These grants support grassroots efforts led by faculty, students and staff that promote diverse discourse and open dialogue on critical global and domestic social issues. Grants of up to $5,000 per project are available to support activities such as workshops, symposia, brown bag lunches, guest speakers and the development of curriculum or resources.
The following projects led by faculty, staff, and students across campus were selected from a competitive pool of applicants. We encourage you to participate in these programs and events!
Jess Dillard-Wright, Faculty
This project is an invitation for students, staff, and faculty to explore the relationships between democracy and sustainability through a series of interactive reading groups, lectures, and workshops using an interdisciplinary approach. Through these activities, the goal is for participants to develop a shared understanding on how democratic ideals intersect with environmental and political challenges, especially in an era of growing instability and resource scarcity.
Moira Inghilleri, Faculty
This event, featuring a panel discussion and a professional networking component, will allow for humanities students to explore career opportunities in generative AI technologies and tech industries. Bridging the gap between humanities and the technology sector, a significant goal of this event is to help students understand how their education in critical thinking, effective communication, and ethics is both relevant and an asset for these industries.
Hongyu Zhang, Faculty
This event aims to address the ethical challenges of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and GeoAI (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence) in a data-driven world. The goal is to help participants develop strategies for mitigating bias, ensuring fairness, and navigating the intersection of geospatial technologies and social responsibility. This highly interactive, hybrid workshop will consist of a keynote presentation, a panel discussion, breakout sessions, and collaborative planning.
Isabel Espinal and Sanjiv Gupta, Faculty
This proposal aims to bring a faculty member or academic librarian from Gaza to the UMass Amherst campus, providing a platform for the academic to present their scholarly work and share their experiences. Furthermore, the residency of the guest speaker will include classroom visits, brown bag lunches, and networking events, with support from various organizations to facilitate the guest’s arrival despite the challenges of travel.
Melissa Mueller, Faculty
A symposium featuring the authors of Earthborn Democracy: A Political Theory of Entangled Life (2024) will bring those of different disciplines together to explore the intersections of democracy and ecology, drawing on indigenous studies and democratic theory to rethink modern political and environmental crises. The symposium will include a panel by the authors, responses from scholars in Political Science and Classics, and discussions on how to reframe ancient and modern narratives about democracy in the classroom.
Burcu Baykurt, Faculty
A new research group on the UMass Amherst campus, The Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTech Lab) focuses on researching and advocating for tech and global studies, especially how these technologies impact global communities. This seminar series will bring together researchers, tech activists, and policy advocates to share ideas and develop a research agenda that will examine digital oppression internationally.
Javid Mussawy, Faculty
This initiative seeks to open the lines of communication between faculty and students, addressing the universal breakdown in which students feel that professors are out of touch with their needs, and faculty feel students do not meet their expectations. This global effort, initiated by Lamiaa Eid, aims to foster a space for dialogue and mutual understanding in order to create a more dynamic and collaborative relationship between students and faculty.
Kevin Young, Faculty
With the growing sentiment from young adults regarding feelings of helplessness about the climate crisis, this project will host a series of public events to explore how institutions can individually and collectively reduce emissions and promote social equity. Through educational panels, visioning sessions, and strategy sessions, participants will engage with leadership on climate action. Furthermore, a lasting educational video will be produced and made available for the campus community and beyond.
Martha Fuentes-Bautista, Faculty
This proposal consists of a workshop series open to the campus community and beyond, examining how current media reproduces the harms of colonialism, racism, and White supremacy. Speakers with deep-knowledge on these topics will engage with the community to explore avenues for activism, exchange, and interventions. Furthermore, these workshops aim to serve as a pedagogical experience for students enrolled in COMM 540/SPP 540, and COMM 431.
