Academic Senate

Decolonizing the Academy Committee

 

 

Scope

The committee serves the Senate’s and the College’s commitment to continual reflection by giving deep consideration to  the structures, policies, and culture of the institution. By working toward a decolonized academy, the committee will review and respond to campus-wide matters and give recommendations that aim to alleviate the cycle of colonization.

Function

  • Begin a process of acknowledgment, reconciliation, and healing.
  • Identify the structures, policies, and regulations that may perpetuate a colonized hierarchy and discuss ways to reduce their harm.
  • Respond to state- and college-wide undertakings and propositions.
  • Examine inherited constructs and culture and their effects on the campus and its people.

Community Read

Every semester, the Decolonizing Committee convenes conversations around a shared text to create a collaborative campus-wide space to clarify our goals and values as an institution. 

Fall 2021: adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Come to our first Zoom discussion on September 22nd from 2-3 PM of the "introduction" and first two sections.
And attend our discussion with the author on October 14th at 2 PM.

 

Spring 2021: Prof. Gina A. Garcia, Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining Servingness at HSIs.

It's one thing to be an HSI; it's another to serve our Latinx students. Watch a recording of her 2021 discussion  at SMC. 
 
 

 

Fall 2020: Prof. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Resources & Readings

Decolonization unsettles settler-colonialism and the systems and cultures that support and perpetuate it. In an academic setting this means critically examining how settler-colonial epistemologies continue to shape what we consider knowledge and what we teach. The resources below center non-white, non-Western perspectives and ways of knowing.

Decolonizing Events

See All
Everyone is welcome to our conversations!
Oct 23
Oct 29
Giving Thanks(giving)- Sign up for free groceries by October 29!

Giving Thanks(giving)- Sign up for free groceries by October 29!

4 p.m. - 4 p.m.
See All