Equity Workshops
What are Equity Workshops?
The series of Equity Workshops is a major initiative that I, along with a group of dedicated graduate students, spearheaded in my department. They exist as intradepartmental events for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students. This initiative grew from my former roles as DEI Chair and CDI graduate representative, in which I planned and executed initiatives to expand the department’s capacity to teach an inclusive and diverse curriculum. My group has continued to work with students and faculty to establish a more equitable work and learning environment for students and faculty of color, female and non-binary students and faculty, and low-income, immigrant, and/or first-generation students. I leverage my skills and knowledge gained through my role as a Senior Teaching Consultant and through my research subject to create workshops that address issues of bias within departmental culture and pedagogy practices in the Music Department.
The working group also establishes a private space and funds for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty of color to meet in whatever capacity and to whatever ends they deem appropriate.
Our Goals
The workshops on departmental culture aim to create a space for necessary, albeit difficult, conversations on identity-based equity within the department, how members of our community experience our department, and what we envision for our department going forward. We work with professional facilitators to learn how to guide workshops on such skills as identifying micro-inequalities, developing bystander intervention techniques, and negotiating transformative conflict resolution practices. These workshops serve to help us be more open about aspects of the department’s interpersonal culture that can reinforce inequitable structures and become better equipped to tackle daily issues arising from societal inequalities. The pedagogy workshops also provide participants with tools to address inequities in their classrooms, both in behavior and in course content.
Our Work So Far
Fall 2020 was our first semester offering workshops. We ran:
• Equity Coffee Talk: We began with an opening statement and poll questions to gather data for future workshop planning. We then considered: “What do you envision for this department in terms of enhancing equity in interpersonal working relationships?” and “What are some moments you’ve experienced in which you’ve been able to productively confront issues of bias?” After each discussion prompt, we regrouped and shared our small-group conversations with the larger group. An email was sent to the entire department outlining the above “key take-aways” and inviting those unable to attend to respond to the questions posed in the breakout sessions.
• Hot Moments in the Classroom: We worked through case studies of identity-based moments of tension that disrupted learning in order to practice improving our abilities as instructors and as students to respond to such situations. Out of the workshop, we created a resource with takeaways from our discussions, including how we can prevent these moments, how we can address them as they occur, how to follow-up, and how we can identify similar situations in which we can use these skills. Relevant links to pedagogy resources were also included.
Spring 2021 workshops:
• Anti-Racist Pedagogy Bibliography: Together with the Anti-Racist Pedagogy Bibliography Working Group, we introduced the new, public-facing bibliography. We workshopped ways that the materials from the bibliography could be used in courses in musicology, music theory, and composition. Out of the workshop, we shared the frameworks for incorporating anti-racist resources into lessons that each group developed. The bibliography can be found on the Columbia University Department of Music website.
Future workshop topics include:
• Hot Moments in the Classroom Part II: Virtual Learning: Similarly to the first rendition of this workshop, we will work through case studies of identity-based moments of tension that disrupted learning, this time focusing on virtual learning environments, in order to practice improving our abilities as instructors and as students to respond to such situations. Out of the workshop, we will create a resource with takeaways from our discussions, including how we can prevent these moments, how we can address them as they occur, and how to follow-up. Relevant links to pedagogy resources will also be included.
• Conflict Negotiation and Restorative Justice
• Decolonial Modes of Engaging Students
Our Partners
Our working group coordinates with such entities as:
• Music Department Chair
• Music Department Committee on Diversity and Inclusion
• Organization of Music Graduate Students
• OMBUDS Office
• Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning
• Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality
• Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
• other third-party professionals
