JEDI 2025 Sessions

12:20 PM: Spoken Word Performance: "Accent"
Ihuoma Onyeukwu, Undergraduate, Department of Mathematics

Workshop Sessions

September 18, 2025, Campus Center Locations, 9:00AM - 4:00PM

8:00 AM: Check in and Breakfast Available
Breakfast will be a grab & go continental spread of pastries, fruit, yogurt (gluten free, vegetarian), overnight oats (dairy free and vegan), and avocado toast (vegetarian, GF bread available), juice, coffee, and tea.

9:30-11:00 AM Workshops

Dialogic Skills: Tools For Difficult Conversations
Campus Center 165
9:30-11:00AM

PRESENTERS: Charlotte Elwell, she/her, Office of Equity and Inclusion Education & Development Graduate Assistant; Louis Waibel, he/him, Office of Equity and Inclusion Education & Development Undergraduate Ambassador; Pia Furkan, she/her, Office of Equity and Inclusion Education & Development Graduate Assistant

How do we have authentic, generative conversations across differences in identity, experience, or ideology? Building on a new Dialogic Practices toolkit, OEI’s Education & Development team offers a session for anyone seeking to adeptly navigate challenging conversations in their personal and professional lives. We will explore a variety of tools to structure conversations and frameworks to deepen communication skills, including: shared values, community agreements, restorative mindset, intergroup dialogue, nonviolent communication, LARA method, and mindful inquiry. Participants will leave the workshop with introductory awareness of multiple dialogic modalities, “hands-on” practice with the LARA method, and resources for continued learning.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: Using Campus Survey Data to Support Equity Initiatives
Campus Center 174
9:30-11:00AM

PRESENTERS: Kate Farmer (she/they), Senior Survey and Evaluation Analyst in Assessment, Survey, and Effectiveness Research (ASER); Gabriel Rodríguez (he/him), Senior Assessment Analyst in Assessment, Survey, and Effectiveness Research (ASER)

 Have you ever wondered about the data that drives equity-based changes? In this session, we’ll learn to find answers to questions like: Who’s learning about artificial intelligence (AI) in class? Could co- and extra-curricular activities impact whether different students stay at UMass? What makes students feel like they belong in class? Through activities, we’ll practice using data to identify and help address equity gaps. We will also identify when narrative-based data would be more helpful than a chart–and connect you to resources that can help do it all. This is an introductory workshop; no previous data experience is needed.

Teaching Controversial Topics in Contentious Times
Campus Center 168
9:30-11:00AM

PRESENTER: Debadatta Chakraborty (she/her/hers), Sociology, PhD Candidate

During the current political moment, a number of the topics we teach—from climate change to gender ideology to critical race theory—may be deemed controversial. How do we engage with topics that might draw political or social ire and might generate strong emotions within students? In this workshop, we will discuss ways to teach controversial topics, drawing from the tools of contemplative pedagogies and social justice. Building upon Max Weber's concept of “empathetic understanding,” Arlie Hochschild’s concept of “emotional labor,” and Paulo Freire and bell hook's engaged pedagogies of hope and love, we will develop strategies for teaching controversial topics in contentious times. 

Sanitized Syllabi, Silenced Voices: Caste, Religion, and the Erasure of Violence in Indian Educational Institutions 
Campus Center 162
9:30-11:00AM

PRESENTERS: Esra Nizami (she/her); EPRA, PhD Student; Sweta Soni (she/her); EPRA, PhD Student

This panel interrogates how Indian schools serve as sites of symbolic and structural violence against Dalit and Muslim students. It explores how curricular erasures of caste atrocities and communal violence, often in the name of secularism or neutrality, create harm. The session also examines the political motivations behind recent textbook revisions, including the erasure of Muslim and Dalit histories, and how these changes deepen caste and religious divides. Participants will consider how such pedagogies affect student psyches and how resistance emerges in and beyond the classroom. 

Unpacking the Experience of Staff of Color in a Predominantly White Institution (PWI): A Round Table Discussion
Campus Center Hadley Room
9:30-11:00AM

PRESENTERS: 

• Eshwar Shanker (He/Him) HFA Advising & Career Services - Senior Academic Advisor
• LizAnette Pérez-LeBoeuf (She/Ella) Director of Advising Commonwealth Honors College

Institutions of higher education strive to create inclusive and equitable environments; yet, at many Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), one key group that often faces unique challenges within PWIs are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) administrators. Administrative staff play a critical role in student success and deserve an environment that supports and fosters their identity as they work to align themselves within the institution's values and mission. This round table discussion "Unpacking the Experience of Administrative Staff of Color Predominantly White Institution (PWIs) [can change to UMass Amherst]” aims to provide a platform for staff of color to share their experiences, challenges, and insights, explore how equitable and inclusive environments are created and maintained, provide actionable strategies to enhance institutional advocacy for support, and strengthen their professional network.

