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Professional Development Conferences
Teaching Race in America: A Professional Development Conference
How do we discuss the nation’s racial past and present in our classrooms and communities?
How do we honestly examine and confront the history of race in the United States in today’s contentious environment?
How should teachers respond to those who want to exclude any discussion of systemic racism in our history, our culture, our institutions, and our economy?
On August 9, 2023, Oakland University will host a conference that brings together secondary and university educators to discuss pedagogical methods for teaching race in America. “Teaching Race in America: A Professional Development Continuing Education Conference” is a collaborative effort by high school educators and Oakland faculty.
RegistrationTeaching Race in America: A Professional Development Conference (August 9, 2023) brings together high school and middle school teachers and university professors to discuss and provide strategies for teaching race in social studies and ELA classes.
The conference will feature presentations by Nikole Hannah-Jones (creator of The New York Times’s 1619 Project and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University School of Communications), Roy Finkenbine (Professor of History and Director of Black Abolitionist Archives at the University of Detroit Mercy), Carlin Borsheim-Black (Professor of English Education at Central Michigan University), and local secondary educators and university professors.
Nikole Hannah-Jones will demonstrate how to use the “1619 Project” to navigate challenging topics including slavery, segregation, and racial inequality.
Roy Finkenbine and Carlin Borsheim-Black will provide teaching strategies for educators. Finkenbine will discuss teaching Race and Slavery in America's Past and Borsheim-Black will offer insight into teaching racial literacy in secondary ELA.
Breakout sessions will include presentations by local educators focused on practical and innovative strategies to discuss racism and race in social studies and ELA classes.
Overall, attendees will gain SCECH, new strategies, digital resources, reading lists, and connections to feel comfortable and empowered to teach race in the classroom.
If you have any questions about the conference or would like to be put on our mailing list for conference updates, please send an email to OUteachingconf@qthklwl.com.
Wednesday, August 9
- 8 - 8:30 a.m. - Registration and Continental Breakfast
- 8:30 - 9:15 a.m. - Welcome Remarks from Dean Elaine Carey, Dean Jon Margerum-Leys, and Sponsors
- Location: Founders Ballrooms A and B
- 9:15 - 9:30 a.m. - Break
- 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. - General Session
- “In Conversation about Truth, History, and The 1619 Project”
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Howard University
Location: Founders Ballrooms A and B
- “In Conversation about Truth, History, and The 1619 Project”
- 11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. - Lunch and General Session
- “Uncomfortable Discoveries: Teaching about Race and Slavery in America’s Past”
Roy Finkenbine, University of Detroit Mercy - "Navigating Conservative Pushback in English Classrooms"
Carlin Borsheim-Black, Central Michigan University
Location: Founders Ballrooms A and B
- “Uncomfortable Discoveries: Teaching about Race and Slavery in America’s Past”
- 12:45 - 1 p.m. - Break
- 1 - 1:45 p.m. - Breakout Session I
- “Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Terms into Educational Spaces: Strategies and Best Practices”
Jessyca Mathews, Carman-Ainsworth High School
Location: Founders Ballroom C East - “Confronting a History of Racism through Disciplinary Literacy”
Jared Aumen, Ann Arbor Public Schools
Joslyn Hunscher-Young, Ann Arbor Public Schools
Location: Gold Room A - “‘Just like me’: Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Agency, And Radical Empathy”
Christopher Apap, Oakland University
Location: Gold Room C - “Race Across the Curriculum”
Danielle Ligocki, Oakland University
Phyllis Ness, Oakland University
Patti Bills, Oakland University
Linda Doornbos, Oakland University
Location: Founders Ballroom C West
- “Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Terms into Educational Spaces: Strategies and Best Practices”
- 1:45 - 2 p.m. - Break
- 2 - 2:45 p.m. - Breakout Session II
- “‘Not Just Another Thing’: Finding Passion, Purpose, and Agency in 1619 Project Resources”
Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA
David Hales, Wayne RESA
Location: Founders Ballroom C East - “Teaching Political Movements using The Hate You Give and Kite Runner”
Kimberly Y. Holland, Wayne State University
Location: Gold Room A - “Rethinking the Canon with Frederick Douglass”
Rob Anderson, Oakland University
Tim Donahue, Oakland University
Jennifer Tianen, West Bloomfield High School
Location: Gold Room C - "Racialized Issues in Schools"
Robert Martin, Oakland University/Oakland County Diversity Director
Cornelius Godfrey, Oakland Schools/Oakland County Diversity Director
Location: Founders Ballroom C West
- “‘Not Just Another Thing’: Finding Passion, Purpose, and Agency in 1619 Project Resources”
- 2:45 - 3 p.m. - Break
- 3 - 3:45 p.m. - Breakout Session III
- “Cultivating Courageous Conversations About Race in the Classroom, School and Community”
Jay Marks, Jay B. Marks and Associates Educational Consulting Services
Location: Gold Room A - “Teaching Taught Topics: A Case Study of Race, Resistance, and Violence on the Underground Railroad in the Midwest”
Rochelle Danquah, Oakland University
Location: Gold Room C - “Equitable Instruction: Remixing Curriculum and Pedagogy for Social Justice and Empathy Development”
Kim Stein, Bridgeport High School