Lucinda Canty, Faculty
This symposium will explore the connections of the transatlantic slave trade to the current maternal heath crisis, which disproportionately affects Black women in the U.S. Through a Q&A panel and three presentations – on the legacy of slavery as it relates to maternal health, the history of breastfeeding, and midwifery in the Black community – this symposium will illustrate how the past shapes current health outcomes.
Raymond LaRaja, Faculty
This initiative will include three moderated lunches from diverse leaders, centered around why students are reluctant to share their views, as indicated by the campus climate survey, and learning to create a space which fosters dialogue. The initiative will include pre-meeting prep, interviews with students, post-lunch surveys, and a follow-up memo that will publicize findings in campus outlets with aims to implement lessons learned.
Clare Hammonds, Faculty
This two-day conference will explore the resurgence of labor strikes as they relate to automotive, healthcare, hospitality, and education sectors. This conference will provide students with the opportunity to further their understanding of collective action while engaging with interactive workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibits.
Adeyemi Abeyo, Graduate Student
This project seeks to explore the identities of migrants, specifically in the Massachusetts and UMass Amherst area. This project will unfold as a photographic series, culminating in the form of a photo exhibition and public program. Major goals of this project include examining the remembrance and severance of the tangible and intangible fragments to home, or the remainders of one.
Kara Ireland, Graduate Student
This set of community initiatives aims to provide the opportunity to gather materials for an archive that focuses on preserving the experience of Black Lesbians through open mic events, workshops, and town halls. The project will foster the recognition of Black lesbian visibility in the Amherst area, which is significant due to the area being predominantly white and heteronormative. From this, a continuation of a digital archive to preserve artifacts from lesbian-identified people will be created.
Rosa Sanchez-Santiago, Staff
This proposal centers around a series of events hosted by CMASS to facilitate discussions surrounding Monica Guzman’s Book, ‘I Never Thought of it that Way,’ Students will be involved in critical conversation focusing on democracy, society, and wellbeing. In the Spring of 2025, an honorarium for the author of the book will be hosted.
Liane Ledger, Staff
A 3-part series primarily designed for the faculty and staff of the School of Public Health & Health Sciences (SPHHS) to learn how to harness the power of play to improve well-being and connection is the focus of this proposal. Emotional wellness advocate, Haabiba Rothenberg-Whitney, and attendees will examine topics of her book ‘Tell Me About Your Happy Place.’ Furthermore, attendees will learn how to put their newfound knowledge into real-life practice.
Brennan Tierney, Staff
This is the second annual Activity in Residence event series, hosted by The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy. This year, Varshine Prakash, a former UMass Amherst graduate actively working to resolve the climate crisis, will give a keynote address and deliver a public workshop on effective movement-building and organizing strategies for climate action. In a series of keynotes, class visits and workshops, a platform for critical and engaging dialogue about issues of major importance, and the role of social and political action, will be provided.
Christian Milian-Santiago, Graduate Student
This project will involve a two-part weekend conversation in March 2025 with Dr. Justin Horn, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, in discussion with John Hunter (Part 1) and then with Dr. Torrey Trust (Part 2). The event will be centered around the ethical utilization of artificial intelligence, given its rapid rise in popularity and utilization in all sectors of society. Participants will also gain a deeper understanding of the possible pitfalls they may face and the harm they may cause or perpetuate as a result of its use.
Sherry Shang, Graduate Student
A symposium centering on examining how the idea of the fragments can help us rethink and re-examine overlooked narratives in the humanities will be hosted by the department of Art History. The keynote speaker Dr. Romita Ray, an Associate Professor of Art History and Syracuse University, will share her research methodological idea of the fragment as a way for scholars to consider overlooked connections within the British Empire and reconsider relationships between art, labor, ecology, and the colonial archive. Additionally, participants will engage in dialogue through a guided Q&A discussion and roundtable discussion.
