Professional Development Workshops

The Office of the Dean for Diversity, the Paul J. Burgett Intercultural Center, and the David T. Kearns Center have developed the following professional development series for faculty, graduate students, and staff:

We also invite all past participants in the anti-racism training to a working session on action plans. The details for each session can be found below. Contact Amanda Johnson at amanda.johnson@rochester.edu with any questions.


Creating an Anti-Racist Campus

Register online for any of the Creating an Anti-Racist Campus or Advanced Anti-Racism Training workshops.

Workshop I: Opening the Door: Foundations

In this foundational workshop, we will discuss the language of race and racism, the origins of race, the history of race here at the University of Rochester, and the position of our self in society. Participants will review contemporary language and gain understanding of its importance as part of the struggle for equity and when discussing race and racism. Participants will also leave with an overview of power dynamics as interwoven with the history of race and racism in the US and on campus. Finally, participants will develop a growing sense of how who we are as people—our identities—impact how we interact with each other.

Workshop II: Managing the Anti-Racist Classroom

In this workshop, participants will explore what we bring to the classroom and how norms inform how we manage our classrooms and labs. This exploration will help participants to understand where our identities, social selves, and experiences create different points of entry into our teaching and learning environments. Finally, participants will learn about how we all carry norms and implicit biases, which can lead to microaggressions.

Workshop III: The Faculty Ally in Action

In this highly interactive workshop, participants will engage with real-world applications of anti-racist concepts presented in previous sessions. By working through case studies together, participants approach race-related scenarios that commonly arise for faculty in teaching and learning environments at Rochester. Through this process participants will gain skills that inform course design, syllabus creation, classroom discussions, student "call-out," and lab group dynamics.

Advanced Anti-Racism Training

Advanced Anti-Racism Workshop

Date: TBD

Anti-racism Action Plan Working Session

Date: TBD

Register for any of the above this workshops


Creating a Queer-Inclusive Campus

This is a two-part series; please register for both sessions using one of the registration options below. Registration will be closed one week prior to each session, so make sure to register early.

Part One: Building a Queer-inclusive University—Foundations

Participants will learn some basic information about LGBTQ culture including current language and terms. This will allow participants to immediately begin the journey of creating more inclusive spaces in their work.

Part Two: Building a Queer-inclusive University—The Ally in Action

Building on the information learned in Part One, participants will begin to gain an understanding of cissexism and heterosexism in higher education. They will then explore how these themes manifest in their work and grapple with strategies to shift these norms on an individual and school-wide level.

Register for staff sessions

Register for faculty sessions