The SMU community – including alumni around the world – celebrated a virtual Homecoming 2020 last week, with a great lineup of thought-provoking panels and other events organized by the Alumni Office.
In case you missed them, recordings of these five Homecoming webinars are now available with closed captioning through the Saint Mary’s Alumni Facebook page:
Back to the Classroom:
#BLM and Steps to Being Anti-Racist, with Dr. Rachel Zellars;
Who is Women & Gender Studies For?, with Dr. Michele Byers and Dr. Tatjana Takseva marking the 25-year history of the program at Saint Mary’s;
Putting "Science" in Forensic Science, with Dr. Timothy Frasier, celebrating the 20th anniversary of SMU’s Forensic Science program;
SMU After Hours: Accessibility & COVID-19, hosted by Dr. Lori Francis, Dean of Science, with Dr. Linda Campbell, Dr. Sailaja Krishnamurti, Jennifer Green and Baden Mercer; and
SMU in Action: Black Lives Matter Nova Scotia, moderated by Dr. Zellars with African Nova Scotian community advocates Delvina Bernard (BComm'82, current PhD student in IDS), Andre Anderson (Economics major), and Trayvone Clayton (Criminology major).
In both of the Black Lives Matter events, Dr. Zellars provides historical context to the current times, plus practical takeaways to help people become better allies to the social justice movement.
“We are in an absolutely unprecedented time,” she says in her Back to the Classroom seminar. She urges viewers to do their research to better understand why the world has exploded in global uprisings around the urgent issues of state violence and social justice.
“There are lots of questions about what we should be doing together. What does solidarity look like in this moment?” she asks. It goes far beyond simply sharing #BLM support on your social media channels or writing anti-racist solidarity statements for your organization, she says, adding “do not hashtag #BLM if you’re not doing the work.”
It’s also important to acknowledge your own implicit bias – everyone with a brain has bias, even if you don’t realize it, she says.
“In this moment, allyship means taking a back seat, taking a moment of humility that may be unfamiliar to you. Those who are closest to the experience have the most to say. Really listen.”
Most importantly, “educate yourself,” she says, sharing some great places to start with the following list of book and podcast recommendations.
BOOKS:
White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press, 2018);
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, 2015);
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, Robyn Maynard (Fernwood Publishing, 2017);
North to Bondage: Loyalist Slavery in the Maritimes, Harvey Amani Whitfield (UBC Press, 2016);
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ejeris Dixon (AK Press, 2020); and
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown (AK Press, 2017).
PODCASTS:
MEDIA INDIGENA, Interactive Indigenous Insight with Rick Harp;
Fresh Air, specifically this episode on why police reform fails;
How to Survive the End of the World, with the Brown Sisters.