Building Safety and Community in the Classroom

In this session we will be addressing strategies for addressing microaggressions or micro-traumas in the classroom in ways that both hold students accountable and seek to build connection.  We will discuss typical resistance to advocacy in and out of the classroom, and how faculty and staff can navigate these responses.  Additionally, we will explore how to build community/collective care as a means of helping students with marginalized identities feel safe.  We will explore the differences between student to student, faculty to student, and faculty to faculty advocacy and how we might all get better at taking risks to stay connected and accountable. This event will be a lively exchange between panelists as the host will ask questions which the panelists will answer in conversation with each other.

Presenters:

• Dr. Teysha Bowser, Professional Counseling
• Dr. Amney Harper, Professional Counseling
• Dr. Heidi Nicholls, Anthropology, Global Religions, and Cultures