Equity in Graduate Education Workshops

Emotional Intelligence Workshops

Exploring Emotional Intelligence: Key Factors for Inclusive Excellence

Through our partnership with the Inclusive Graduate Education Network, an NSF INCLUDES Alliance, we are holding a five-part workshop series that focuses on the development of social-emotional competencies that are essential for success in graduate education and future career performance.

Upcoming Workshop Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Fostering Well-being in Racialized Mentoring Environments

OVERVIEW & GOALS

Research has shown that graduate students struggle with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression at higher rates than the general population. Black, Indigenous, and other students of color face distinct threats to wellbeing when they experience research environments as racialized spaces. While some stress and uncertainty are unavoidable, research mentors can have a direct impact on the well-being of members of their research lab or group. Recognizing how usual norms and practices in the academy, as well as specific mentoring practices, create environments that can undermine or support well-being for minoritized students, is a first step to healthier academic communities. Developing the skills to have open conversations about topics of mental health, race, and racism is key to this process. This workshop therefore encourages discussion about how mentoring can positively and negatively impact mentees’ belonging and persistence. Interactive activities give participants the chance to develop group policies aligned with inclusion and wellbeing.

DETAILS

The workshop is 120 minutes in length; recommended for faculty and staff mentoring students or trainees in research environment.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Know the definition of mental health and identify signs of well-being.

2. Develop awareness about how mentoring behaviors can impact mentee well-being.

3. Identify steps to creating an environment that fosters well-being in a diverse group of mentees.

4. Learn to initiate conversations with mentees about their well-being and mental health.

Aligning Admissions and Recruitment

OVERVIEW & GOALS

Recognizing that many faculty do not see graduate student recruitment as their responsibility and may even misunderstand the factors that are important to prospective graduate students from marginalized backgrounds, the curriculum for this workshop includes a combination of presentation and activities designed to build attendees’ 1) knowledge about the current state of research on recruitment and 2) appreciation for how a graduate program’s website can operate as a recruitment tool, and 3) planning for recruitment activities that complement more equitable admissions practices.

DETAILS

This 90-minute online workshop is designed to either stand alone or to follow the two-part Equity in Graduate Admissions workshop series. It is currently offered online.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Identify recruitment practices that serve as common barriers to equity in graduate admissions, and elements of equity-minded recruitment practice

2. Understand the role of faculty in broadening applicant pools

3. Begin to construct a department/division recruitment plan that is aligned with your admissions rubric

4. Identify ways that individual faculty can actively participate in the recruitment of students from racially minoritized groups in STEM

5. Take-home: Develop campus visit programs that yield the students you would like to see enroll in your program

Writing and Reviewing Letters of Recommendation for Equity

OVERVIEW & GOALS

Letters of recommendation are used in the admissions and faculty search processes to glean information and qualities which may go unnoticed in the review of an applicant’s file. However, they are also one of the most common places that bias is written into applicant records– sometimes in subtle ways. Toward the goal of equity-minded evaluation, this workshop 1) situates letters of recommendation as key components in holistic evaluations of faculty job applicants 2) reviews key research studies on bias in letters of recommendation, 3) enables participants to recognize gender and racial biases in existing letters, 4) provides practice in reviewing letters from an equity-minded perspective. Activities are specifically designed to help attendees develop knowledge, skills, and language to manage common equity dilemmas inherent in how we review, solicit, and write letters of recommendation.

DETAILS

This 90-minute online workshop is designed to either stand alone or to follow the two-part Equity in Graduate Admissions workshop series. It is currently offered online.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Understand the double-edge role that letters can play in advancing careers and reinforcing stereotypes

2. Prioritize what information to write about in sponsoring students from minoritized backgrounds and what content to avoid

3. Recognize gendered and racialized language in letters of recommendation

4. Develop equity-minded habits for writing and reviewing letters

5. Solicit letters of recommendation for your organization in ways that can reduce the risk of receiving biased letters

Systemic Change in Graduate Education: Designing for Equity

OVERVIEW & GOALS

Reform sometimes gets a bad reputation — and for good reason. Decades of research finds that reform-minded change in organizations rarely leads to outcomes that can be sustained over time. And, when the desired outcome is related to equity, diversity, justice, or inclusion goals, reform efforts can be counterproductive if members do not also engage with underlying cultural tensions. This two-hour workshop is for leaders who are ready to go deeper with change— who want to collaboratively explore possibilities for redesigning the practices and systems by which we select and serve graduate students. Facilitators will lead us in 1) reflection about positive case studies of Ph.D. programs that have realized systemic change, 2) discussion about the applications to our own programs, and 2) planning to address a concrete equity challenge from a systemic perspective.

DETAILS

This two-hour workshop can either stand alone or complement workshops on admissions, recruitment, and mentoring.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Understand the roles of culture & system change in equity in graduate education.

2. Appreciate systemic relationships among domains of faculty practice.

3. Reflect on cases of PhD programs that have realized deep change.

4. Apply lessons toward a coordinated approach to change in your own program or department.