Background

In August 2017, the “Unite the Right Rally” shook the city of Charlottesville. Protesters from alt-right, Nazi, and white nationalist groups marched across the lawn of the University of Virginia with torches in hand, surrounding and injuring students and chanted, “You/Jews will not replace us.” Downtown, white supremacists were met by counterprotesters, ranging from clergy to anti-fascists, leading to clashes with police and culminating in the death of Heather Heyer and the injury of many others. Ostensibly, the protests were about the removal of Confederate monuments in the state, including the Robert E. Lee statue in one of Charlottesville’s parks.

Such tensions are not new to the University of Virginia, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson (an enslaver and author of the Declaration of Independence), the city of Charlottesville, or, indeed, our nation. While the events of August 11th and 12th received widespread media coverage, this university--and its broader communities--has long been enmeshed in a combustible convergence of social issues, ranging from the imminence of a “white” minority in our nation to mass shootings and other acts of “terrorism” (often erroneously associated with Islam) to the #metoo movement to concerns about attacks of free speech on college campuses.

This institute recognizes how situated we all are in this particular historical moment. It offers a chance for you to pause and think deeply, in community, about the challenges that arise for instructors as they engage students in exploring and learning from critical issues of our time and the opportunities that the struggles afford us. We designed this experience to help you better understand the landscape of equity and social justice-oriented teaching approaches; define and articulate your own approach in relation to them; and experience--and apply to your teaching context--practical strategies for creating inclusive, justice-oriented learning experiences for your students.

To explore these instructional approaches, we have assembled a team of educational developers, faculty, staff, and students with disciplinary backgrounds ranging from history, sociology, religion to literature, education, theater, instructional technology, and student affairs. Our instructional orientations are informed by methodologies such as Theater of the Oppressed, Universal Design for Learning, inclusive and culturally responsive teaching practices, arts-integrated embodied learning, sustained dialogue, anti-racist and feminist pedagogies, as well as place-based and academic community-engaged learning. Instead of promoting a particular school of thought, we will be drawing on cross-cutting core principles, while also allowing you to see models of select signature approaches in action.