Diversity Events

On Monday, January 10 and Tuesday, January 11, Heller staff, faculty, students, and alumni attended the 7-Day Anti-Racism Challenge Workshop where they explored: The meaning of ‘race’ and ‘racism’; how overt racism appears in our language, symbols, and messaging; and where race and colonization intersect with gender and other identities.

On November 19, Heller community members participated in a conversation and interactive racial literacy workshop, with Dr. Howard C. Stevenson, a nationally recognized clinical psychologist and researcher of racial stress and trauma, and the 2020 winner of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize.

On June 5-6, the Heller School hosted its first Racial Equity Action Challenge at Heller (REACH), dedicated to creating actionable initiatives to address racial disparities at Heller and Brandeis and the local community.

The 7-Day Neurodiversity (ND) Inclusion Challenge is a self-guided learning and reflection experience that highlights the need for true inclusion and acceptance, in the Brandeis community and beyond, of those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and other neurological disabilities.

This talk provided an update on the latest from the movement for establishing reparations for Black people and set it in an international context vis-à-vis other countries where the struggle for reparative justice has played out.

On March 16, 2021 three Brandeis graduate schools welcomed Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. and esteemed panelists to discuss the roots of the 21-Day Challenge and its significance in this moment of escalated hate crimes - including anti-Asian hate crimes - and racial reckoning.

In January 2021, the Heller community embarked on Dr. Eddie Moore’s 21-day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge. Students signed up for a proseminar course called “Racial Equity: Intersections of Race, Power, Privilege, Supremacy and Oppression,” which centered around Dr. Moore’s work while integrating lectures from Heller faculty. Students who did not sign up for the course also participated at their own pace along with Heller faculty, staff and alumni.

A cross-disciplinary discussion on racism as a public health and economic crisis, with a focus on action.

On June 2 and 3, 2020, the Heller School held its first Sankofa Community Conference, “Advancing Racial Justice Through Life and Work,” with more than 500 participants over two days.

Videos and resources from the conference available here.

Heller’s Office of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (EID) organized a two-part event January 21-22 called Ford Hall: Closing the Disparity Gap, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Ford Hall 2015 protests.

The Heller School welcomed a panel discussion of social justice and change, featuring activist and academic Mel King as well as Christian Perry, MBA/MA SID'17.