• 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM | Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
  Integration Blues: How Racism Structures "Integrated" Educational Settings
  Integration is an ill-defined concept. For most, it is just a matter of “structural diversity”; the more people of color in an organization, the better the organization is in terms of equity. But after years of integration (“spatial cohabitation” better describes what we have), we are still having racial issues in all kind of organizations, including educational settings. In general, people of color complain that they are not truly integrated and feel alienated and excluded. In this talk, Bonilla-Silva will explain why we are having the “integration blues” with a focus on schools. First, he will discuss what is “systemic racism” and explain how individual whites (from progressives to conservatives) are deeply shaped by what he calls the “white habitus.” Second, he will briefly describe the nature of the “new racism”—the set of post-Civil Rights era arrangements and practices that reproduces racial domination. Third, after this conceptual and historical mapping of the terrain, he will describe HWCUs (historically white colleges and universities) and provide an overview of how racism structures differentially the life chances of white and non-white children in integrated schools. At the end, he will conclude with a number of suggestions to move our reform efforts towards what he labels as “deep diversity.”

• 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM | Rudy Bankston
  A Generative Conversation Centering Wellness & Belonging
  A generative dialogue with practitioner Rudy Bankston. As a wellness and restorative Justice advocate, the conversation will center in the human need of individual and collective wellness and the impact of the pandemic and other forms of oppression. Educators are not well and are expected to hold spaces for students, families and each other. This session will center a wellness approach to co-create structures and a new way to engage in education.

• 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM | Sonali Sangeeta Balajee & Kabzuag Vaj
  Intersections of Belonging & Othering through Storytelling
  What are the medicines for our times and how can our own lives and relations with land, family, and community serve as places of such wisdom and medicine? 

  Join Kabzuag Vaj (Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Freedom, Inc.) and Sonali Sangeeta Balajee (founder of Our Bodhi Project and SSoMA), in a creative, informal conversation exploring their intersections of experiencing belonging and othering through their personal stories, and through their advocacy for co-liberation in movement-building, knowledge creation, and organizing.

• 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM | Natasha Sell (Co-Founder, Sutra.co)
  Co-Creating Belonging in Virtual Learning Communities
  We invite you to consider how to architect an online learning experience that invites shared understanding, meaningful engagement, and belonging. How do you enroll people into an online journey that generates deeper levels of authenticity, vulnerability and intimacy? Over the last ten years Natasha has worked with hundreds of educators, facilitators, coaches, healers, and leaders to design experiences that support meaningful connection and conversation in virtual spaces. In this participatory session, Natasha will share her design process for building truly relational learning communities online.

• 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM | Dr. Kathy Obear
  Creating Belonging Through Interrupting Microaggressions
  In this interactive session, participants can deepen their capacity to create greater belonging by courageously speaking up and effectively interrupting microaggressions and practices in the moment. Participants will receive access to a comprehensive packet of materials and open-access webinars to continue their learning as they share these concepts and tools with colleagues in their organization.

NOTE: Registering for the Spring Institute will give you access to the entire day (all sessions and presentations). The automated confirmation email will contain ONE Zoom link for the entire day. You may attend as your schedule allows that day.

Training Format

• American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will be available during each of the sessions.

• These sessions will be facilitated online using the Zoom Webinar platform.

• Participants will be able to engage with our online platform. Sutra will be available to create an online learning experience that fosters a supportive space for engagement, sharing, and meaningful conversation.