Faculty + Staff Summer Care Discussion Series

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:14:32 -0400
covid-19, diversityandinclusion, facultyandstaff

In the spirit of #UMBCTogether, the Women’s Center is committed to providing care space for faculty and staff to truly come together as we continue remote work, distance learning, and navigating the ever-evolving context in which our lives go on.

We invite faculty and staff interested in coming together to explore various topics like grief + loss, empathy, wholeness, and showing up for others and how these experiences intersect with the necessary physical isolation of working and living through a pandemic. This care space will also be intentional in holding space to explore the ways in which these topics intersect and inform our experiences with the movement for racial justice, healing, and accountability.

In this 4-part summer series, the Women’s Center staff, along with its Advisory Board members, will carve out large and small group discussions online. Over the course of 90 minutes, all participants will begin the conversation together by exploring the topic/issue of the day. Topics may be explored through the discussion of an article, podcast, or a presentation/speaker.

Participants will then be invited to break out into smaller group discussions to dig deeper into the topic based on the social identities/roles/situations they are navigating through the pandemic. Proposed affinity groups may include Parents, Caretakers, Partnered Relationships/Cohabitation, and Singles/Independents (though we are open to other suggestions or the idea that different break-out groups may be needed for different sessions). Participants can switch groups from session to session or choose to not select a particular affinity group by selecting a heterogeneous discussion group.

After the conclusion of the small group discussion, participants will rejoin the larger group to discuss important take-aways with the goal of informing our perspectives for greater care and empathy for ourselves and others moving forward in the day and beyond.

Discussion dates and details will be posted on our myUMBC group soon with the hope to have one discussion in late June, two in July, and one in early August.

Participants will be required to RSVP via the myUMBC event post prior to the discussion taking place in order to receive a pre-discussion survey that will help us prepare for and assign the small group discussions.

Participants are not required to participate in all 4 discussions and can sign-up for discussions based on interest and availability.

Participants are encouraged to engage in whatever time frame is most accessible to them and to not view the 90-minute session as a barrier to participation.

Access to the discussion link will be sent via email to registered participants.

The first discussion series will take place on June 30th and will focus on the topic of Lost + Found. To learn more and/or to sign-up, visit the myUMBC event post. The other discussions will take place on July 9, July 21, and August 5th. More details about these discussions are forthcoming.

UMBC faculty and staff of all genders are invited to participate in this series. This summer discussion series follows the Women’s Center Brave Space model in order to create a community environment that fosters care, learning and critical discussion.