“When we say Black Lives Matter, the Department of Geography’s 2019/20 Diversity and Inclusion Committee supports all Black lives in their intersectional wholeness, including Black trans and gender nonconforming people.” (Teddy Davenport, Kim England and Soohyung Hur)
We began the year by brain-storming a variety of ideas for the year, one of which was to conduct a start-of-year survey of graduate students to get their input (which we did). We concluded we were especially interested in receiving UndocuAlly Training and generally more training on ‘inclusive teaching’ (and saw a nice tie in with Sarah Hunt’s visit on October 18th as part of the colloquium series) We additionally wanted to address transgender issues (which we ended up not being able to, but we were pleased that Jack Gieseking visited the department on 24th January as part of the colloquium series).
Committee Members
- Teddy Davenport
- Kim England
- Soohyung Hur
Agenda
To address inclusion in the university and in the classroom.
Fall Quarter 2019
The department was hiring and so we limited our events to make room for the candidates’ visits. We decided to use funds to pay for some graduate students to receive the in-depth Quarterly UndocuAlly Training.
Winter Quarter 2020
Friday 10th January: Undocu Ally training – we received training around understanding issues facing undocumented students, and about how to be an ally and what resources are available to undocumented students on campus and beyond.
The COVID-19 pandemic: UW announced on March 6th that the following Monday, March 9th (week 10), in-person classes were suspended and we all scrambled to figure out how to use Zoom.
Spring Quarter 2020
In the Diversity Committee start-of-year survey, graduate students indicated a desire to receive more training on ‘Inclusive Teaching.’ Reflecting this feedback, the Diversity Committee had scheduled a workshop with Elba Moise and Milan Vidaković from the Center for Teaching and Learning in spring quarter. After careful planning by Teddy and Soohyung, and a productive meeting with the two instructors, the workshop was planned to take place mid-April. Disappointingly, the workshop had to be cancelled because of COVID-19.
As evidence emerged that COVID-19 was having a disproportionate impact on BIPOC communities, we also saw an escalation in racial violence, including anti-Asian hate. Then on 25th May in Minneapolis George Floyd was murdered by police officers. We felt compelled to write a collective statement, which was subsequently included in the department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page:
The Department of Geography’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the University of Washington shares the immense pain, grief, and anger over the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and Tony McDade. In the Seattle region, we say the names of Charleena Lyles, Shaun Fuhr, Che Taylor, Bennie Branch, Said Joquin, Manuel Ellis, and Eugene Nelson. These killings are but a few of the long list of Black lives brutally stolen by historical and institutionalized white supremacy to which the police system is indispensable. When we say Black Lives Matter, the Department of Geography’s 2019/20 Diversity and Inclusion Committee supports all Black lives in their intersectional wholeness, including Black trans and gender nonconforming people. We also remember the countless lives taken within Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, and immigrant communities. Here, we say the names, John T. Williams, Tommy Le, and Isaiah Obet, killed at the hands of Washington state’s police. The Department of Geography's Diversity and Inclusion Committee strongly condemns the continuous threats to dehumanize Black life and the ongoing violence against the lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
The UW Geography Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s mission is “to foster an inclusive and reflexive community by actively working against intentional and unintentional exclusionary practices.” We recognize that the discipline of Geography has historically benefited from and contributed to systems of colonialism, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and hetero-patriarchy. It is the strong opinion of the 2019/20 Geography Diversity and Inclusion Committee that dismantling these systems of oppression begins with anti-racist efforts within University of Washington, the UW Department of Geography, and the discipline of Geography at large. As such, the Geography Diversity Committee joins others in signing the petition to Decriminalize UW. We call on the University to address the trauma that our Black students are experiencing by adopting the demands listed in the Call to Action put forth by the Black Student Union, African Student Association, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, and Solidarity for Black Student Needs Coalition. Further, the Geography Diversity Committee supports the Black Geographies Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers in their Call for Transformative Racial Justice. Finally, we acknowledge that anti-racist efforts neither begin nor end with releasing a statement in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. At its core, this statement is a commitment to hold ourselves accountable to doing anti-racist work, following the lead of Black liberation movements and their ongoing struggles for racial justice.