ABSTRACT

How to Engage in Difficult Conversations on Identity, Race, and Politics in Higher Education addresses the polarized political and racialized climate in the United States. This practical resource offers faculty and staff much needed direction related to hosting difficult conversations as they occur in the classroom, residence halls, orientation events, and coffee shops around college and university campuses. Chapters provide insights, case examples, interactive exercises, and "how-to" tools and tips to hosting these conversations, covering issues such as immigration, White supremacy in academia, women’s rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, trans rights, reproductive rights, and cancel culture, among many others. This resource is designed to better prepare instructors, faculty, higher education staff and administrators to enter into these hard conversations with an improved awareness of contentious issues and how to facilitate, and potentially de-escalate, discussions that are already occurring.

part I|38 pages

Foundational Topics

chapter 1|14 pages

Setting the Table

chapter 2|12 pages

Leaning into Difficult Conversations

chapter 3|10 pages

Where and How to Have the Conversation

part II|184 pages

Having the Hard Conversation

chapter 4|16 pages

COVID-19 Pandemic

Masks, Vaccines, Freedom, and Sacrifices

chapter 5|11 pages

Immigration and Xenophobia

chapter 6|20 pages

White Supremacy in Academia

chapter 7|23 pages

Black Lives Matter

chapter 9|18 pages

Women's Rights

chapter 10|15 pages

Reproductive Rights and Abortion

chapter 11|16 pages

LGBTQ+ Sexuality and Gender

chapter 12|8 pages

Antisemitism

chapter 13|15 pages

Disability Rights and Access

chapter 14|12 pages

Cancel Culture

chapter 15|15 pages

Firearms and the Second Amendment