Session Information

Why is self-care essential to liberation work? How are healing, security and support related to activism for liberation? How do you refill your cup? How do you prepare yourself inwardly and outwardly as an individual or in community to show up for anti-oppression work? Sessions on self-care and liberation will center on finding healing and balance. Participants will hear about current research and transformative practices to empower individuals and communities working toward systemic change and liberation and explore how to look inward and support the physical, emotional and mental health and wellness of others and themselves.

What does oppression look like? How does it operate? How might we interrupt it in our institutions? Participants will learn about oppression and intersections and deepen their awareness of how oppression limits the potential of all people. Participants will also explore the themes of self-reflection and introspection in preparation to educate, engage and act. Activities will build self-awareness around diverse cultures and experiences and focus on how to build relationships and partnerships leading to effective, sustained anti-oppression work.

For the CU Social Justice Summit, “community building” means bringing people together for the purpose of mutual support and well-being, preparing for collective action, and developing or deepening a shared consciousness. Sessions will feature current research and promising practices, and participants will engage in dialogue about community-building, examples of collective action through narrative or storytelling, building intra-community groups and coalitions, and bringing people together to engage in reflection and education and to challenge implicit biases.

What actions and strategies are critical for transforming policies to make institutions more democratic? Policies and practices reflect institutional culture and systems –– connecting people in an organization through shared processes and procedures. In education, policies and practices might include a myriad of activities such as hiring, setting academic schedules, enacting pedagogy and grading. Participants will examine the role of institutional policies in creating opportunity and democracy, explore processes for advocating for and implementing transformative policies, leverage research around topics of oppression, inequity and social injustice to build institutional democracy, explore frameworks for what anti-racism and other anti-discriminatory concepts look like in practice, and hear about strategies to support students and instructors in developing a liberatory consciousness in learning spaces.