CRITICAL
DIALOGUES
The Roles Race, Class, Culture
and Language play in our work
as CEMELA Scholars
Purpose
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To communicate our own understandings of
the role race, class, culture, and language
play in our work as scholars to each other
To learn from other people’s experiences and
perspectives on these roles
To discuss how these roles inform our
Vision(s) of CEMELA work
To build a repertoire of strategies to
proactively and simultaneously affirm
CEMELA’s work and address critiques inside
and outside of the academy
GROUNDRULES
What will make this a safe respectful
place to have substantive critical
dialogue about the roles race, class,
language and culture play in our
CEMELA work?
Some Suggested
Groundrules
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Value experience and opinion
Be mindful of verbal and non-verbal
actions (e.g. tone, gestures)
Listen actively
Be mindful of your own thoughts,
feelings, and emotions
Leave room for other’s thoughts,
feelings, and emotions
Respect confidentiality
Respect the learning process (e.g.
continual, takes time, different for
everyone)
Cultural History
Create a visual representation that
describes the following:
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Your cultural identity (e.g. race,
class, culture, language)
A critical moment/incident in which
your cultural identity was affirmed.
A critical moment/incident in which
your cultural identity was
questioned.
A critical moment/incident in which
your cultural identity impacted your
development as a scholar.
Critical Reflections
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Research
Mentoring
Professional Development
In what ways does my cultural
identities inform this work?
How does my cultural identities
enrich and problematize this work?
Affirming
CEMELA Work
1) What can I do to Affirm my own work in
CEMELA?
2) What can I do to Affirm my CEMELA
colleague’s work?
3) What can I/we do to Affirm our
CEMELA fellows/post-doc’s work?
4) What can I/we do to Affirm CEMELA’s
work to the public (Latinos, NonLatinos)?
5) What can I/we do to Affirm CEMELA’s
work to professional and academic
colleagues (home institutions,
professional organizations, schools,
fields)?
THANK YOU