Friday, May 7, 2021 | 5:30PM to 7PM
Many students of color have become fearful of what the future holds in the aftermath of the Trump presidency, and as a result, professors need support to facilitate difficult classroom discussions that address the heightened racial tensions incited by the Trump administration. Prof. Catherine Ma will present on how the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans can provide undergraduate students with a multicultural perspective to better understand structural racism, and offer examples for professors to engage their classes with difficult concepts related to racism and discrimination. Incorporating aspects of Asian American Studies (AAS) can be a valuable tool in transforming not only how students learn but also how professors teach.
In addition, Prof. Ma’s own personal reflections on teaching about racism and discrimination will be shared to help educators become cognizant of the emotional labor and stress of promoting critical thinking and challenging resistant belief systems in students. The incorporation of these aspects of AAS provide a complex scaffold in which students build upon each assignment to broaden their understanding of structural racism, the social hierarchy in race, misconceptions about the Black Lives Matter movement, and the origins of xenophobia to give them a solid foundation upon to critique how race, ethnicity, class, and language diversity affects the lives of immigrants and people of color.