Location: Founders Ballroom C East - “Teaching histories of Racism and Resistance through Popular Film” and “Television/TV, YouTube, and Video Games: Understanding racism through media”
Annie Sullivan, Oakland University
Sam Srauy, Oakland University
Location: Founders Ballroom C West
- “Cultivating Courageous Conversations About Race in the Classroom, School and Community”
- 3:45 - 4 p.m. - Break
- 4 - 4:45 p.m. - General Session
- Museum Panel
- Olivia Marsh, The Henry Ford Museum
- Tracy Irwin, Detroit Historical Society
- Closing Remarks
Location: Founders Ballrooms A and B
- Museum Panel
Interested in contributing to the conversation? Please read the call for proposals below and consider submitting an individual or group presentation. If accepted, your presentation will be part of the breakout sessions.
How do we discuss our nation’s racial past and present in our classrooms and communities? How do we honestly examine and confront the history of race in the United States in today’s contentious environment? How should teachers respond to those who want to exclude any discussion of systemic racism in our history, culture, institutions, and economy?
On August 9, 2023, Oakland University will host a conference that brings together secondary and university educators to discuss pedagogical methods for teaching race in America. “Teaching Race in America: A Professional Development Conference” is a collaborative effort by high school educators and Oakland University faculty. Our keynote presenter will be Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-Winning investigative reporter for the New York Times and creator of the 1619 Project. Lunch-time presenters will include Roy Finkenbine (Director of the Black Abolitionist Archive and Professor of History, University of Detroit-Mercy) and Carlin Borsheim-Black (Professor of English Language and Literature, Central Michigan University and author of Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students).
We are seeking proposals for workshops aimed at sharing effective classroom strategies. Possible subjects include approaches to teaching historical events and issues (such as native dispossession, abolition, the legacy of slavery, lynching, and immigration); literary and cinematic texts (Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and other newly banned books); contemporary movements and social protests (Black Lives Matter, Land Back); legal and political developments (border security, the assault on voting rights), and more. We welcome proposals that address the conference’s focus on Social Studies and English Language Arts. Collaborative proposals are strongly encouraged.
Sessions will be 45 minutes long and may take many forms: panel presentations, roundtable discussions, workshops highlighting specific strategies or materials, “lightning” sessions, or other creative formats. Whatever the case, all sessions should focus on curricular development, sharing practical strategies and resources, and/or fostering conversation and dialogue between secondary teachers, university faculty, and community members in a spirit of shared inquiry and learning. Presenters should plan to provide concrete supporting materials (bibliographies, text sets, archival material, instructional activities, etc.) and practices (lesson plans, discussion questions, in- or out-of-class activities, and more). Regardless of format, we recommend that all sessions reserve time for questions, comments, and discussion.
Proposals for interactive presentations, workshops, and roundtables should include:
Title
Teaching Area
Target Audience
Content
Structure/Format
Outcomes/Takeaways
Submission Portal
Deadline for submissions: March 23, 2023.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Keynote Presenter
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine. Nikole got hooked on journalism when she joined her high school newspaper and began writing about students like her, who were bused across town as part of a voluntary school desegregation program. Prior to joining The New York Times, Nikole worked as an investigative reporter at ProPublica in New York City, where she spent three years chronicling the way official policy created and maintains segregation in housing and schools. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2017), the National Association of Black Journalists Journalist of the Year (2015), the George Polk Award for radio reporting (2016), the Pulitzer Prize (2020), and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Nonfiction for The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. Currently, Hannah-Jones is the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy.
Roy Finkenbine, Keynote Presenter
Roy E. Finkenbine is Professor of History and Director of the Black Abolitionist Archive at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he teaches courses in African American history, modern Africa, slave resistance, the Civil War era, and the Underground Railroad. He previously taught at Hampton University. While on the editorial staff of the Black Abolitionist Papers Project at Florida State University in the 1980s and 1990s, he coedited the five-volume Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865 (1985-1992) and Witness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emancipation (1993). He has authored Sources of the African American Past (1st ed., 1997; 2nd ed., 2004), as well as over a dozen articles and book chapters related to the black abolitionists, reparations for slavery, and the Underground Railroad. He serves on the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission. His op-eds have appeared in the History News Network, Time, Newsweek, RawStory, AlterNet and Faithfully Magazine. Currently, Finkenbine is completing a book entitled The Indigenous Underground Railroad: Freedom Seekers and First Nations Peoples in the Old Northwest.
