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. Self Awareness for Social Justice, a live Eight-Week course presented by Dr. Tee Williams, is designed to help you learn about yourself and the ways you’ve been impacted by systems of inequality.
About This Course
COURSE COST: $698 or Two Payments of $350.00
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. It minimizes resistance 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. Without these things, our ability to make change is severely limited.
Self-awareness is critical to liberation and social justice work because it enables us to more clearly see ourselves and notice what is happening around us. It allows us to see the ways that we are complicit in our own oppression. It allows us to see the messages that we’ve internalized that keep us trapped in our prescribed roles. And it allows us to see the ways that we collude with oppression of other people and harm them. Self-Awareness allows us for become fully conscious, fully human and choose liberation.
In this course you will :
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Examine what you’ve been taught as someone both targeted by, and privileged by, systems of inequality and assess the consequences.
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Expand your awareness of your collective social identities and the ways you manage their impacts upon your life.
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Learn to identify, understand, trace and transform your internalized patterns.
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Uncover your hidden biases and prejudices and develop a plan for overcoming them.
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Increase your awareness of how you are perceived by, and impact, other people.
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Practice the skills necessary to become a more powerful and effective ally.
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And much, much more.
The knowledge you’ve gained in the previous course was designed to serve as a starting point, a strong foundation from which you will continue to learn and grow. Now comes the hard part – developing the self awareness to apply that knowledge in productive ways AND in ways that do not bring harm to other people as you work across identities. This requires that you develop Internal self-awareness AND External self awareness, both of which will be covered in this course.
We will achieve this goal through the completion of exercises aimed at increasing your awareness and critical consciousness and by applying what we know and learn in several areas including your individual identity, your social identity, your awareness of systems of oppression and your development of Liberatory Consciousness.
Here are Some of the Benefits of this Course:
Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Ways You’ve been Impacted by Systems of Inequality:
Very often we are unaware of the ways we’ve been influenced, shaped and hurt by systems of inequality. This course will help you uncover the ways that being targeted by, or receiving privilege from, systems of inequality has impacted you.
Learn to Identify, Understand & Transform Your Patterns
One of the ways that systems of inequality are reproduced is through internalized patterns of domination and subordination. This course will walk you through a process designed to help you spot your patterns, trace them to their root cause and transform them.
Become a Better & More Effective Ally Across Multiple Identities:
Self awareness is an essential skill for engaging in effective allyship. This course will help you learn to recognize and overcome your blind spots, develop your capacity for empathy and perspective-taking and build your capacity for sustained and impactful Allyship.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Class meets once a week, on Saturdays from 10am-12pm. 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.
Our class meetings usually go for 2 hours. Please bear in mind additional time is needed to complete assigned coursework with your partner.
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!
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.
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.
Unfortunately, no. The Self-Paced Version of this course will not be available for some time.
Here’s What People are Saying About My Other Courses:
Steph Gaudreau
Stupid Easy Paleo
I’m so thankful that Dr. Tee created the Foundations of Social Justice course. Though I’ve spent a lot of time researching and reading about social justice online, I was always left searching for a fundamental look into social justice that was clear and easy to understand. The scope of the content was wide enough to cover the basics but deep enough to allow me to examine issues below surface level. I really appreciated learning in the format we did, with group video and Dr. Tee presenting the material. We stopped often to discuss, ask and answer questions, talk things out, and really interact with each other. That made the experience very rich and with lots of applicable learning outcomes. By taking this course, I now understand how to fight for the vision of liberatory social justice that aligns to my personal values so that I can sustain the work instead of burning out. Without Dr. Tee’s guidance in the Foundations of Social Justice course, I would still be confused and therefore, ineffective at doing anything productive to participate in the work.
Steph Ondrusek
Stong By Steph
Foundations of Social Justice gave me a totally new framework for understanding the systems of oppression at work. Prior to taking this class, I was having a difficult time working out my role in being a better human being (and how to go about it). I understood that oppression is real, but I had looked at it in one-dimensional ways: I am oppressed as a woman, but the oppressor as a white person. Given those identities, I wasn’t sure how they melded, or what that meant. Dr. Tee opened my eyes and helped me to zoom out. I’ve begun to understand that all of our identities intersect and create a unique place for each of us in society. I’ve come to understand that allyship is a developmental process, one in which the rehumanization and the healing of everyone is vital.
Foundations of Social Justice gave me a framework from which to work and from which to learn. I’ve become better at discerning nuances in conversations (especially on social media) and been able to pull important information from social justice spaces and walk through the world with that knowledge but still feeling hopeful, optimistic, and empowered to take action.
This class has helped me to examine myself and my actions and inspired me to take action and connect every day. It’s changed how I walk through the world, made me more compassionate, and given me pause to listen more to everyone (including people in dominant groups that I would have previously discounted). I would highly recommend this course to anyone who’s feeling ready to take serious action and undergo some self-examination! You’ll come out of the course with new energy and a profound understanding of what’s possible.
Amber Leonard Thomas
Girls Gone stong
The Foundations of Social Justice course was instrumental in developing my understanding of social justice and liberation. I had been feeling uneasy about navigating social justice issues with my own family, friends, and online communities, and knew I needed to dig into my own beliefs, get a better understanding the privileges I experience, and learn more about the things I could do to take a stand. Starting with a course delivered by a knowledgeable and well-equipped instructor was important for my learning style and personality.
The material was approachable, understandable, and delivered in a way that encouraged self-evaluation and learning at your own pace. Communication via a private facebook group and weekly video calls encouraged open, honest discussion and questions about topics that can be difficult to navigate.
Dr. Tee sees potential in everyone and offers rich opportunities for self-inquiry and growth. He is so knowledgeable, compassionate, welcoming, and funny, and a perfect person to lead folks into the complex, layered, and charged topics of social justice and liberation. Dr. Tee is also willing to go above and beyond by offering continued discussion and 1-1 interaction to make sure you’re supported in your learning and experience in his course. In all, my experience with Dr. Tee and the Foundations of Social Justice course made me feel validated, heard, and understood, all while fostering a healthy sense of curiosity and questioning of myself, institutions, and systems to allow for change and liberation of both oppressed parties and their oppressors. We’re all in this together, and Dr. Tee helped me feel more optimistic about our uncertain future. I highly recommend this course to anyone feeling called to do more self-evaluation around social justice topics.
