UAW 4121’s Anti-Discrimination Working Group is offering a series of workshops that hope to go beyond the basics of anti-discrimination 101 trainings. These modules are intended to empower Academic Student Employees (ASEs) and post-docs with the tools to reflect on, grow, and develop their anti-discrimination practice in order to influence change within themselves and promote a more inclusive, equitable and just place for us to learn and work.
Workshops will be offered monthly via Zoom on the third Thursday of each month to all ASEs and Postdocs. UW students who aren’t ASEs are also warmly welcome. Some months will offer modules at both the foundational and advanced levels in order to meet the diverse needs of the audience. These 60-minute workshops are designed to offer a balance of learning, discussion, and Q&A. Our first workshop offering will be next Thursday, October 15. The subject of the workshop is “How to Call in and Get Called in”. Check below for a full description of the workshop and the next three months’ offerings. Please RSVP at www.tiny.cc/antidiscrim.
Note: If you’re looking for foundational resources in advance of the first session to introduce you to terminology and key concepts that will be covered in the modules, you can visit the union’s webpage on Racial Justice resources (scroll down to the bottom under Educational resources & organizations).
Thursday, October 15th
How to Call in and Get Called in (5-6pm)
Do you notice others saying offensive things, but aren’t sure how to respond? Does the fear of saying the “wrong thing” make you withdraw from important conversations or stay silent entirely? “Calling in” is a way of telling someone they messed up in a supportive way that they can learn from. It is a practice of loving each other enough to allow for making mistakes, knowing that we’re trying to navigate a radical unlearning of everything we were taught to believe is normal. Join us in an introductory workshop to start building up the skills you need to compassionately call someone in — and learn how to respond when someone calls you in, too. No prior skills or experience necessary, just come as you are.
Thursday, November 19
Foundational: Handling Microaggressions as a TA (5-6pm)
Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. As Teaching Assistants, we navigate nuanced interpersonal and power dynamics while delivering a variety of content across departments. This workshop will focus on building awareness of language/behaviors and increasing our accountability skills to use in these moments.
Advanced: Department Organizing (6-7pm)
In response to the COVID pandemic and movement for Black lives, Gregg Gonsalves and Amy Kapczynski have recently called for a “new politics of care” organized around three pillars: First, “universal provision for human needs;” second, “countervailing power for workers, people of color, and the vulnerable;” and third, “a rejection of carceral approaches to social problems.” These principles call on a long history of praxis found in Black feminism, abolitionism, union organizing, and more, and can give us a foundation for organizing that takes care and anti-oppression as both our aims and our methods. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how we can build power to strategically advance a politics of care, and how we can adopt organizing strategies that themselves take a politics of care as their foundation.
Thursday, December 17
No workshops this month.
Thursday, January 28
White Privilege in the University (Part 1: 5-6pm / Part 2: 6-7pm)
This is a workshop designed for union members who would like to learn (more) about white privilege, reflect on how it shows up both individually and in the university context, and brainstorm with other union members on the power of collective action to dismantle the systemic construct of white privilege.
The workshop will take place in two parts. The first half (starting at 5 pm) will be focused on developing a mutual understanding and analysis and the second half (starting at 6 pm) will delve into the application of these concepts to our individual roles within the university structure.
We recognize that UW is predominately white, but this workshop is not specific to white people. For this reason, there will be various options for participation within the session and we encourage anyone who is interested to attend.