Anna Robbins, Staff
For this project, The Fine Arts Center is collaborating with UMass's Diversity Education and Training to provide students with a People’s Supper centered on the work of visual artist Laylah Ali s a means for facilitating difficult conversations and fostering compassion. Specifically focusing on the topics that Ali displays in their artwork–race, power, gender, human frailty, murky politics–there will be discussion among participants about the complex overlap of these topics, accompanied by a meal where participants will connect with the artist, building trust and connection amongst each other.
Thomas Nuhfer, Staff
Two training workshops led by the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NECASC) will allow for participants to explore how DEI and justice arise when navigating topics like climate change. Workshops will be tailored for faculty. Graduate and postdoc students alike to hold the space for difficult conversations, building relationships, and doing the critical work of serving ecosystems and human societies through global crisis and uncertainty.
Michelle Ciccone, Graduate Student
Bringing together experts in the field along with community members, this one-day symposium aims to explore the potential hindrances of creative AI-enabled tools. Led by the Responsible Technology Coalition (RTC), insights, panel discussions, and Q&As will allow for attendees to thoughtfully consider the impacts in which automated tools can exacerbate bias, inequities, and prejudice.
Ariana Gonzalez, Undergraduate Student
The project will highlight key figures in radio in the Western Massachusetts area whose mission is to uplift diverse broadcasting through their choices of programming. Keynote speakers will use their own experiences working for radio in order to encourage DJs to be more intentional about the music that they decide to showcase during their radio show segments – emphasizing the importance of exposing listeners to a range of artists from different backgrounds.
Denny Bobot, Staff
Through workshops, course sessions, and engaging Isenberg RAP (residential academic program) students, this initiative aims to develop Develop new UMass community partnerships between Residence Life, Undergraduate Student Success and Isenberg Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging staff via collaborative programming throughout the year with the goal of sustaining community dialogues.
Zachary Wald, Undergraduate Student
The goal of this project is to have students from different backgrounds come together to meaningfully engage in dialogue centering around the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. A moderator will help facilitate the conversation in a low stakes environment with aims to recognize each other’s humanity and a desire to understand counterparts.
Denny Bobot, Staff
This proposal is a half-day symposium to provide Isenberg students, staff and faculty the opportunity to initiate conversations around the connection of DEI practices in a modern business environment. Dr. Anthony Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for First Horizon Bank, will engage in roundtable discussions and Q&As as a series of dialogic practices for the Isenberg School of Business.
Fall '24 CDD Signature Events
"James Baldwin and the Promise of Democracy" with Eddie Glaude Jr.
Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr delivered a talk focused on James Baldwin and the promise of democracy, as well as meeting with students for a small group discussion.
Dr. Glaude is the author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, and is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. He served as the inaugural chair of the department for more than fourteen years. He frequently appears in the media, as a columnist for TIME Magazine and as an MSNBC contributor. Combining a scholar's knowledge of history, a political commentator's take on the latest events, and an activist's passion for social justice, Glaude challenges all of us to examine our collective American conscience.
“Calling In at a Time of Political Division” with Loretta Ross
Activist and reproductive rights advocate Loretta Ross spoke on "calling in" and how it fits into the current political landscape and the human rights movement. Prior to her presentation, attendees went through a brief workshop on non-violent communication, led by Penn Pritchard.
Ross teaches “White Supremacy, Human Rights and Calling In the Calling Out Culture” as a visiting associate professor at Smith College. Since beginning her academic career, she has taught at Hampshire College, Arizona State University and Smith College as a visiting professor of clinical practice teaching courses on subjects such as white supremacy in the age of Trump, race and culture in America, and reproductive justice. She is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow.
On the occasion of the James Baldwin centennial, this program was presented in partnership with the CDD, the UMass Office of Equity & Inclusion, the UMass W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the UMass Film Studies Program, and Hampshire College. The event featured a post-screening panel discussion with Dr. Ernest Gibson (Auburn University), Dr. Frank Leon Roberts (Amherst College), and Jordon Crawford (Afro American Studies, UMass)
Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material.
