WAKE UP, RISE UP!:
RESISTING SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION
TEACH IN Wednesday,
Apr 25 to Monday, Apr 30
Offering information and analysis to understand the rise of
White supremacy and other systemic oppressions in the current time and climate.
And offering strategies, skills, and models of advocacy to resist oppression.
Education has always been central to people’s
movements for justice and liberation. Teach-ins have a special place in
that proud legacy: as sites of radical, democratic knowledge-sharing crucial
to social change and movement-building. Teach-ins are often conducted
according to the principles of popular education to ensure accessibility and
application for action but, there is no one specific right way to do a
teach-in.
|
Wed, April 25 |
10am to 7pm |
CC 3545 (unless indicated) |
10-4 "The Model Minority": Can Stereotypes Kill? Suicide
Narratives among Asian American
College Students CC First floor plaza entrance
Suicide is the second highest cause of death for Asian
Americans aged 15 - 34. This goes against the “model minority” stereotype,
which asserts Asian Americans are unaffected by mental health issues. It is
time to end the silence. Come check out this interactive art initiative focused
on the people and stories behind the statistics.
10-11:50
Becoming an UndocuAlly:
Considerations for Supporting Undocumented, TPS, and
DACA
Students and their Families
Jen Martinez,
Natalie Arbid, Bryan Balvaneda, Susy Gallor, UMB-UR Best
This session will
highlight the many ways documentation status and policies impact mental health,
and discuss the Do's and Don'ts of providing support as an ally.
Join the UMB Labor Resource
Center and MA Jobs with Justice for an interactive dive into organizing basics
for building power.
Resistance is more sustainable
when we take care of ourselves. Self-care is itself an act of resistance. This
session will use social action art therapy to reduce stress, explore the self,
and build community. Participants will be asked to create individual artwork that
we will combine into a communal project.
2-2:50
Unpacking Gendered Messages at Structural,
Social, And Personal Levels
This session identifies gender
and other stereotypes and explores alternative messages. Session sponsored
by Departments of Curriculum & Instruction and Women's, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies.
3-3:50
It's Not Complicated:
BDS & Palestinian Liberation
This teach-in
introduces and explains the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement
that originated in Palestine and connects it with other liberatory movements
and struggles in the US and around the world. Information will be provided
about how to get involved.
4-5:50
Migrant Voices: Amplifying Voice
through Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling builds
multicultural ties and understanding and can contrast popular narratives that
don’t accurately encompass true diversity. Our focus is on creating a safe
space to share stories and encourage self-reflection. Craft your migration
story with us!
UMass Boston
Tony
Van Der Meer, Africana Studies, Joe Ramsey, English, Isaiah Johnson, and Jada
Taylor
How do past struggles for Black Liberation and
socio-economic justice continue to speak to issues at UMass Boston and beyond?
How do budget cuts, privatization of public education, and gentrification of
Greater Boston reproduce race and class inequity and injustice? Drawing
lessons from classroom and community organizing, this session addresses how we
can build the movement today.
|
Thurs, April 26 |
10am to 7pm |
CC 2545 (unless indicated) |
This
session addresses the intersection of structural stigma such as military ban
and gender segregated bathrooms on mental and physical health outcomes in
transgender individuals. How do discrimination and oppression affect the
well-being of transgender individuals in different environments such as school,
college, work place, and other public spaces?
10-3 "The Model Minority": Can Stereotypes Kill?
Suicide Narratives among Asian American College Students CC First floor plaza entrance
Suicide is the second highest
cause of death for Asian Americans aged 15 - 34. This goes against the “model
minority” stereotype, which asserts Asian Americans are unaffected by mental
health issues. It is time to end the silence. Come check out this interactive
art initiative focused on the people and stories behind the statistics.
11-11:50
Confronting Racism from a Biological
Anthropology Perspective
Biological anthropologists
have confronted hardline concepts of race (i.e., scientific racism) for
decades, yet these have never really gone away. Their recent resurgence has
been experienced nationally, including on this campus. This session will
address some of the ways that biological anthropologists conceptualize human biological
variation, confronting scientific racism in the process. Session sponsored by
CIT.
11-12:15
MLK and the Memphis Sanitation Workers U Hall 02-2310
At the River I Stand
is a poignant (1-hour) documentary that covers two eventful months in 1968 that
culminate with the success of the unionization of sanitation workers and the
tragic death of Martin Luther King in Memphis. Discussion follows.
12:30-1:50 FEATURED
SESSION:
Fighting for Immigrant Rights in Uncertain Times Patricia Montes, Director of
Centro Presente, W-1-09
What can be done to protect
immigrants on campus and in our greater Boston community? Come find out how
community activists are both fighting back and engaging in practices of inclusion
that directly involve and support members of our community with TPS/DACA or
uncertain immigration status.
2-2:50 Race and Racism 101
This session
addresses questions that seem basic but are actually complex: what is racism
and why is it so hard to talk about? Does race really affect our relationships
or are we post-racial? Should we pay attention to racial differences? How and
why can we resist the effects of racism in our daily lives?
3-3:50 Wake Up, See Us: Highlighting
Queer Student of Color Narratives at UMB
Our session explores
visibility and voice of Queer People of Color (POC) on UMB’s campus.
