Asterisk: A Taskforce for LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity in Higher Education
Fri, Nov 8, 2019, 4:00 PM
Rooms 9205/9206 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave

Julia Heim and Sole Anatrone of the Asterisk Taskforce present on the importance, urgency, and difficulty of creating intentionally inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ students and educators in higher education. The evening will include a presentation on the challenges LGBTQIA+ people face in college and university settings, first-hand accounts of what it means to be overlooked or discriminated against, and the significant impact this can have on the success and careers of students, faculty and staff. They will discuss the ways Asterisk works with faculty and staff to create safe, inclusive learning spaces and share techniques for laying these foundations. This event is designed with particular attention to the hurdles facing educators; participants will engage in short, intensive labs and will come away with strategies for crafting inclusive syllabi, using intentional language that recognizes variance in gender and sexuality, and developing strategies to respond to conflicts and challenges in the classroom. They will be joined by Anthony Freeman who will present his research project “Enhancing CUNY-Wide Capacity to Promote Collaborative Gender Justice,” which seeks to support faculty and students at CUNY involved in work around gender justice. Reception to follow.

This presentation and workshop is free and open to all, but if you would like to attend, please fill out this form to RSVP here.

Categories of gender and sexuality, though deeply personal, are also profoundly public. LGBTQIA+ students report suffering from bullying and bigotry at home and in the classroom at alarmingly high rates; according to the 2018 LGBTQ Youth Report conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 70% of LGBTQ youth have experienced bullying because of their sexual orientation, and just 27% say they are completely out about their identity in school. A mere 26% of youth say they feel safe in the classroom, and 51% of trans youth report that they cannot use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Asterisk is a taskforce that offers workshops to university faculty, students, and staff geared toward fostering LGBTQAI+ inclusivity inside and outside the classroom.

Co-sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.