Description

YOU’RE READY TO DO THE WORK OF LIBERATION & SOCIAL JUSTICE IN A DEEPER AND MORE PROFOUND WAY.

You’ve successfully completed the Foundations of Social Justice course and developed a stronger understanding of Liberation and Social Justice. Now you’re ready to take the next step: developing the self awareness necessary to do this work with depth and clarity.

Here are just a few of the benefits:

– Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Ways You’ve been Impacted by Systems of Inequality
– Learn to Identify, Understand & Transform Your Patterns
– Become a Better & More Effective Ally Across Multiple Identities

My goal for this course is to help you to develop the awareness needed to successfully do the work of Liberation and Social Justice. Socialization, as you know, is one of the ways that individuals are taught to play their respective roles in various systems of oppression. One of the ways that it minimizes resistance is by interrupting the process of self-awareness. In doing so, it limits our capacity to notice the oppression around us, name it and imagine and create alternatives. This degrades our capacity for liberatory visioning and liberatory action. Self-awareness is critical to liberation and social justice work because it enables us to more clearly see ourselves, notice what is happening around us, become conscious of our roles and choose liberation.

Course Overview

Week One: Introduction & Course Overview – In this session we will introduce ourselves, review the course outline and structure, discuss guidelines and ground rules and set the foundations and expectations for the remainder of the course.

Week Two: What is Self-Awareness? – In this session, we will discuss the meaning of Self Awareness, identify its different components and examine what it looks like within various contexts.

Week Three: Self Awareness for Liberation & Social Justice – This session will examine the importance of Self Awareness for Liberation and Social Justice, identify is benefits, discuss its challenges and barriers and situate the topic of self-awareness with a context of liberatory consciousness.

 Week Four: Self Awareness and Personal identity – In this session we will examine the connection between self-awareness and personal identity. We will discuss aspects of our personal identity, familial patterns, patterned responses and the ways in which we respond to triggers.

Week Five: Identifying, Understanding and Transforming Patterns – This session will cover patterns and pattern transformation. We will discuss what patterns are, why they exist and how they function. We will also cover the process by which patterns are transformed.

Week Six: Self Awareness & Social Identity (pt. 1) – In this session we will cover self-awareness as it relates to social identity. We will examine both our dominant and targeted identities, examine the ways we’ve been socialized, uncover our hidden biases and prejudices, and identify the ways that we collude with oppression.

Week Seven: Self Awareness & Social Identity (pt. 2) – This session is a continuation of the previous week’s session, focusing on the development of awareness across our social identities.

Week Eight: Liberatory Consciousness & Action Planning – This session will focus on illuminating the connection between your self-awareness and vision for liberation. We will review the things we’ve learned about ourselves and initiate a process of action planning so that our work on self-awareness will continue.

Course FAQs:

Who is this course for? This course is for those people interested in developing the knowledge and awareness necessary to skillfully engage in the practices of Liberation and Social Justice. Because this course builds on the information presented in a previous course, registration is limited to those who who have successfully completed the Foundations of Social Justice course.

When do we meet? Class meets once a week, on Saturdays from 10:00am – 12:00pm. Much of the work of this course consists of self discovery and exploration. Therefore additional time will be needed to complete your assignments and share/process your assignments with your partner.

How long are our meetings? Our class meetings usually go for 2 hours. Please bear in mind additional time is needed to complete assigned coursework with your partner.

How do we meet? We meet online via video/audio conference.  In order to participate in video conferencing, you’ll need an data connection and a computer or cell phone with a working camera. If you’d like to participate via audio only, you may call in to the audio line. If it helpful to have headphones available during video conferencing to avoid disruptive audio feedback.

What happens if I can’t make a meeting date? All of our meetings are recorded and kept of file for up to one month. At the conclusion of each meeting, a link to that day’s session is posted in our private Facebook group. If you miss a day, you’ll have access to the recording to get caught up!

Are there assignments and readings? Yes. This is a practice-based course that aims to increase your self awareness through multiple methods of discovery and inquiry. There are weekly assignments to be completed and discussed/processed with your partner.

Is the work load manageable?Yes. I understand that everyone leads busy lives.  My goal is to create a process to lead your toward greater self awareness and I aim to do that in ways that will be both manageable and that will contribute significantly to your growth and development. Please note, as with most things, setting aside time to thoroughly complete your assignments is essential for getting the most out of this course.