ADDI Update – September 2021

Dear Friedman School Community,

Happy National Hispanic American Heritage Month! It is observed from 15 September to 15 October and was designated to recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans. The National Archives has an online exhibition that features the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott of 1965, among other things related to food and agriculture. And if you plan to celebrate by cooking up some delicious food, USDA, in honor of the month and as somewhat of a killjoy, has some food safety tips for you. 

Updates on progress toward the Friedman School’s Anti-Racism Action Plan:  

Culture and Environment

• Welcome to AFE student Aarti Singh, who will serve as the DEI Events Coordinator. She’s currently working on planning an event for Indigenous Peoples Day. Please let her or I know if you are interested in helping. 

• The next SJID discussion group will be held tomorrow (Friday), October 1^st, from 12:00-1:30pm. They will be screening the award-winning short film Two Distant Strangers (32 min.), about an innocent Black man who get killed over and over again by the same police officer. The screening will be followed by a discussion. (The film is available on Netflix, so please feel free to watch on your own and join the meeting at around 12:35pm.) Register in advance for this meeting: https://tufts.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAocuqurjkiG9TOZpAq2VmTuVzkSpAq6Twq

• I will be holding office hours again this fall, on the first Wednesday of the month, 12-1 PM (first one on 6 October). You can find me on Zoom (contact me or Ellen-Marie Bransfield for the link) or in my office, Jaharis 269F. 

Education

• The Curriculum & Degree Committee’s subcommittee on anti-racism, equity, and inclusion conducted a survey of the teaching faculty to understand instructors’ starting points with inclusive teaching, as well as interest in training. The subcommittee is planning to present the results of the survey at the next faculty meeting.

Faculty Success

• Ed Saltzman and I attended a webinar, “Recognizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Work in Promotion and Tenure Review” which was sponsored by the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium. 

University

• The University has pledged funds for anti-racism efforts, and some of these funds have been set aside for school-specific requests. Proposals will be signed off by the ADDI and Dean at each school to help ensure that the proposed work is in line with the overall school plan and goals. Proposed work will also need to address the university-wide workstream recommendations. More to come, but I’m happy to speak with anyone who would like to start thinking through ideas.  

Please just reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. 

Best,

Sara 

EVENTS

One Size Does Not Fit All: Tailoring Diversity & Inclusion Learning for Students, Faculty and Staff  by current candidate for Health Sciences Associate Director of D&I Education, Rikki Morrow-Spitzer.

Inclusion ≠ Equity: Empowering Indigenous Genomic Data Sovereignty in Precision Health. The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences’ Anti-Racist Working Group is pleased to host Krystal Tsosie, PhD Candidate at Vanderbilt University, incoming faculty at Arizona State University, and founder of the Native BioData Consortium, as our Indigenous People’s Day Speaker. Krystal will speak about her work on on ethical engagement with Indigenous communities in precision health.

From Spirit Murdering to Spirit Thriving: (Re)imagining Student Success a Commitment to Equity Minded Praxis. (Re) imagining student success in the wake of COVID-19 has posed many as colleges and universities begin to reopen, especially when centering diversity, equity, and inclusion for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). In this lecture, faculty, administrators, practitioners and students will learn about the processes of spirit murdering in academia—a form of racial violence that steals and kills the humanity and spirits of BIPOC communities—through a series of research projects centering Latinx/a/o undergraduates. More importantly, individuals will learn about how to counteract spirit murdering by engaging spirit thriving to effectively to (re)imagine student success during COVID-19. Spirit thriving is more than an attitude; it is a skill set that requires investment and practice. This lecture will expose you to essential tools and self-reflection to help you enhance your equity minded praxis.

Hirch Life Sciences Library Anti-Racism reading group: https://researchguides.library.tufts.edu/AntiRacismResourceGuide/arrg