Graduate Courses: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

What are the ways in which anti-racism is relevant to the work your graduate students are doing in your discipline?

• Consult the recommended resources on addressing questions of race, especially in the context of higher education, as made available by the office of the Chief Diversity Officer.
• Field-specific: How does race play out in the demographics, opportunities, and interactions of your field? What can you do as a Fordham representative to mitigate and transform these?
  • Pedagogical webinars may be available in your discipline that attend to these questions. Consult professional organizations and external providers.
  • Consider holding pedagogical discussions among faculty to explore methods and practices that are Fordham-specific and informed by cura personalis.
  • Consider inviting scholars and representatives of organizations that can speak with expertise on these matters to/in courses and departments. Zoom webinars make scheduling somewhat easier than live travel invitations.
• Material: How is race either represented in or substantive to material in your discipline? Are there ways of intentionally increasing focus on this in order to enhance learning of discipline material generally, and to effect a more inclusive graduate experience?
• Interpersonal: Encourage reflection on appropriate and positive experience as it plays out in mentoring relationships, feedback to students, personal interactions and communications. Be cognizant of how any style of interaction might be experienced as marginalizing.

Gender

How are gender issues relevant to the work graduate students are doing in your discipline?

• Field-specific: Can reflection on the demographics, opportunities, and interactions in your field be incorporated into the FHLE model through exercises, mentorship, professional development, etc?
• Pedagogical webinars may be available in your discipline that attend to these questions. Consult professional organizations and external providers.
• Consider holding pedagogical discussions among faculty to explore methods and practices that are Fordham-specific and informed by cura personalis.
• Material: Are resources selected with an eye to representation of diverse voices in the domain of gender? Is the content of material in your field especially inflected by issues related to gender, and how might these be explored in FHLE to create a deeper sense of community?
• Interpersonal: Are there ways of being deliberate about the creation of a climate that is positive and inclusive in terms of the variety of gender and sex identifications that exist among students and faculty? What are the particular challenges?
  • Has your unit had a climate study or does it have a Climate Committee? Are the recommendations by either of these routinely revisited to help motivate constant strategic development? How might the FHLE model create better opportunities to explore these recommendations via asynchronous collaboration tools like a Departmental Blackboard site, occasional online sessions discussing inclusive practices, etc?
  • Reach out to colleagues in other disciplines, and in particular WGSS, for insights and recommendations.

Access

Disability, sickness, digital connectivity, time zone issues, primary language.

• Contact students to make plans to insure access. Remember students may not volunteer information about access issues if not asked.
• Provide explicit direction to University Resources: Disability Services, Writing Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, and IT.
• Mention concern for food or housing instability and direct students towards resources.
• Have a policy ready for how students who contract COVID can complete work missed and meet alternative deadlines if relevant.