Administration and Diversity in the Public University: A Feminist Conversation

Event banner for Administration and Diversity in the Public University: A Feminist Conversation

Event Date

Location
Student Community Center Multipurpose Room
Update:  Feature Story on this event

Administration and Diversity in the Public University: A Feminist Conversation Symposium will consider the consequences and possibilities of institutionalizing social justice projects. What can the histories of these projects teach us as we move forward, and to whom are we accountable?

With the hiring of a new Vice-Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UC Davis joins the group of California institutions of higher education who have dedicated offices to supporting the mitigation of social prejudices, group underrepresentation, and both conscious and unconscious exclusion of individuals from the intellectual and social life of the university. As with the establishment of departments of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) and Ethnic Studies, this moment marks the institutionalization of political struggles for social justice. What does it mean to institutionalize feminism, ethnic studies, to be declared a Hispanic-servicing institution (HSI), or to establish a new feminist research institute? As many of these units serve students, faculty, researchers and community members, what is our mandate? To whom are we accountable? What are the consequences and possibilities of institutionalizing social justice within the university?  

This half day symposium brings together an established UC-Cal State collaboration between gender and ethnic studies researchers called the “Undisciplining Feminisms (UF)” collective with UC Davis scholars representing FRI, the taskforce on HSI, ethnic studies departments, and GSWS. Symposium participants will engage in a conversation about the historical interventions these departments and offices were meant to make within the university, as well as what is at stake today.  

Schedule

1:00-1:45: What do the histories of establishing social-justice motivated departments and programs have to teach us now looking forward?

Erica Kohl-Arenas (UCD), Nick Mitchell (UCSC), Mishuana Goeman (UCLA), Clarissa Rojas (UCD)

1:45-2:30: What are the consequences and possibilities of institutionalizing social justice within the university?  

Neda Atanasoski & Felicity Schaffer(UCSC), Rana Jaleel (UCD), Fatima El-Tayeb (UCSD), Raquel Aldana (UCD),

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-3:30: As researchers and teachers in units with social justice histories, to whom are we accountable? 

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (UCI), Sunaina Maira (UCD), Chris Hanssmann (SF State), Kasturi Ray (SF State)

Discussant: Grace Hong (UCLA)

3:30-4:45 Workshops on 3 questions in break out groups. RSVP to sign up.

4:45-5:15 Reception

RSVP here

Cosponsors for this event: American Studies Program, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, Critical Theory Program, Cultural Studies Graduate Group, Davis Humanities Institute, Department of English, Department of Cinema and Digital Media, Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Imagining America, Office of Campus Community Relations, Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement, School of Engineering, School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Health Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and School of Law.