and service to
circulate materials to all high schools in Delaware and nearby states.
Respectfully submitted,
UDARI- Asian American Subcommittee
Posted on August 3, 2021 at: 10:53 am
Healing Us: Cultivating Healing and Change Through Empathic Listening (copyright 2021)
“Healing Us: Cultivating Healing and Change Through Empathic Listening Workshop” was designed to facilitate and foster racial healing among students identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) within the University of Delaware campus. Healing Us is a structured, process-oriented workshop, inspired by the significant need for community based racial healing initiatives. It uses group therapy techniques and collectivist community-based practices to guide participants through the process of developing empathy for their peers. Healing Us was funded by a community engagement fellowship grant from the University of Delaware Anti-Racism Initiative (UDARI).
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Posted on July 29, 2021 at: 2:59 pm
Project title: Art and Positive Change: Using the Arts for Antiracism, Cultural Diversity, and Social Justice.
In Spring 2021, the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) subcommittee implemented a multiphase project that included:
• two student workshops, facilitated by performing artists Idris Goodwin and Lela Aisha Jones
• a call for students to submit creative work related to the theme of Art and Positive Change, and
• the development of the VPA Creative Gallery , a virtual space where students creative submissions can be accessed and viewed by the broader public.
The workshop facilitators shared how they address anti-racism and social justice through their respective art forms, encouraging participants to take stock of the multicultural diversity in their lives and explore ways to express this creatively.
The Creative Gallery includes different artistic categories (i.e. music, visual art, digital art, poetry) and is intended as resource that advances access to diverse perspectives and affects positive change.
Adjacent is an example of a work submitted by UD student Brandan Henry, entitled But Whos Counting (charcoal on paper)
Posted on July 26, 2021 at: 1:39 pm
We spent the spring collectively analyzing State k-12 history standards from all 50 states, plus Washington DC, in order to identify a core group of model State approaches to encouraging inclusive and diverse curriculum and teaching through their standards. Carol Wong and Tamar Levy are currently coding the data that we have collected from this core group of identified State history Standards. We will also code the Delaware State History Standards.
We plan to share our results both at UD and nationally.
