Together RIT: A Day of Dialogue
Together RIT:
A Day of Dialogue
Executive Director for Culture and Diversity Education
tpsddi@rit.edu
This event is only for the RIT Community.
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.
We are pleased to accept proposals for our fourth annual Together RIT: A Day of Dialogue. The campus-wide event will be held on October 24, 2025 from 10am-4pm. This event is only for the RIT community. The theme will focus on caste, rank and socioeconomic diversity.
There has been an historical narrative that describes the United States of America as a place for social mobility. People have immigrated to this land for an opportunity at a better life. If they work hard, citizens are promised the American Dream. For some, a commitment to athletics serves as a vehicle to transition out of poverty. A portion of our young people are fortunate to graduate college and find that dream job.
Yet, we know the reality of social mobility is reserved for a percentage of people.
Throughout the world, people are navigating the day-to-day realities of living in poverty and surviving during economic recessions. Many people are losing jobs at an alarming rate. Too many people aren’t able to afford their basic needs.
As grim as that may be, we also know that there is a story tell about how people successfully obtain new economic realities. There is also value in dialoguing across our class differences so that we are better positioned to leverage the creativity, innovation and cultural capital of all.
Together RIT creates a space to ask questions, empathize, build solidarity, and give recognition to our unique circumstances. The day is also an opportunity to highlight the positive contributions, joy and pride that come along with identifying as low-income, middle-class or wealthy. It is important for our community to understand these experiences because we have students that come from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
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 socioeconomic status and college affordability. 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 socioeconomic status or socioeconomic diversity
- Examine how economic barriers exists in our daily lives
- Articulate the challenges of being low income, of a lower caste or homeless while attending college
- Showcase stories of how one develops a socioeconomic class identity
- Facilitate a financial literacy workshop
- Define economic concepts and systems (e.g. caste, rank, investments, capitalism)
- Explain the strategies or steps taken to address affordability
- Offer concrete strategies for being an advocate
- Facilitate a conversation across different economic backgrounds to bridge divides
- Discuss class-based stereotypes or the social impact of internalized classism
- Provide tips for supporting low-income students in the classroom
- Connect the dots between class and other intersecting identities and experiences
- Perform dance rooted in class struggle
- Propose ideas for inclusive and non-discriminatory policy development and implementation
- Highlight historical and current figures who identify class advocates
- Share resources on how to address trauma, repair and healing
- Create a visual to imagine new economic systems
- Celebrate different kind of workers or ranks at RIT through visual arts
- Invite alumni to share how they’ve leveraged their career to address barriers or class-based discrimination
We are open to receiving submissions from any and all mediums, including conference papers, works of art, film, photography, interactive pieces, performances, digital media, collaborative or multi-media projects, roundtable discussions, poster boards, or other creative modes of expression.
Note: We ask that all presenters take into consideration a diverse audience of communicators and learners. Keep in mind how you might provide live captioning, make use of an ASL interpreter and create interactive experiences rather than lecture. If interactive, be sure to consider how people using a manual or power-driven device to move about can participate.
In addition, the event organizers will provide you with two resources if your proposal is accepted. One will be a virtual coaching session/training with Kendra Evans (Director, Spectrum Support Programs) to understand how to incorporate your presentation for autistic participants. A second resource, compiled by the NTID Office for Diversity and Inclusion, is a checklist document to ensure access for our Deaf and hard of hearing attendees.
If accepted, the event organizers will work with you to identify available reserved spaces that can accommodate your needs. Please keep in mind classes and offices are still is session so the inventory of what is available will be limited.