Lightning Sessions: Multiple Presenters 
Campus Center Amherst Room
9:30-11:00AM

This session will feature several quick 15 minute presentations so attendees can learn and be introduced to a diversity of topics. 

1. Multi-Framework Analysis of the Order Designating English as the Official Language in the U.S.A. Power and Language
   PRESENTER: Carlos Pineda Dominguez (he/him), to-start-the-second-year PhD student in Language, Literacy and Culture
   This work is intended to dissect the recently released U.S.A presidential order naming “English” as official language of the nation through the lenses Critical Race Theory (CRT), Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and Critical Linguistic Studies (CLS), particularly Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a bedrock approach, through a Critical-and-Functional Multi-Framework Analysis.
2. Redesigning the Way We Relate: AI That Understands the Unspoken
   PRESENTER: Elisabeth Chkheidze (she/her), Computer Science Undergraduate Student
   This session invites you into an evolving vision: emotionally intelligent AI designed to help bridge gaps in understanding and foster deeper connection across difference. Together, we’ll reflect on how empathy and equity might be embedded as core design principles in interactions – and how AI could be built not just to serve us, but to connect us in more human-centered, inclusive ways. Whether you have a technical background, an interest in innovative solutions, or simply want to imagine how a more humane, equitable future might take shape, this talk welcomes you. Let’s rethink how technology and humanity can evolve together.
3. An Orientation Toolkit for International Faculty & Staff
   PRESENTER: Craig McNally (he/him), Director, Office of Student Success & Diversity, CNS
   Recent immigration-related actions by the federal government have underscored the need not only to provide additional support and services, but also to center the immediate cultural and adjustment needs of international faculty/staff through proactive and relevant orientation practices. Educational leaders who provide international faculty/staff with an incomplete orientation agenda increase the likelihood for distraction by these individuals who may become preoccupied with their problematic integration into a new country/society, rather than mindfully determining and meeting the educational needs of students. This session is intended to inform targeted, intentional and practical activities related to international staff/faculty orientation, and to increase awareness of multicultural needs and knowledge gaps. Exploring the lived experiences and needs of international faculty/staff can help us to improve future orientation practices and policies.
4. An Inclusive Impact: Conceptualizing and Implementing Individual Recognition Programs
   PRESENTERS: Max Toth (he/him), Assistant Director of Principal Gifts Operations, UMass Amherst Foundation; Julie Grden (she/her), Associate Director of People & Culture, UMass Amherst Foundation
   This workshop introduces individual recognition programs and guides staff in creating their own, with the goal of fostering community, inclusivity, and collegiality. A 2025 study shows recognition boosts engagement and motivation by meeting the need for acknowledgment. In 2023, the UMass Amherst Foundation launched its inaugural recognition effort—the STEWARDS Award, based on core values such as service, trust, and respect. Honorees receive a certificate, gift card, and public recognition at monthly all-staff meetings. We will explore how to identify meaningful recognition opportunities, design programs aligned with department values, and engage key partners.
5. Call Her Mother: Tales of the Working Parent
   PRESENTERS: Susan Moody, M.A., Residence Director, Residential Life 
   Despite increasing demands of parenting, we are seeing more parents, specifically mothers, in the workforce. This presentation will offer a candid, guided conversation on how UMass Departments can support, encourage, and retain working parents. We will also explore a question crucial to our UMass community: What does belonging look like for parents? 

11:15AM-12:15 PM Workshops

Beyond Professionalism: How the Language We Use Includes and Excludes
Campus Center 162
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTERS: 

• Emma Aulenback (she/her), Coordinator of Internship and Field Experience Programs
• Odessa Burkett (she/her), Associate Director of Career & Professional Development
• Nicole O’Connell (she/her), PhD Candidate and Graduate Career Advisor in HFA Career Services
• Charlotte Salmon (she/her), SBS Exploratory Track Academic Advisor

Join us for an hour-long interactive workshop on reconsidering professionalism in classrooms, advising, and workplace contexts. We will first discuss biases of professionalism and ways that current societal understandings of “professional” can oppress. We will then show how we are changing our own language around professionalism and the impacts it has had on our students and colleagues. Attendees will have opportunities to share their own experiences and will gain recommendations and resources for how we can talk about professionalism with students and with colleagues while avoiding racist, sexist, and ableist biases. We will also explore ideas around professionalism in the context of Gen-Z. 

