Students gather in Thomas Great Hall for the Black at Bryn Mawr tour, April 2015. Photo credit: Monica Mercado
Black at Bryn Mawr Fall Workshop, October 16-17, 2015
With this Fall Break workshop, Black at Bryn Mawr project co-founder Grace Pusey ’15 will lead an intensive two-day reading, writing, and discussion-based workshop with current students organized around the following goals:
- to reflect on the role that race plays in students’ own and others’ identities and experiences;
- to learn to recognize how racial power dynamics impact themselves and others on campus;
- to explore concepts of power, privilege, and oppression related to race;
- to strengthen competencies in reading, writing, and discussing critical theory; and,
- to deepen students’ understanding of how history can be used as a tool for social justice on campus and beyond.
These goals will be accomplished through a blend of experiential and text-based learning activities. A tentative outline of the schedule is as follows:
Day One: Participants will convene for introductions and take the Black at Bryn Mawr campus walking tour, designed to illuminate historical sites of racial conflict and conversation on campus, followed by reflective discussion.
Interim: Participants will be asked to keep a 24-hour record of every instance in which they assign race to themselves and to others, including instances in which they may resist being assigned race, feel perplexed, or encounter ambiguity. Excerpts from critical theoretical texts which complement this activity will be assigned. Participants will be expected to read and annotate these texts carefully in order to contribute to animated discussion on Day Two.
Day Two: Students will reconvene to discuss the readings and the record they kept. The workshop will close with a forward-looking conversation about collective memory and using history as a tool for social justice.
Participants must arrive on campus and be ready to begin the program by 12:00 noon on Friday, October 16, 2015. The program concludes Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 3:00 pm. Meals will be provided.
The Black at Bryn Mawr project builds institutional memory of the College’s engagement with race and racism, enabling future students to hold both themselves and the College community to higher standards of awareness and accountability to racial power dynamics inside and outside of the classroom. To date, the project has focused on locating and sharing the histories of Black students, faculty, and staff at the College from its founding in 1885 to the present day. The Black at Bryn Mawr Fall Workshop is sponsored by The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education and the Pensby Center.
Up to 25 participants will be selected for this year’s program.The deadline to apply is Wednesday, September 30, 2015. Applications will be read on a rolling basis, and we will inform all applicants of their final status by 5 pm EST Friday, October 2, 2015.
Questions? Email greenfieldhwe@brynmawr.edu.
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