The Inner Work of Racial Justice Book Group

This event is supported by the Division of Intercultural Excellence. 

In this 5-session, in-person book group, we'll read The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Rhonda Magee, 2019), exploring mindfulness practices that encourage us "to pay attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way ... (in order to) increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered."  Rhonda Magee is the Wanda Heading Grant keynote speaker in this year's Our Common Ground Symposium hosted by The Division of Intercultural Excellence.  

 Each book group session will include a discussion of the assigned reading, time for reflection and dialogue, and actual practices presented in the book. These practices will help us to lean into difficult conversations about race and encourage us to reflect on social identity, making connections to its impact on our relationships with colleagues and students.  Additionally, the practices described in the book will help us to cultivate intercultural competencies, such as building empathy, nurturing curiosity, and deep listening.     

Exploring our identities and our roles in creating a racially just world requires us to be vulnerable and to trust. Therefore, we ask that you attend at least 4 sessions, so that you can get to know others in the group.  Those who can make that commitment  will receive a physical copy of the book. It is also available online via Howe Library. 

Session Times 

• Monday, Feb 9 - 11:30- 12:45 (Grounding section) 

• Monday, Feb 23  - 11:30- 12:45  (Seeing section) 

• Wednesday,  March 4 - 11:30- 12:45  (Being section) 

• Tuesday, March 17 -  2:30 - 3:45  (Doing section) 

• Monday,  March 30   - 11:30- 12:45 (Liberation section) 

 All sessions will be held in Howe Library 303.  

Register for the  Inner Work of Racial Justice  book group

The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching

Join us for a book group to read The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching together. This guide is a hands-on exploration of the empirical research around creating equitable educational outcomes and examples of small and large teaching practices that can occur in classes of all shapes and sizes.  If you’re curious about inclusive or equity-minded teaching and wondering where to start, this book is for you!  Co-authored by a team with varied disciplinary and teaching experience, it has something for everyone. 

We’ll meet on Microsoft Teams on Thursdays at 10:00am:

Session 1 - February 19
Session 2 - March 19
Session 3 - April 9
Session 4 - April 30

A copy of the book will be provided to participants who commit to attending at least 3 sessions.  Please contact ctl@uvm.edu to arrange picking up the book. Most of the book chapters are also available as an ebook from Norton by requesting a free digital copy.  

You only need to register (below) for the Feb 19th session and you will then be enrolled in the following 3 sessions.

Interested in learning more about the book before we start?  

Check out this podcast episode from The Inclusive Educators, which features two of the book’s four authors, Isis Artze-Vega and Flower Darby.  

Artze-Vega, Darby, and co-author Mays Imad speak in Perusall’s podcast highlighting social learning; you can listen to it or read the transcript.  

Register for this Norton Guide book group on our events calendar