Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary: Anti-Racist Words of the Week

Presented by Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights

Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary is a three-part initiative aimed at providing students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Notre Dame with sustained, critical engagement on interdisciplinary topics related to understanding systemic racism, and committing to the daily work of anti-racism.

The first component is our lecture series of the same name, presenting preeminent scholars, thought leaders, and public intellectuals to guide our community through topics necessary to an understanding of systemic racism and racial justice. Our speakers share an unambiguous commitment and offer a variety of areas of expertise. They do not all share a uniform view of history, of the present moment, or of the way forward. The goal for these talks is to provide an entry point into the complex set of challenges we face, and help provide intellectual and moral building blocks to begin the transformative work of anti-racism in our communities. We expect our community to engage respectfully with each speaker, using each talk as an opportunity to engage thoughtfully and critically with concepts and topics that will advance their knowledge of and commitment to anti-racism.

The second component is a one-credit course built around the lecture series. In addition to attending the weekly lectures, students will participate in small discussion groups, complete reflective writings, engage with written materials, and, importantly, craft thoughtful questions to be posed to our visiting speakers.

The final component of this initiative is a graduate-student led reading group on the particularly pressing issue of racial justice and policing. This group will engage in serious, interdisciplinary, academic study of policing and hear from experts with different interpretations of the data and different perspectives on solutions.

We are proud to offer this initiative to the Notre Dame community. We sincerely hope that you will join us.

To enjoy the videos in the series, please visit the Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary: Anti-Racist Words of the Week archive. To learn more about the Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary initiative, please visit their website.