We look forward to welcoming you to the
2024 Diversity Conference
on March 20th
Allowing Narrative to Bridge the Divide
This session will focus on how initiating personal narratives, respectful listening, and caring responses can bridge the divide between people. The panel includes JMU faculty, staff, and students from very different backgrounds. The panel will model respectful listening skills, seeking to understand each personal narrative.
Beyond Visibility: Panel discussion Promoting employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and organizations that partner to provide support.
Beyond Visibility: Panel discussion Promoting employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and organizations that partner to provide support. DARS, DARS Windmill trainers, Virginia Dept of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, and more.
Boldly Embracing Emergent Strategy to Shape Change
Through Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, scholar and activist Adrienne Maree Brown offers resources for exploring “how humans, especially those seeking to grow liberation and justice, can learn from the world around how to best collaborate, how to shape change.” A key feature of emergent strategy is that we can create big change in small ways, through the relationships and spaces we create in our immediate environments. This interactive session will review some of the key principles, elements, and strategies of emergent strategy, and invite participants to apply these to their contexts, creating bold change in our everyday spaces.
Build Don’t Break: Icebreakers that Foster Inclusion
Icebreakers aim to warm up learning spaces and foster a positive atmosphere, but sometimes can send a message about who does and does not belong. This session offers practical examples of icebreakers that encourage brave spaces, actively include multiple experiences and identities, promote the discussion of challenging topics, and work toward teambuilding.
Changing the Perception of Ability
Session Full
Experiences form beliefs, beliefs form attitudes! During this interactive session, participants will identify their own beliefs and fears regarding the abilities of people with disabilities. We will explore how this impacts the classroom and worksite. Strategies to enhance performance and communication will be discussed.
Creating a Pathway to College: A Spotlight on Middle School Outreach
The establishment of the Professor-in-Residence (PIR) program in 2004 aimed at outreaching to Virginia K-12 schools that were underserved and under resourced to encourage students to pursue postsecondary education. Keeping in mind JMU’s strategic vison, mission, and its commitment to inclusive excellence and engagements, the panel will make two presentations: 1) A discussion of the Office of Admissions’ contributions and challenges pertaining to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging; 2) A presentation of the specific activities of the Middle School Program, an early outreach program, that sets underrepresented students up for success later on.
Fostering Belonging in the Workplace: What Does Commitment look like at Interpersonal, Team, and Organizational Levels?
Session Full
Researchers describe belonging as “an essential human need” that supports people’s abilities to share, create meaning, participate, and learn with others at work (Filstad et al., 2019, p117). Sense of belonging varies by culture (Cortina et al., 2017) and belonging-related stressors have been shown to be more intense for those who identify with outgroups (Walton & Brady, 2017). Given this context and the impossibility of directly creating belonging, how can people at all levels support an inclusive commitment to fostering belonging as an organizational value? This presentation will define belonging, outline relevant actions and behaviors, and illuminate potential pitfalls.
Let’s Process: Building an Inclusive Culture Through a Restorative Lens
Participants will engage with other attendees as they participate in a Restorative Circle and learn about the purposes and benefits of Restorative Practices and the inclusive practices within them.
Motherscholaring: A Village. A Resource. A Reward
A MotherScholar can be defined as a working mother within the context of academia (student, professor, or working professional). This session will utilize an art-based and small group approach to identify the impact of intersectionality on the role of motherscholar, and learn practical tips to build community, and discover organizational resources.
Psychology Underserved Undergraduates Realizing their Potential through Learning Experiences (PUURPLE) Scholars Program: Building Capacity through Community
Cognisant of the need to overcome barriers to inclusion within the discipline of psychology, the Department of Psychology began the PUURPLE (Psychology Underserved Undergraduates Realizing their Potential through Learning Experiences) Scholars Program as a summer model for underserved students. This session will explore how this bold initiative has developed and is now integrated into the regular semester. We will share success and challenges as we developed the program and some of the lessons we have learned (and continue to learn) with each new cohort.
Watch and Learn: Using Video Case Studies to Expand Imagination and Action in DEIAB Efforts
Let’s face it, discussing DEIAB issues and opportunities can be intimidating. Especially when it’s personal. But it doesn’t have to be. Join us and learn how to utilize video case studies to dive into complex issues, facilitate meaningful and rich discussion, and connect what’s on screen to your situation. In this discussion-based session, you’ll watch episodes of the newly developed 9-part video series Elemental, showcasing three high school students on their journeys of identity formation. Elemental was developed by the I’m Determined Project, housed in the College of Education, in collaboration with JMU’s Health Education Design Group (HEDG).
MSC 7611
100 East Grace Street
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
