CEILS Equity & Justice Trainings

Supporting individuals, teams and departments to become anti-racist educators and apply the design justice framework to their course design. 

JoAnn Roberts Head Shot

Message from Dr. JoAnn Roberts, CEILS Associate Director for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) for Teaching

Thank you for visiting this site to learn more about the opportunities provided by UCLA’s Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences. CEILS has developed targeted workshops to support our instructional communities at UCLA to embrace and strengthen anti-racist teaching practices in the classroom. 

Funding and support for the development of these materials have been provided by the Dean of Life Sciences, Dr. Tracy Johnson, and Dean of Physical Sciences, Dr. Miguel Garcia-Garibay, and leadership from the David Geffen School of Medicine, in addition to funding by an NSF INCLUDES Aspire Allliance award (#1834526).

Below you can review our current workshop offerings and information on how to connect with us to plan the approach that works best for you and your colleagues.

Workshop & Event Offerings

Workshops range from 90 minutes to 2 hours in length, and can be facilitated in person or online over Zoom. Our team will work with your department to identity priorities and customize the material as needed. 

Conversation SERies: Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator

Please check back for future dates!

The CEILS Becoming an Anti-racist Educator Conversation Series reflects and creates space for discussion of one’s own racial identity development and how racial identity and other social identities impact our learning environments. With colleagues, participants in these discussions will spend intentional time on student-centered, inclusive and equitable, and anti-racist action strategies that can be implemented in the classroom and laboratory learning environments to work against the impacts of racism.

Feedback from a recent participant:

“Before this series, I would have been hesitant to interrupt a microaggression – due to not knowing if it was a big deal and feeling uncomfortable. Now I realize it’s important to say something, even if I’m not sure exactly what to say.” and “I plan to mitigate the impacts of racism in higher ed by including historically underrepresented and minority student voices in the planning process for curriculum”. 

*Our upcoming workshops are open to instructors, faculty, and teaching postdocs who teach courses in the Life and Physical Sciences.  There will be future offerings for graduate students, dates TBD.*

Part 1: Exploring Identity, Privilege, Race, and Anti-racism
  1. Reflect on your own identity and privilege
  2. Discuss how social identities and privilege impact the classroom and other learning environments
  3. Explore the definitions of racism, anti-racism, and race and reflect on your own understanding
Part 2: Taking Anti-racist Action: Microaggressions
  1. Recognize the impact of systemic and institutional racism and why we need to take anti-racist action
  2. Understand anti-racist and justice-oriented action 
  3. Notice the narratives perpetuated by racial microaggressions and the root causes that create them
  4. Practice acknowledging and think about how to interrupt microaggressions
Part 3: Taking Anti-racist Action: From Inclusive to Anti-racist Pedagogy
  1. Practice interrupting microaggressions
  2. Discuss and identify strategies you want to implement to create a more anti-racist climate
  3. Create/Modify an action plan for taking anti-racist action in your learning environment
  4. Get feedback from colleagues