A Primer - Karla Scott

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Résumé :
Many people find it difficult to talk about race in a meaningful way! Most don't know even try because we aren't taught how! Let's be honest, it is rare to find opportunities to learn how to communicate about race and across identity divisions. If you want to know how your own communication can interrupt and intervene in ways that help dismantle systematic racism, anti-Blackness and othering in your own family, communities, workplace, larger society, and even globally, this Primer offers the basic elements to get started! It is part textbook and part reflection journal with a glossary of social justice terms, specific strategies and skills for dialogue across divisions, and a resource section with QR codes to easily access more information on a journey to learn more and do different! The Primer is great for formal courses and book groups providing a better understanding of the backstory of race and how the stuff we bring to our own communication about and across identity divisions can create negative or positive interactions. Yes, a goal of the Primer is to build your own capacity, and if you are an employee, administrative leader, or board member of an organization committed to change, you can share what you've learned in the Primer and contribute information and strategies to support your organization's plan to becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive....

Biographie:
Karla D. Scott is a proud native of East St. Louis, Illinois where she enjoyed her first career as a journalist before pursuing graduate study and completing her doctorate in communication and culture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She joined the faculty of the Department of Communication at Saint Louis University in 1994 and is the first Black woman faculty member to be hired at Saint Louis University at the academic rank of Assistant Professor, tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, and subsequently promoted to Full Professor. During her time at SLU, she served as Director of African American Studies, growing the program from an interdisciplinary certificate program to an academic major, and served as the first Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is an award-winning teacher and researcher and developed the university's first Intergroup Dialogue initiative with a curriculum to build capacity to communicate about and across identity differences. She is also the author of The Language of Strong Black Womanhood: Myths, Models, Messages, and a New Mandate for Self Care published by Rowman & Littlefield. Beyond the university she shares her passion for communication as a path for transformation through her consulting practice, Dialogue, Diversity & Dharma, LLC and is also a 200-hour Certified Yoga Teacher. She remains close to her hometown on the bluffs of southern Illinois sharing a home with her husband wonderful Wil and pandemic puppy Frida.Learn more about her work at www.drkarladscott.com....