dije Expansions Vol 4
Fall 2020 / Winter 2021
The Marsal Family School of Education is proud to be a leader in the campus-wide initiative promoting Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity. Adding "Justice" to these values underscores the role of educators in the creation of just societies. Through research, public scholarship, community building, and the preparation of education practitioners and policymakers, we articulate and advance our dije agenda.
Dean Moje’s Welcome
It is a great pleasure to introduce the 2020-21 issue of the dije “Expansions” newsletter, which offers a platform for highlighting the progress of our work and helps to communicate and connect our work across the entire Marsal School community. As we continue to face the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice, making connections is more important than ever.
This year’s dije activities were propelled by the voices of Black students, faculty members, staff members, and co-conspirators, who together called for our school to advance anti-racist praxis and, especially, to address anti-Black racism. What has resulted is a year of robust engagement that centers the humanity of community members through healing and liberation. Please join me in acknowledging Dr. David Humphrey, Dr. Maren Oberman, and dije interns Jordan Ross, Brianna Morigney, Mariah Benford, and Evan James Copeland for their efforts to lead this critical work in the Marsal School as well as their efforts to write and publish “Expansions.”
The stories in this issue highlight the themes of anti-racism, healing, and liberation throughout the year. Features of two new Marsal School faculty members—Dr. Rosemary Perez and Dr. Charles Davis—illustrate ways that individuals are advancing these aims through their research and public scholarship. A story about TeachingWorks demonstrates how one center advances anti-racism, healing, and liberation through specific responses to community teaching and learning needs amid the pandemic. Snapshots of notable events showcase ways we collectively engaged across these themes at several events, including:
- the Community Conversation on Healing and Liberation
- the “Mno Kenomagewenin (Good Learning)” Indigenous Peoples’ Day Panel Discussion
- the Post-Election Healing Space “What the Body Remembers”
- the Spectrum Center’s “Introduction to LGBTQ+ Language and Identities”
- the conversation on decentering whiteness “There is Nothing Fragile About Racism”
- a week of events during the Black Lives Matter Week of Action + Year of Purpose
Elizabeth Birr Moje
Marsal Family School of Education Dean
A message from the undergraduate student editors of this issue of Expansions.
For this issue of Expansions, we were able to sit down with two of our new faculty members, Drs. Charles Davis and Rosemary (Rosie) Perez, and discuss their research and this year's theme for Expansions, “Healing, Liberation, and Anti-Racism in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
For this issue of Expansions, we were able to sit down with two of our new faculty members, Drs. Charles Davis and Rosemary (Rosie) Perez, and discuss their research and this year's theme for Expansions, “Healing, Liberation, and Anti-Racism in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
The dije Office hosted a variety of community conversations. dije Community Conversations are times when all members of the Marsal Family School of Education (SOE) community are invited to come together to address issues affecting members of our community, to learn from and with each other, and to promote values of dije in the Marsal Family School of Education.
To celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, the dije office invited Indigenous scholars for a panel discussion about centering Indigenous epistemologies and life-worlds in the field of education.
The dije partners with the Spectrum Center at the University of Michigan to discuss how the Marsal Family School of Education can think deeper to create inclusive spaces for those in the LGBTQ+ communities.
In February, the dije office hosted its annual Black Lives Matter Week of Action to organize for racial justice in education through a series of virtual events.
At TeachingWorks, we are committed to the power of teaching to disrupt injustice. This requires that teachers learn to teach complex content and practices in culturally responsive ways and build classroom communities to advance justice.
The dije Office and the Race and Justice Institute asks that you mark your calendars for our upcoming Inaugural Antiracism Colloquium for the week of May 10–14.
The dije office is committed to using a Universal Design for Learning framework to further our mission of advancing diversity, inclusion, justice and equity within the Marsal Family School of Education.