Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda:
Moving Beyond Failure and Actively Cultivating a More Equitable Academy

Systems of higher education in the U.S. differently advantage and disadvantage the people who move through them, creating an inequitable status quo. While that status quo can suggest a state of perpetual failure, it is true that individuals--whether administrators, instructors, or learners--make choices to participate in the perpetuation or the disruption of these inequities. This session centers around an embodied case study depicting one faculty member’s meditation on a personal failure and the choices he made afterward to orient proactively toward equity. Through session activities, participants will reflect on what failures of this kind indicate about the educational environments in which they occur and how such reflection might prime them to reshape the spaces in which they have responsibilities. This session is appropriate for faculty, graduate students, and academic leaders.

This session can be offered in a fully virtual, synchronous format (90 minutes) or a fully in-person synchronous format (120 minutes). It will be available in November and December 2024.

**The video performance portion of this session contains strong language. It includes descriptions of sexist, heterosexist, and ableist behaviors and reflection on systemic inequities related to race and socioeconomic status.
 

 

In this session, participants will:

  • Reflect on failures to act for justice.
  • Consider how their lived relationship to social inequities within and outside of their educational environment shape their willingness and ability to act.
  • Explore the tension between risk and responsibility when disrupting the status quo.
  • Practice identifying opportunities for proactive justice work in their spheres of influence in the academy.
What people have said about Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda :
This is one of the best (if not the best) DEI workshops I've ever attended. I think the monologues were strikingly effective. I also really appreciated the structure of [the session]. The reflective nature was also really important. I appreciated how the focus of [the session] was inward.
I thought this was a really helpful DEI training, and I appreciated that it felt more discussion based and explicitly intersectional than others I had attended in the past.
This was a very positive, low-stress workshop to engage in the topic of how to take stands for what we believe, and the barriers to taking that action. It provided context for why we don't always act as we would wish and reinforced the message that it is never to late to act.
I think it just gave me a new perspective from which to look at the things that I do on a daily basis that affect others and how I could be more mindful of their impact from a justice standpoint
I loved this session. The opportunity to reflect privately allowed me to be really honest with myself.
I was on the fence about committing my time to joining a DEI task force but I think I'm going to do it now.
I appreciate that the reflections and group sharing were done in a way that enabled many voices to be heard.
The monologue videos provided a good demonstration of inequity in practice and was a great conversation starter.
Click here to visit our What the Audience Is Saying page to read more.
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