Carlin Borsheim-Black, Keynote Presenter
Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black is an award-winning teacher-researcher and professor of English education in the Department of English, Language, and Literature at Central Michigan University. Borsheim-Black’s teaching and scholarship focus on possibilities and challenges of antiracist teaching in the context of literature study, especially in predominantly white classrooms and communities. Her book, Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students, co-authored with Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, offers English teachers specific practices for merging goals for racial literacy with goals for literature instruction in secondary English classrooms. The book was recognized with the 2022 Outstanding Book Award by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Borsheim-Black’s research has been published in Research in the Teaching of English, English Education, Teachers College Record, and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. She currently serves as co-editor of Michigan Reading Journal.
If you’re interested in helping “Teaching Race in America: A Professional Development Conference” make an impact on educators and their pupils, please review the various sponsorship opportunities below. Please use the code, S0823TRA, to make donations.
Presenting Sponsor - $30,000 (Exclusive)
FMV $180
- Company logo on the event invitation and other event collateral
- Pre-event press release(s) acknowledging your company as the presenting sponsor
- Presenting Sponsor recognition in digital media releases
- Pre event Presenting Sponsor recognition in OU social media posts
- Welcome address (two minutes) by executive representative during VIP reception and general session
- Corporate logo displayed on the large screen in VIP reception and general session rooms
- Prominent acknowledgement on VIP event signage
- Recognition in follow-up social media posts on OU and College of Arts and Sciences social media pages
- Company display table at VIP reception and conference
- Invitation for 6 to VIP reception
Platinum Sponsor $15,000 (2 available)
FMV $120
- Pre event Platinum Sponsor recognition in OU social media posts
- Opportunity to provide remarks during VIP reception (1 minute)
- Prominent Acknowledgement on VIP event signage
- Corporate logo displayed on the screen in the general session room
- Recognition in follow up social media posts on OU and College of Arts and Sciences social media pages
- Company display table during conference
- Invitation for 4 to VIP reception
Gold Sponsor - $5,000 (4 available)
FMV $60
- Corporate logo displayed on the large screen in VIP reception and general session rooms
- Recognition in follow up social media posts on OU and College of Arts and Sciences social media pages
- Company display table at conference
- Invitation for 2 to VIP reception
Bronze Sponsor $2500 (4 available)
FMV $30
- Company name displayed on the large screen in VIP reception and general session rooms
- Recognition in follow up social media post on OU and College of Arts and Sciences social media pages
- Company display table at conference
- Invitation for 1 to VIP reception
Benefactor Sponsor – $1,000
(Covers the registration cost for 4 middle/high school teachers)
- Benefactor Sponsor recognition in digital media releases
- Company name displayed on large screen at the conference
- Recognition in follow up social media posts on OU and College of Arts and Sciences social media pages
- Participants will gain a richer set of perspectives on the challenges and benefits of teaching race through intentional and honest conversations with colleagues.
- Participants will explore new strategies and approaches for teaching race and equity.
- Participants will examine instructional resources to teach race, and determine areas of application in their ELA and Social Studies classes.
- Participants will engage with, and develop a plan to implement, discipline-specific approaches to anti-racist instruction in ELA and Social Studies classes.
On August 9, middle and high school educators and university professors will gather to discuss strategies for teaching race.
But the conversations will continue after the conference.
One of the goals of the conference is to foster collaboration and an ongoing conversation between secondary educators and Oakland University professors that will continue after the conference.
The conference committee is committed to providing resources such as reading lists and in-class activities that will be available for participants at the conference. The committee plans to set up a private networking forum that will enable participants to seek support and advice as challenges and opportunities arise in the classroom.
Updates regarding the post-conference conversation will be posted here.
Presenting Sponsor:
Kresge Foundation
VIP Reception Sponsor:
Life's Journey Training and Consulting, LLC
Gold Sponsor:
United Way of Southeastern Michigan
The Skillman Foundation
OER Project
Lia and Glenn McIntosh
Elaine Carey and Javier Alvarez-Isasi
Bronze Sponsor:
Knudsen Foundation
Charles H. Wright Museum
The Detroit Historical Society
Benefactor Sponsors:
MEEMIC Insurance Company
Breakfast Sponsor:
The School of Education and Human Services