Together RIT: A Day of Dialogue
Together RIT:
A Day of Dialogue
Executive Director for Culture and Diversity Education
tpsddi@rit.edu
RIT launched a new tradition fall of 2022, gathering the community to engage in intentional and honest dialogue about race, ethnicity, and racism. It offered students, faculty, staff, and alumni the opportunity to share their work, passions, ideas, critiques, initiatives, performances, and artistic projects with the RIT community through sessions held in-person.
There has been an historical narrative and set of practices that often ignores or devalues the importance of access. Many assume that there are ideal forms of communication and definitive ways we process information. Others openly acknowledge that only “normal” people should have access to certain opportunities including education. The interpersonal, institutional and systemic exclusion that people who aren’t considered “normal” face is pervasive. History also tells us that there have been individuals and groups that have advocated for a broader understanding learning or how we go about accomplishing tasks. When given the opportunity to share their unique gifts or have accommodations met people often thrive.
Together RIT creates a space to ask questions, empathize, build solidarity, and give recognition to our coexistence as creators, learners, scholars and peers. The day is an opportunity to highlight the positive contributions, joy and pride that all kinds of doers, communicators and learners experience. Having a diverse student body and workforce made up of a large Deaf community, neurodivergent individuals and people with disabilities is something that we need to better leverage and understand.
The event will provide RIT faculty, staff, students, and alums with the opportunity to share their work, passions, ideas, informed critiques, initiatives, performances, and artistic projects. Together RIT is a brave and accountable space, so different perspectives are welcomed. That said, we do not encourage submissions that are rooted in hate or dehumanizing someone’s existence.
RIT has made important efforts to address some barriers related to these particular kinds of diversity. That said, there is still much work to be done to hold ourselves, the university, and its many communities accountable to its professed ideals. We can all do better. We must do better!
While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, we welcome submissions that fall under one of the three main themes and which aim to:
- Define “invisible” disabilities
- Examine how ableism or audism exists in our daily lives
- Articulate the challenges of being neurodivergent on campus
- Showcase stories of how one develops a Deaf identity
- Explore the importance of terminology or accurate identity markers
- Offer concrete strategies for being an advocate
- Facilitate a conversation across different disabilities to bridge divides
- Bring the Deaf community together to discuss internalized audism and/or ableism
- Tips for supporting neurodivergent learners in the classroom
- Propose ideas for inclusive and non-discriminatory policy development and implementation
- Highlight historical and current figures who identify as a disabled person
- Share resources on how to address trauma, repair and healing
- Create a visual to break down autism stereotypes