PSYC S-1503 The Psychology of Close Relationships, Holly Parker

Respect for Diversity

The diversity that each of you brings to this class is a resource, a strength, and a great benefit, and it is immensely important to me and the entire teaching team that you all feel welcome and well-served in this course. Our goal is to cultivate a learning environment that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives, and experiences, and honors your identities and the intersection between them (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion, ability). 

To help accomplish this:

• If you have a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official Harvard records, please let us know. 
• If something was said in class (by anyone, including me or your teaching fellow) that made you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me and/or your teaching fellow about it.  
• Emotional safety is essential for a sense of belonging, for learning, and for taking healthy risks–let’s work together to cultivate it. I’m going to work from an assumption that any comments you make are well-intended. In the interest of all students, if I believe that a comment may have an unintended negative impact on other members of the class, I will endeavor to respectfully interject and move the discussion in a direction that I hope will feel more helpful. Over the course of this class, you’ll likely find that you agree with some of the ideas expressed in class and disagree with others, and it’s perfectly healthy to engage in thoughtful agreement and disagreement. In all interactions, please communicate your views and reactions in a respectful manner and please do your best to be mindful of the impact a comment may have on your fellow classmates. 
• The teaching team and I encourage and appreciate your suggestions. Please let us know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups. Thank you very much!

Adapted from Brown University Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

ENVR S-215 Environmental Science, Scot Martin

Statement on diversity, inclusion, and belonging

Statement on diversity, inclusion, and belonging

The intention is that students from all backgrounds and perspectives feel inclusion and belonging and be well-served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed, and that the diversity that the students bring to this class be a resource, strength, and benefit. Materials and activities are intended to be respectful of gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture. In this regard, please communicate with me about ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated.

Acknowledgment. This statement was adapted from material written by L. Hernandez, Behavioral and Social Sciences, School of Public Health, Brown University (https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/inclusive-teaching/statements, accessed 22 July 2020).

The goal of Teaching Tips is for an instructor to see something and think "Oh I can do that!" in their class. 

• Make the practices/suggestions simple, and help them imagine how they can do it in their class. 
• Teaching Tips don't have to be exhaustive, and the practices suggested don't require an instructor to redo their entire class.
• The practice can be very simple -- for example, making a course discussion board for course Q+A instead of fielding them by emails.  

ANTH S-1300 Human Evolution, Abigail Desmond

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

In an academic context, promoting diversity, inclusion, and belonging hinges on facilitating a collegial and respectful classroom environment, acknowledging harm caused by prejudicial and discriminatory historical biases within the field, and taking steps to overcome these where they arise in modern scholarship. The study of human evolution raises numerous issues relevant to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Like many academic fields, these areas of inquiry were established when only certain groups of people were able or permitted to engage in and publish formal scientific research. In some cases, this research was informed by implicit or explicit bias and discrimination. Our course will attempt to overcome such biases through modeling sensitivity towards - and inclusiveness of - a variety of cultural norms and values. For example, lectures will not include photographs of human remains from cultures whose descendant communities have a cultural prohibition against this. In a more general way, fostering diversity, inclusion, and belonging means respecting the plurality of lived experience. We will place an emphasis on communicating questions and differences in opinion respectfully and collegially. Scrutinizing bias is a valuable learning opportunity. This course will emphasize training students to think critically, to evaluate the reliability of information, and to use these skills to reject discriminatory, simplistic, or prejudicial ideas.

Human Evolution aims to teach what happened in human evolution and how that evolutionary history is relevant to people today, while maintaining an awareness of the harm that can be and has been inflicted by consciously or unconsciously misusing scientific findings. We hope that we can respectfully discuss issues of bias and representation should they arise, but please know that you can contact me (I will keep your identity confidential) if you have any suggestions to improve the quality of the course materials, or if you feel something was said in class (by anyone) that you felt was disrespectful or discriminatory. If there is any way we can help your performance in this class, please know that we and others in the Harvard Summer School are here to help. Additional resources include program staff such as proctors and Summer School Resident Deans, and if you are experiencing emotional distress the Harvard Summer School Mental Health Support Line (617-998-2447).  

SWGS S-1250 Race, Gender, and Youth Activism in the Struggle for Justice, Marya T. Mtshali

Teaching Philosophy, Diversity, and Inclusion 

Diversity and inclusion are foundational to my teaching philosophy (or “pedagogy,” as we call it in academia). Therefore, I strive to create a learning environment for students that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives, and experiences, and honors your identities (including race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, ability, etc.) The diversity that the students bring to this class is a resource, strength, and benefit. It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture. To help accomplish this: 

• If you have a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official records, please let me know. 
• If you feel like your performance in the class is being impacted by your experiences outside of class, please do not hesitate to come and talk with me. I want to be a resource for you. 
• Please let me know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally, or for other students or student groups. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated! 

To me, diversity and inclusion is not a goal – it is a never-ending journey. Over time, the more we learn about the experiences of various marginalized communities, the more we can improve and adapt our courses to be more inclusive. I hope that you join me on this journey as well, and, if something was said in class (by anyone, including myself) that made you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me about it. 

