Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 2018-19 Programming Grant Awardees

campus awardPhoto: Phil Dembinski '08
Columbia faculty and staff members awarded grants from Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) announces its first round of programming grants. This support is offered to faculty and Academic Affairs staff who wish to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion through programming events aligned with DEI's mission and available to the greater Columbia community. 

2018-19 Awardees

Melanie Chambliss
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Assistant Professor
Grant to support a speaker/workshop for courses to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1919 race riot in Chicago.

Madhurima Chakraborty
English and Creative Writing
Associate Professor
Grant to support visiting lecturers for the course Critical Issues: Comedy and Social Justice, which investigates the potential of comedy to affect political change.
 
Ellen Chenoweth
Dance
Faculty member
Dance Presenting Series Director
Grant to contribute to a week-long residency of Urban Bush Women, leaders in the field of community engagement, prior to their performances in the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago.
 
Stephanie Frank
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Faculty member
Grant to contribute to a program of screenings, workshops, lectures and gallery tours that bring awareness around issues of Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, and support religious diversity on our campus.
           
Visda Goudarzi
Audio Arts and Acoustics
Assistant Professor
Grant to support two female speakers–a largely underrepresented group in the field of Audio and Music technology–to share their work with students for Spring 2019.
           
Jessica Jacobs
Design
Interim Chair and Assistant Professor
Grant to bring facilitators Terresa Moses and Lisa Mercer to campus to conduct their Racism Untaught workshop, which looks at how elements of racism are perpetuated through design.
           
C. Richard King
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Chair and Professor
Grant to support a lecture by historian and long-time activist Dr. Barbara Ransby, professor and Director of the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of the book All Black Lives Matter, Reimaging Freedom in the 21st Century, in April 2019, to engage the Columbia community in a conversation about race and racism.
 
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Faculty member
Grant to support three speakers for the program "Exploring Afro-Dominican Traditions." Lecture subjects include: “Taino," "Negritude, Haitian Art,” and "Afro-Caribbean Music." 
 
Peg Murphy
Communication
Associate Professor
Grant to support “Finding Your Voice: How to Be A Powerful Female Creative Force at Work Today,” a program of panels and chat circles with industry leaders and up-and-comers to encourage female participation in creative industries.
           
Lauren Downing Peters
Fashion Studies
Assistant Professor  
Grant to support Dr. Jonathan Michael Square (Harvard) and Kimberley Jenkins (Parsons) to host the traveling Fashion & Social Justice workshop, which examines the role fashion plays in challenging inequality.
 
Teresa Prados-Torreira
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences
Associate Professor
Grant to bring Bhaskar Sunkara, a young Indian American and the publisher and editor of Jacobin, to talk with students about Apu, the controversial Indian American character from The Simpsons as a working-class hero to Indian Americans.
                                               
David Sanchez
Business and Entrepreneurship
Faculty member
Grant to support a queer entrepreneurial "pitch" event partnering with START OUT, a non-profit for queer entrepreneurs for queer Columbia students, faculty, and entrepreneurs.
                                   
Chad Wilson
Assistant Director of Academic Advising       
Grant for a workshop focused on gender-bias for the College Advising Center staff to investigate unconscious bias regarding gender in the workplace with the goal of creating a more positive culture for both staff and students.