Fostering Dialogue in our UMass Communities: An Overview of the Intergroup Dialogue Initiative 
Campus Center 165
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTERS: 

• Felicia Griffin-Fennell (she/her), Director of SBS RISE (Remedying Inequity through Student Engagement), Lecturer of Sociology, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Kirsten Helmer (she, her), Director of Programming for Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity, and Senior Lecturer, Center for Teaching and Learning
• Dave Neely (he/him) Director, Diversity Education and Training, Student Affairs and Campus Life & Co-Director, Intergroup Dialogue Initiative
• Ximena Zúñiga (she/her/ella), Professor, Student Development Department, College of Education & Co-Director, Intergroup Dialogue Initiative 

This session introduces participants to the recently launched Intergroup Dialogue Initiative (IGDI). Attendees will learn what dialogue is, and what it offers our campus. The IGDI supports learning about and engaging in dialogue practices that can help our UMass communities de-silo and learn together across a range of backgrounds and perspectives, roles on campus, and schools/colleges/units. Presenters will introduce three new Fellows programs running this academic year that focus on building our campus capacity for dialogue, while also highlighting various forums for all members of our community to get involved by participating in upcoming one-time dialogues, storytelling circles, and listening circles.

AccessibleU Live: Hands-On Strategies for Inclusive Course Design 
Campus Center 174
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTER: Erica Foley, she/her, IDEAS, Instructional Designer

Digital accessibility is a cornerstone of inclusive education, ensuring that all learners—regardless of ability—can fully participate in academic life. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore the core principles of digital accessibility: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR). Through hands-on activities, participants will understand common barriers to accessibility and have the opportunity to start improving accessibility today. The session will highlight tools and supports available through Microsoft, Google, Canvas, and on campus at UMass. Participants will leave with actionable steps to make their course content more inclusive and accessible for all.

Identity-based Support for UMass Travelers Abroad 
Campus Center 168
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTERS: Andrea Campbell Drake, she/her, Executive Director of Global Safety and Security, Office of Global Affairs; Zander Crowley, he/him, Program Coordinator for the Interdepartmental Graduate Programs in the Life sciences

Every traveler brings a unique set of identities abroad with them and may encounter very different interactions and responses to their personal identities while away from their home context. Professionals on campus can provide identity-based resources and support before and during students, faculty, and staff travels abroad. Speaking from their own personal experiences as a traveler abroad or supporting travelers, examples will be reviewed showing the opportunities and risks based on a traveler's race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and more. Offering travelers the chance to consider their personal safety based on their own unique identity can be an empowering and positive experience.

Humanized Language in Education: Building Inclusive Classrooms Through Words That Welcome 
Campus Center Hadley Room
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTER: Henrietta Chukwufumnanya Ikediashi (she/her), Incoming M.Ed. Student, Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies - Learning, Media & Technology Track

Language has the power to welcome or wound. In this interactive workshop, attendees will explore how humanized language transforms classrooms into spaces of inclusion and belonging. Through real-life scenarios, neurodiverse-friendly practices, and hands-on exercises, participants will learn to reframe exclusionary language, recognize cultural and cognitive diversity in communication, and craft strategies that center empathy and accessibility. This session is for anyone committed to building equity through the words we use every day.

Defining and Identifying Antisemitism: An Introductory Review for University Faculty and Staff
CC Amherst Room
11:15AM-12:15PM

PRESENTER: Brad Seligmann, Director, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Reported incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise nationally over the past decade, and higher education is not isolated from these trends. This workshop provides an introductory overview of antisemitism, concluding with small group discussion and case studies intended for faculty and staff. The session includes a brief overview of Judaism and what it means to be Jewish today, discussing the complexities of identity (culture, ethnicity, religion, etc.) We will highlight multiple definitions of the term antisemitism, and detail various antisemitic stereotypes (also known as tropes), with a deeper dive into the historical origins of select ideas. The session will end with small group discussion, reviewing select case studies situated within a university context. Participants should come away with information on how they can respond and support students within the context of their roles at the university.

Lunch Leadership Panel Discussion