About the Teach-in Series
Why a teach-in?
The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements & Population Health Equity at Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health unites diverse partners to generate and translate evidence, accelerate antiracism solutions, and transform the health of communities locally, nationally, and globally. The center addresses ways in which structural racism and inequities impact health. The meaning of the center's name, Ubuntu, “I am...because we are” truly embraces the essence of what we stand for. Working collectively, we will achieve a just future, free from systems of oppression, full of new possibilities through bold, collective action, and an equitable world in which all individuals and communities are healthy and thrive.
Fostering relationships between organizers, community groups, and researchers is foundational for achieving the Center’s goals. The long-term goal of these teach-ins is to create a co-learning space for scholars, organizers, activists, and community residents to build critical consciousness about entrenched inequities created by racism and other systems of oppression and find ways to collaborate on community-led and community-centered research and solutions.
Purpose
The Ubuntu Center teach-in series is an opportunity for organizers and scholars to share their expertise with one another.
The sessions will help to:
Socialize ‘Ubuntu’ and the importance of collective action
Build relationships, trust, and a sense of community both within the Ubuntu Center and with our external partners
As a community, start to draw the connections between structural causes of inequities— both locally and globally
Identify action areas that are key drivers of racial inequities in health outcomes locally and globally
Begin to develop shared language, definitions, and agendas between academia and community organizing
Lay the foundation for narrative change and a deeper understanding that the health inequities that plague the world are systemic and systematic
Objectives
We hope the spring teach-in series serves as a space for cohort members to:
Begin to understand the harms caused by structural inequities & interconnections across structures
Walk away with a new understanding of different people working to address structural problems—including building trust, new relationships, group connectedness, and cohesion.
Amplify existing efforts to address structural harms, and commit to or engage in some of these activities outside of the teach-in sessions
Structure
Each teach-in will occur over two days to give sufficient time for both internal and external learning and conversation.
They will focus on a theme related to structural racism and population health equity. Both scholars and movement builders will be invited to share their ideas and insights.