CREA S-144 Advanced Fiction: Queer Narratives, Nick Wilson

Classroom Ethics and Guidelines (adapted from Dean Bakopoulos’ Fiction Workshop)

In any creative writing classroom, it is almost inevitable that the works we read and the works we create will delve into dark territory. Sorrow, alas, has more narrative energy than joy. Stories of light are challenging to write without first wading (or drowning) in darkness. Still, in our quest for a safe and vibrant classroom, and acknowledging the diverse and unknowable background we all bring to the workshop table, here are seven guidelines we will all follow as best we can.  

1. When turning in a work of fiction for class discussion, a simple content warning is appreciated at the top of page one. We will talk more about this in class, and decide how best, as a community, to use content warnings. Do not shy away from any subject matter, but do let people know it’s there. Also, remember that simple “SHOCK & AWE” is usually bad art. Strive to move beyond the shocking—think about its purpose in your story. 
2. We do not give voice to hate speech in the classroom. Thus, if a racial, homophobic, or sexist slur or any other derogatory term is used in a story, when discussing it as a class we will say the “x-word” or “the slur” rather than repeating the term over and over. In your own writing, ask yourself if such words are necessary to your creative project.
3. Be bold in your art, but do not exploit difference or otherness. Create complicated characters, but when writing about someone much different than you, be mindful of working in complexities and not in stereotypes. Consider the ethics of appropriation and think about the reasons you’re creating the people you are creating and adopting a particular POV (Point of View). (For more information about this, consider reading Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward. I am happy to loan you my copy.) 
4. Understand that literature is not a moral beauty contest. Fictional characters do not represent the author’s views. Fiction presents life as it is, not as it should be. In general, political statements in fiction often feel pedantic or clichéd. Your story should not have a thesis statement. Instead, it should raise a central question, and a million tangential ones. The characters you create can be both likable and deeply flawed, or unlikable and secretly flawed. Let’s not confuse each other for the characters we create.
5. Do not reveal the details of other people’s private lives and do not write fiction that could be interpreted as demeaning or threatening to a particular and recognizable person in the Harvard community. You may reveal all you want about yourself but do protect the identities of other people who may wander into your fiction.
6. Dialogue is better than resentment. Share your concerns and feelings with me privately (either by zoom or in office hours) as the semester unfolds rather than allowing them to turn into grudges! We can work out a solution together. 
7. Please keep your sense of humor and compassion about you at all times. We all make bad work on the road to good work. We all are occasionally misunderstood. We all fall short of our highest hopes. Embracing this may be the greatest lesson the course can teach you.

Our Compassionate Code of Conduct

We are here to share our work and learn from each other, to befriend one another as fellow writers, and to re-commit ourselves to our writing in a supportive environment. In this class, we have an opportunity to create the world we would like to live in every day—a kind, generous, respectful, creative, and passionate community.

Creativity flourishes best in an atmosphere of curiosity, safety, trust, freedom, and play. All of us are responsible for creating and maintaining this atmosphere.

We have the opportunity here to be our most generous selves—checking our egos at the door, recognizing the spark within each other, fostering creativity and well-being in others, and sharing what we most authentically can offer.

Our goal is for every member of this class to experience:

— A feeling of belonging

— A sense of being heard and having questions answered

— Achievement

— The sensation of being surprised, challenged, and captivated

— The opportunity to both receive and share wisdom and fresh perspectives.

We approach each other as guests from different worlds, with the common impulse to create. Respect for other voices and other perspectives is fundamental to our success as a temporary community. Hierarchy and exclusion are contrary to the principles for which the community stands.

We will not tolerate:

— verbal attacks: belligerent, combative, approaches that are meant to shut down discussions or hammer others down in workshop

— intolerance of any kind on the basis of class, race, sexuality, gender, profession, religion, age, ability, etc.

This is not to say that we avoid conflict. Because we are a community of writers learning to be better artists, we understand that in questioning the world, we sometimes question each other. In many cases, the friction between our fruitfully disturbed worlds give rise to another virtue—learning from difference, which expands our vision and our work. We acknowledge that respectful disagreements can be extremely productive in many settings, including our workshops. Even when it is uncomfortable, challenging each other's work or ideas is an essential part of growing and learning as writers and human beings.

 Many of us come from places where we've been involved in long-term conflicts and have learned extremely valuable survival skills, including persistence, skepticism, and a willingness to confront others. But in declaring ourselves present, we do not get to silence anyone else. Our community is collective; by suppressing another voice, we shut down an unrecognizable part of ourselves. Everything is an ongoing discussion. No one should consciously or unconsciously be working to shut down dialogue. No one can expect to have the last word or to persuade everyone of the rightness of his or her opinion. Our words can only open the next door.

(This has been adapted from Joy Castro's ENGL 852A course at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and her adaptation of the Compassionate Code of Conduct of the Macondo Writing Workshop and the guiding principles of the A Room of Her Own writing retreat.)