The Chair is pleased to co-sponsor an upcoming Workshop for Educators, Understanding and Addressing Antisemitism and Islamophobia, with Hussein Ibish and David Schraub. This event will be held on Wednesday, May 23rd, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. PST in the University of Oregon’s Lokey Education Building 276. There will be an optional breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Registration is required to attend. Please review the event website here, to register.
As educators, we deeply care about our students. The ongoing violence in the Middle East affects our community members in diverse ways, just as the complex histories of antisemitism and Islamophobia do. Many students are trying to articulate and act on their values, identifying the contexts and histories that resonate with them. However, both educators and students often have gaps in understanding the various contexts of struggle and survival and the plurality of meanings in the language we use.
In this discussion, Hussein Ibish and David Schraub will provide insights to help educators critically understand the forms antisemitism and Islamophobia typically take, including their manifestations in your courses and on our campuses, and the impacts they have on students. We will reflect on how our own histories shape our understanding of and reaction to antisemitic and Islamophobic statements and how we can stay grounded in empathy for students as they navigate a fraught and contested context. We will discuss promising practices for reducing antisemitism and Islamophobia and plan at least one strategy to address these issues in our own class contexts. We hope this event will help us better enact the shared principles drafted by our colleagues, including the idea that “we are best served by teaching complexity, by helping students understand the multiplicity of contexts and perspectives, and by modeling how to hold complexity with curiosity and empathy.”
