The UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, in partnership with the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and UBC’s Vantage College is pleased to present two seminars by Asao B. Inoue, Professor of Rhetoric and Composition in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. Join us for a virtual event as part of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Speaker Series.

Keynote: Understanding and Doing Antiracist Classroom Assessment 10:00 am - 11:30 am

This keynote talk considers what antiracist assessment can be in university courses and how faculty from across disciplines from Humanities to STEM courses can meaningfully engage in it. It argues that classroom assessment, from grading to feedback on literacy performances, is an ecology made up of seven interconnected elements. Understanding any classroom as an assessment ecology can provide a way to design and enact antiracist assessment practices in courses. Furthermore, Inoue details twelve habits of antiracist teachers that are necessary in more fully developing antiracist pedagogies and assessments. There will be a Q&A period.

Faculty Workshop: How to Confront White Language Supremacy in Course Language Standards and Grading 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

This interactive workshop offers a short discussion that explains the presence of white language supremacy in all university courses that ask for language performances of some kind, either as a demonstration of learning or as a method for learning. This includes the use of language in STEM courses. It then engages participants in two antiracist classroom assessment activities. The first activity demonstrates labor-based grading as an antiracist practice. The second activity offers a heuristic, the habits of white language (HOWL), that teachers can use to help them identify and confront white language supremacy in their feedback and other language activities in their courses. There will be a Q&A period and a handout of resources.

About the Speaker 

Asao B. Inoue is Professor of Rhetoric and Composition in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. He is the 2019 Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He has authored many award-winning works on anti-racism.

About the EDI Speaker Series

The School of Journalism, Writing and Media (JWAM) at UBC on the Musqueam land brings together a range of innovative approaches to the practice and teaching of journalistic and academic writing and other forms of communication. JWAM’s journalism and writing courses reach several thousand students from across the university each year. The research-informed pedagogy of the JWAM team has included the continued development of our teaching, for instance, writing and issues related to decolonization, race, Indigeneity, trans identities and disability. As we continue our work in these areas we recognize there are gaps in the diversity of our fields as well as the inclusivity of our research and teaching practices. The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion speaker series is a part of an ongoing effort to address these gaps and aims to further the conversation on EDI and the teaching of writing.

Reserve your ticket today for this free public event. The webinar link and passcode will be shared with registrants prior to the event.

Register for the Talk