07/15/2010
SUNY Cortland will host the 2010 Summer Institute for Infusing Diversity into Our Teaching on Monday-Wednesday, July 19-21, on campus.
Open to SUNY Cortland faculty and staff, the three-day institute will be held in Old Main, Room 209. Greetings and breakfast will begin each day at 9 a.m. with seminars scheduled from 9:30 a.m.- 3 p.m. A lunch break is set for noon-1 p.m.
Facilitators will be Seth Asumah, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of political science who chairs SUNY Cortland Africana Studies Department, and Mechthild Nagel, a SUNY Cortland professor of philosophy and chair of the CGIS. To register, contact Asumah or Nagel.
Facilitators will use techniques that encourage candid and informed dialogue about the pressing issues in teaching diversity and multicultural courses. The institute is structured to create a learning environment conducive to such interchange in its series of three seminars, with sub-sections organized around different thematic set of issues and readings.
“As facilitators, we will humbly offer our ideas, not as definitive but as emerging,” said Nagel. “We expect and invite participants to shape, extend and sharpen these ideas.”
Day one, titled "Defining the Context of our Work Together," will focus on the “isms:” oppression, interlocking systems, gender, sex, sexism and homophobia.
Day two is titled "Diversity and Multicultural Course Change," and will address how a given course can be modified to appropriately incorporate multicultural and diversity content, perspectives, and strategies.
The third day's institute, titled "Diversity and Multicultural Teachers," will seek to encourage the development of teachers who can: effectively teach students with diverse learning needs; create inclusive, respectful and effective learning environment for all students; promote critical thinking by engaging students in the study of multiple perspectives; skillfully handle sensitive classroom discussion; respond effectively to incivilities in the classroom; and promote and maintain cultural competence and social Justice.
The institute is co-sponsored by the Provost’s Office, the President's Office, the Affirmative Action Committee, Africana Studies Department and CGIS.