Additionally, we seek to engage community members that identify as Queer POC,
and those that want to learn about effective allyship through a discussion
about identity, intersectionality, and how these factors influence experiences
on campus.
4-4:50 Settler Colonialism in
Comparative Perspective
This teach-in addresses: What
is settler colonialism? How does it differ from franchise colonialism? How does
it relate to capitalism? How is it useful to understand structural realities of
systemic oppression transnationally? We compare the ongoing settler colonization
of indigenous land by the U.S., and Palestinian land by the state of Israel.
Center for African, Caribbean, and Community Development
Please
join students and academic leaders, community leaders, artists and activists
for a reading and discussion of Project
Unspeakable, challenging the official silence surrounding the “unspeakable”
assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Robert Kennedy, while shedding light on the “unspeakables” of today. http://projectunspeakable.com
|
Friday, April 27 |
10am to 5pm |
CC 2545 (unless indicated) |
10-11:20
Countering White Fragility: Strategies
for Prevention and Intervention
In this interactive session,
we will explore the socialization factors that make it difficult for white
people to see and tolerate distress related to racism-based stress. We will
examine strategies for countering this socialization to facilitate conversations
about and actions that disrupt racism without centering the experience of White
people.
11:30-12:20 Are
We There Yet? Marriage Equality, Gay Wedding Cakes, and Religious/Moral
Exemptions
In 2015, the Supreme Court
decided the case of Obergefell v. Hodges making marriage equality the law of the
land. Since then, however, there has been a fierce backlash by way of laws
permitting those with moral/religious objections to decline to provide goods,
such as wedding cakes, or services, such as adoption assistance, to same-sex
couples, thus eroding the meaning of marriage equality.
2-3
Queers Resisting the Prison
Industrial Complex
This teach-in will introduce
participants to organizations in the Boston area working to resist the prison
industrial complex and why this work matters. We’ll specifically learn about
the ways queer people of color are targeted and criminalized by the state and
how queer abolitionist activists are working to confront this violence.
3-3:50 FEATURED SESSION: Mothering, Disability, and Racialized Nativism: Immigrant
Families and the Challenges of Special Needs Advocacy Sci 01-06
This talk explores the challenges for immigrant mothers of
special needs children, including challenges generated by neoliberal notions of
individual parental responsibility and defining mothering as an all-consuming
project guided by medical and scientific experts. Drawing on a qualitative
study of immigrant mothers raising children with intellectual disabilities,
Kibria examines the contemporary dynamics of racialized nativism and its
intersections with class, disability and gender. Sponsored by Sociology.
Prison is a place where people
live. Professor McDonough and Mr. Bembury will reflect on prison education and
his work with Partakers, then the two will begin a conversation with each other
and invite audience members to ask questions and offer ideas. Sponsored by TCCS
|
Monday, April 30 |
10am to 5pm |
CC 2545 (unless indicated) |
10-10:50
Massachusetts Gender Identity
Anti-Discrimination Veto Referendum and Strategies for Activism
We will provide an overview of
the upcoming Massachusetts Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Veto Referendum,
which could repeal transgender rights in MA that were won in 2016. We will
discuss the impact of anti-LGBT policies, strategies for supporting and
advocating on behalf of transgender communities, and share findings on LGBTQ
activism.
11-11:50
‘Til Debt Do Us Part:
Organizing Against Oppressive Student Debt
Join us for lunch and a
discussion about student debt, its contribution to systemic oppression, and
legislative and community organizing actions you can join to end student debt
oppression. Financial Aid will be present to help you calculate what you’ll owe,
and to start planning for future loan repayment.
12-12:50 Higher Ed by the Numbers: Resisting the
Privitization of Higher Education
In this workshop we'll explore
the financial squeeze being put on public higher education, and growing efforts
to privatize this public good. We'll look at UMB's current crisis as a case
study
1-1:50 The Color of Mental Health
Jen
Martinez, Natalie Arbid, Noor Tahirkheli, and Jeanette Mejia, UBM-UR Best
The goal of this
event is to provide students with information about the impact of race-based
discrimination on mental health (e.g., well-being, finding culturally sensitive
therapists), provide information on on-campus resources, and destigmatize the
health consequences of discrimination.
2-3:20 Faculty supporting DACA, TPS, and Undocumented Students
The goals of this presentation
and dialogue are to examine: (1) How UMB is an immigrant university; (2) How
DACA and TPS immigration classifications affect our students; (3) How the
currently hostile political environment impacts our students; and, especially,
(4) How we faculty can be supportive teachers, mentors and advisors to ALL
immigrant students.
3:30-5 FEATURED SESSION: Social Justice and Feminist
Futures: Beyond White Supremacy and
Islamophobia CC Ballroom C
Sponsors:
Transnational Cultural and Community Studies, Center for Innovative Teaching,
Labor Resource Center, Psychology. Planning
committee: Karen Suyemoto, Sofya Aptekar, Heike Schotten, Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, Steve
Striffler, Ping Ann Addo, Mona Abo-Zena.
Thanks also to student volunteers and Eric Berry in Psychology!