2021 Class, Designing Towards an Antiracist Stanford a Success

Last year, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the racial reckoning of 2020, many of us said, “enough is enough.” We must take our passion for innovation in higher education and apply it to the facets of higher education that perpetuate inequity in our nation. This Fall saw the second iteration of the course, renamed to more accurately represent our intention (you can read about last year’s course here: Designing Courageous Conversations for Impact).

What did we do differently this year? There are three key highlights:

1. Landscape Mapping (pictured above): While students focused on their own ecosystems last year, this year we also mapped where systemic racism shows up in academia. This format allowed us to research how those macro forces show up at Stanford and also brought together students inspired by those topical areas. Peruse the entire map students explored here.
2. New teaching team (pictured below): Two individuals who were in the class last year joined Ryan Phillips and Humera Fasihuddin on the teaching team this year! The duo, Judith Ned and Catherine Randle, come out of last year’s class (Fall 2020) with PIVOT Against Racism, a racial emergency preparedness program for departments. They piloted the offering with a small team at the Haas Center earlier in the year and launched a full-scale program for the entire department this past month. The experience was transformative for them and, as with all teams new to design, required a lot of trust in the process. Both instructors regularly shared examples of what they went through at every stage, which inspired confidence in students this quarter.
3. Three team projects. Eight students in the class gave rise to three incredibly important projects and we are so excited to support the ones that wish to continue:

TEAM 1: A class to identify undergraduate antiracist research opportunities

Our Journey to creating a Stanford Class: An Anti-Racist Guide to Research

by Amantina Rossi and Joanna Harber.

TEAM 2: A movement to better-support first-gen students

Revitalizing College Admissions

by Kheshawn Wynn, Madison Haley, and Sophia Lynn.

TEAM 3: A toolkit for graduate labs to develop community agreements

Developing Community Agreements for Anti-Racist Universities

by Jarita Greyeyes, Juyoung Leem, and Samuel Thompson.

Follow the link to read more about the team project or click on the student’s name to read their reflection.

Interested in bringing this lens to your work? Contact humera@dschool.stanford.edu to schedule time with the teaching team.