July 29-31, 2024 | Resource Center for Nonviolence
Register Here: https://forms.gle/3nDZX4baukjzo2Sf6
California stands to be the first state to implement ethnic studies broadly in K-12 education. Yet this moment of transformative possibility is fraught with danger. Caving to repressive interests, the state has sought to impose ideological “guardrails” around ethnic studies, a field of study that emerged from grassroots anti-imperialist struggle. Motivated by an undemocratic agenda, anti-ethnic studies groups funded by rightwing donors have rushed to offer “ethnic studies” curricula, while ethnic studies practitioners who have long fought for the realization of the field have found themselves in the crosshairs of deeply racist, defamatory, and harassing campaigns.
Given what is at stake in this moment, this year’s CRJ Summer Institute, “Localizing Ethnic Studies,” seeks to clarify the power potential of ethnic studies by returning to the grassroots. Rather than approach the field as a set of histories, struggles, and theories exterior to our region, this year’s institute focuses on the local as the necessary grounds for the building of ethnic studies as a community-responsive field. Reimagining the greater Santa Cruz region against the implied whiteness of its “surf, sun, sustainable farming, and redwoods” image and self-advertised lure as a Central Coast getaway, the CRJ Summer Institute approaches the local as the basis for an ethnic studies curriculum through a focus on place-based histories of not only race and racism, but also, community resistance, people power, and transformative social change.
As always, the Summer Institute is free and open to the public, but space is limited, and priority will be given to registrants who are K-12 teachers, other educators, high school and college students interested in ethnic studies, community members, organizers, and activists.
This Event is Sponsored By:
The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation | Resource Center for Nonviolence | Barrios Unidos
