The 1-day virtual symposium in May 2021 brings together scholars, teachers, faculty and graduate students from within and beyond UConn to explore and examine theories and discussions started during the first year. We then seek to share ideas and begin building practices on awareness-raising and de-centering whiteness in curricula and classrooms.

 

Special Talk

Kevin Bruyneel, Babson College

“Refusing Settler Memory”

Settler memory is a problem endemic and fundamental to settler colonial societies such as the United States. Settler memory refers to the way in which a settler society habitually reproduces memories of Indigenous people’s history and of settler colonial violence as part of the past and in the same moment undercuts the contemporary political relevance of this memory by disavowing the presence of Indigenous people as contemporary agents and of settler colonialism as a persistent shaping force. What I call the work of settler memory thus refers to a process of remembering and disavowing Indigenous political agency, colonialist dispossession, and violence toward Indigenous peoples. It is an urgent political matter, especially for those of us who are white settlers, of settler ancestry, to refuse settler memory so as to center Indigenous people’s politics and anti-colonial pedagogies, logics, and activism. This talk will walk through my own history of working in the fields of Indigenous studies and settler colonial studies, of realizing the role of settler memory, and how the concept shapes my approach to teaching and political activism. I will also offer thoughts for how refusing settler memory can help expand and rethink one’s pedagogical and research approaches across many fields.

Roundtable

“Building bridges” - Towards a more interdisciplinary and collaborative future in anti-racism education

Decolonial theory and practice are playing an increasingly important role in disciplines like language education and teachers` training. At the same time, a lot of this work still happens within disciplinary boundaries. There is very little dialogue or exchange of experiences and ideas.

In this discussion, we want to think about ways of how we, as future educators, can build bridges across disciplines and engage in this work together. What do our disciplines have in common? In which ways can we contribute to enhance social justice, in our classrooms and beyond? And what are some of the challenges? By addressing these and other questions, we hope to set the stage for a fruitful exchange between educators and, most importantly, students whose experiences are at the center of our work.

Schedule

9am: Welcome and introduction of initiative

9:15 am - 10:15 am: Kevin Bruyneel - "Refusing Settler Memory"

10:15 - 10:30am: Coffee Break

10:30 am to 12 pm: Workshop 1

12 - 12:30 PM: Lunch Break

12:30 - 1: 30pm: “Building bridges - Towards a more interdisciplinary and collaborative future in anti-racism education"

1:45 - 3:15 pm: Workshop 2

3:15 - 3:30 pm: Coffee Break

3:30-4 pm: Discussion and Next-Steps

3:15 - 3:30: Coffee Break

3:30-4 pm: Discussion and Next-Steps