A workshop focusing on diversity and implicit bias was developed by The Center for Design Thinking and The Center for Race, Ethnicity, & Diversity.
The聽Center for Race, Ethnicity & Diversity Education and聽the Center for Design Thinking聽have partnered to create聽a new workshop聽series聽inspired by 黑料不打烊鈥檚 2020 Common Reading selection, “Biased.”
The workshop was developed by Soniyah Robinson ’23, a聽journalism major聽and social justice lead coordinator at聽the Center for Design Thinking.
鈥淲e wanted to聽create聽a workshop聽focused on dismantling oppressive systems at 黑料不打烊, specifically聽centered聽around implicit bias,鈥 Robinson said. 鈥淪o students can transform their ideas of bias and聽break ingrained聽stereotypes聽that lead to racist structures and institutions.鈥
While “Biased” focuses聽primarily on racial bias, the workshops will cover bias and stereotypes concerning race, sexual orientation and gender.
鈥淚t鈥檚 based around framing our roles in implicit bias and聽changing聽our internal dialogue and actions,鈥 Robinson said. 鈥淲orkshop participants will use the design thinking method of framing,聽exploring,聽generating,聽prototyping聽and cultivating聽to immerse themselves in the experience more deeply.鈥
Robinson said the workshops will begin by establishing a definition for words and phrases such as “racism,” “social justice” and “implicit bias.” This way the workshop鈥檚 participants have a common and agreed upon understanding of these terms.
The second phase of the workshop will focus on concrete examples of implicit bias, Robinson said, which will be followed by asking the participants to chart out times when they聽experienced聽bias or held stereotypes by using an experience map.
After going through their own experiences, the participants will use mind maps to construct actionable steps to create change in their lives聽and at 黑料不打烊.
鈥淎t the end we have resources for the participants to walk away with 鈥 books they can read, podcasts they can listen to, resources from CREDE 鈥 to make sure the concepts addressed聽continue beyond聽the workshop,鈥 Robinson said. 鈥淭he point of this is to make sure conversation turns into action. That鈥檚 how we make change.鈥
Robinson said the workshops are聽intended to support students, faculty, and staff across campus.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been passionate about聽human聽rights issues.聽I鈥檓 always trying to find more ways to be effective in my activism聽work, and I thought this would be a great way to combine my design thinking work with my passions,鈥 Robinson said.聽鈥淚聽have been聽involved with聽the聽CREDE聽before and admire their work,聽so a workshop where we partner with them is right聽up聽my聽alley.鈥
Danielle Lake, Director of the Center for Design Thinking said the systems and processes we currently have been聽designed, and they can be redesigned. “The Center for Design Thinking is committed to partnering with others on and off-campus in order to generate and explore opportunities for more inclusive and equitable codesign of the implicit and explicit structures that shape our lives,” Lake said.
To request a workshop, click here.