Jan 25: Charting Shifting Waters: Race (and Whiteness) in the Classroom with Dr. Jennifer Harvey

Wednesday, January 25, 2017
3:00 - 4:30pm
Candler School of Theology building RARB 102

Teachers think we’re talking about race well. Our students report we’re talking about race too much or not at all. From where does such a powerful disconnect come? How do we bridge it? Our commitments to diversity—in education, the workplace, faith communities—are more complicated than they seem. In this workshop we will identify these complications—especially looking at the challenge of dealing with “whiteness” (and, sometimes, white students). Doing so will provide us more tools to meet the challenges of a shifting U.S. racial climate; a climate that impacts the classroom. These tools are critical to teach into our commitments to justice and teach for a world of meaningful, robust diversity.

Speaker Bio

Jennifer Harvey is Professor of Religion at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her teaching, writing and speaking focus on encounters of religion and ethics with race, gender, activism, politics, spirituality, justice and any other aspect of social life in which religion decides to “show up.” Her greatest passion and longtime work, however, continually return to racial justice and white anti-racism.

Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation (Wm. B. Eerdmans) is Dr. Harvey’s most recent book. She publishes widely in academic contexts as well as in a variety of public venues including the Huffington Post, Feminist Studies in Religion Blog and at her own blog formations. living at the intersections of self, social, spirit.

Dr. Harvey is ordained in the American Baptist Churches (U.S.A.) and travels the country speaking with faith communities, educators as well as activist groups about the challenges to be faced and frameworks needed to create robust multi-racial solidarity for justice.

Co-sponsored by: The Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Program of the Graduate Division of Religion, The Dean’s Office of Candler School of Theology, and the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE).