Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI)

I developed in the following areas related to this competency:

• “Understand how one is affected by and participates in maintaining systems of oppression, privilege, and power” (p. 30).

• “Integrate knowledge of social justice, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power into one’s practice” (p. 30).

• “Connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple, intersecting identities, perspectives, and developmental differences people hold” (p. 30).

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Academic Experience​

• WGS 490: Feminist Theories and Methodological Issues:

  • While in graduate school, I decided to take WGS 490 as an elective to gain a better understanding of contemporary feminist theories and to hopefully complete the WGS Graduate Certificate. The course’s requirements of readings, videos, films, podcasts and discussions were “designed to strengthen our theoretical understandings of feminist scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences and to encourage critical discussion about historical and contemporary issues”. This course has significantly helped me develop the SJI competency by “understanding how one is affected by and participates in maintaining systems of oppression, privilege, and power”. This class also required us to write 6 separate critical responses to our readings. The  purpose of the responses was to help us not only reflect on the readings, but to also integrate the readings of social justice, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power into our own practice and daily lives. Please see below for the class syllabus, as well as some of my favorite readings and my critical responses. 

  • WGS 490 Syllabus

    • Corsani, A., & Murphy, T. S. (2007). Beyond the myth of woman: The becoming-transfeminist of (post-) Marxism. SubStance, 36(1), 107-138.​

    • Solnit, R. (2014). Men explain things to me. Haymarket Books.​

    • Hooks, Bell. "Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics." Hypatia 7.2 (1992).​

  • WGS 490 Critical Responses (Combined)

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• EAF 463: Memoir Project:

  • One of my favorite assignments I have completed in the CSPA program was the EAF 463: College Students & Their Cultures’ Memoir Project. This project required us to read one memoir from a list our professor provided us, and then present how the memoir’s themes relates to our course topics and student affairs practices. My memoir text was Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity, which is an anthology encompassing 30 different authors experiences of gender diversity and identity through first-person narratives.The purpose of the book was to focused on the lack of representation and knowledge of nonbinary folk. Neither our language nor our politics is suited to accommodate nonbinary concerns, and as student affairs professionals, we’re going to have to do a lot of rethinking as binary gender may restrict our students.

  • Rajunov, M., & Duane, A. S. (Eds.). (2019). Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity. Columbia University Press.​

  • Nonbinary Memoirs of Gender and Identity Info-graph

  • Nonbinary Memoirs of Gender and Identity Written Report

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• EAF 428: Social Movements Research Project:

  • For EAF 428: Foundations of Student Affairs, we were required to research and present on a social movement that was “fueled by college student activists.” Using data through a variety of sources such as university archives, campus/local newspapers, newsreels/video, and interviews, we introduced the movement, leaders of the movement, actions that took place, and implications of this movement on current practices in student affairs today. My presentation was conducted with a partner and focused on the Racism Lives Here movement where the University of Missouri faced a crisis situation after a series of racially charged incidents on campus. 

  • Racism Lives Here Presentation

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Work Experience

• Heartland Community College Boxes and Walls:

  • The Boxes and Walls event is an oppression/marginalization/empathy experience put on by the Student Engagement Office in collaboration with other departments on campus. The Boxes and Walls are there to challenge the status quo and to increase diversity awareness. In a regular year, we provide a multiple room set-up that presents activities with 10 minute sessions around particular themes of oppression and marginalization; however, this year we had to go virtual for our students. In collaboration with McLean County’s History Museum, we presented the virtual event series titled "Breaking Bread."  Each event in the series explored local and personal stories of migration, immigration, adaptation, assimilation, appropriation, preservation, and contribution in McLean County. All Boxes and Walls events serve to increase student awareness and encourage a more broad array of critical thinking in inclusiveness and global awareness. This experience demonstrates how I was able to “Connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple, intersecting identities, perspectives, and developmental differences people hold” (p. 30).

  • Boxes and Walls Promotion (News Article)

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Reference: 

ACPA: College Student Educators International & NASPA − Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: Authors. 

Retrieved from http://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/ACPA_NASPA_Professional_Competencies_FINAL.pdf ​​