{"id":133338,"date":"2021-06-21T16:29:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=133338"},"modified":"2022-02-10T14:46:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:46:21","slug":"knapsack-institute-celebrates-20-years-of-critical-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=133338","title":{"rendered":"Knapsack Institute celebrates 20 years of critical conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As the Knapsack Institute looks back on 20 years of education, it’s also looking forward to the ever-evolving future of research and practices in equity, diversity and inclusion fields.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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For 20 years, the Knapsack Institute at UCCS has worked to transform the way classrooms and workplaces talk about highly political and emotional subjects \u2014 from race, class, gender and disability to inequality and privilege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those conversations have changed over the years, but the Institute\u2019s mission has remained the same: providing skills that allow people to successfully navigate conversations on these critical topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute, which began offering its first three-day summer program for educators as early as 1999, takes its name from gender and anti-racism scholar Peggy McIntosh\u2019s groundbreaking academic reckoning of privilege. In \u201cWhite Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,\u201d McIntosh writes that privilege is \u201can invisible weightless knapsack\u201d of tools, safety nets and assurances: \u201cunearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abby Ferber, director of the Matrix Center and professor of sociology and women\u2019s and ethnic studies, has led and co-facilitated the Institute for 20 years \u2014 and has helped flip the Institute\u2019s name on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flipping Peggy McIntire’s “invisible knapsack” of privilege on its head, the Knapsack Institute at UCCS gives participants a knapsack of tools and strategies to understand and advance topics of diversity and inclusion.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParticipants leave the Institute with a knapsack full of concrete tools, ideas and strategies to use in the classroom and workplace,\u201d Ferber said. \u201cThey leave with ways of engaging people in these issues respectfully, with the skills to help others in the room understand each other and have authentic, honest dialogues in which everyone can fully participate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute\u2019s \u201cknapsack\u201d of tools has evolved over the years. 20 years ago, its focus was on transforming the classroom: from encouraging UCCS faculty members to include academic works by marginalized scholars in their curricula, to creating an inclusive classroom dynamic where underrepresented students felt they belonged and their voices were valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As research into diversity and inclusion topics has evolved, the conversations have changed, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, Ferber and co-facilitators revise the Institute’s curriculum to address up-to-the-minute issues and research findings. For example, this year\u2019s curriculum will offer sessions on cancel culture and transgender issues, along with flagship workshops on facilitating difficult discussions and dealing with resistance to respectful dialogue around diversity and inclusion topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe focus on research-based best practices that address the moment,\u201d Ferber said. \u201cWe cap the Institute at 40 participants so that we can create a small learning community. And each of the faculty members involved are doing research on these topics right now. It\u2019s what they study and teach every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferber reflected that as the academic understanding and practices of diversity and inclusion have advanced, the needs of participants have changed, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Knapsack Institute offers up-to-the-minute research and strategies on equity, diversity and inclusion.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday we\u2019re finding, more and more, that bringing topics of diversity and inclusion into the classroom can create an emotionally charged environment. These topics have become very politicized,\u201d Ferber said. \u201cOur participants want to come and think about how they can engage in civil, respectful dialogue around these issues, and how they can facilitate these conversations in their classroom or workplace. They want skills to teach about these topics in their environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute doesn’t just serve classroom needs. As research continues to show that diverse and inclusive environment support positive business outcomes, some participants have been asked to serve on their organizations’ diversity and inclusion committees \u2014 often without a background in the issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of those people don\u2019t have the background or training to really make a difference on those committees, or for those committees to carry out their work,\u201d Ferber said. \u201cPeople come to the Knapsack Institute to learn about best practices, recognizing that they can\u2019t adequately address diversity, equity or inclusion in their organizations without training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 20 years, Ferber foresees that the Institute will continue to flex with the times. And the team of facilitators have every intention of continuing their work \u2014 addressing new and evolving topics each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have no thoughts about stopping in any way,\u201d Ferber said. \u201cOur basic core goals and values remain the same, but the Institute will continue to change and evolve every year, because the issues that people are facing change every year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everybody is an educator in some way,” Ferber concluded. “No matter what you do or where you are, these issues are all around you, and there is always more to learn.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knapsack Institute, a flagship program of the Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion<\/a> at UCCS, offers a three-day institute each summer open to educators, trainers, facilitators and individuals from the non-profit and corporate sectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2021 session ran from June 16-18 in a virtual format. Having offered a successful virtual Institute, the Institute plans to increase its sessions in future years to include one virtual and one in-person program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn about the Knapsack Institute online<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Institute has trained educators, facilitators and employees in diversity, inclusion and equity topics for over 20 years. And the program’s facilitators have no plans of stopping. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":133415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,49,12,417],"tags":[379,51,321,332,322,356],"class_list":["post-133338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-campus-announcements","category-events","category-strategic-plan","tag-dei","tag-featured","tag-matrix-center-for-the-advancement-of-social-equity-and-inclusion","tag-more-news","tag-office-of-institutional-equity","tag-learning-engagement-belonging"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/680px-Communique-Images-99.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-yGC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133338"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133419,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133338\/revisions\/133419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}