Resource to understand and support faculty, students, and staff through crisis.
The devastating events in Israel and Gaza have left many in shock. The following resources are meant to provide mental health support for all members of our JWU community struggling to cope with the tragic loss of life. Remember there are resources available to you as JWU faculty and staff, including through the Coastline Employee Assistance Program via HR Pulse. For faculty and staff who interact with students and need a consult, reach out to Counseling and Mental Health Services. Please consider sharing the following campus support services with students: JWU Counseling (Providence) and (Charlotte), Mindfulness Solution, The Trevor Helpline and The Jed Foundation, which focuses on students struggling with trauma.
Resources to support Faculty:
The links below provide resources for mental health support aimed at faculty.
What If the Faculty Are Not Alright? Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in Higher Education
Intervening Into Burnout (Inside Higher Ed)
Avoiding Burnout: Self-Care Strategies for Faculty (Faculty Focus)
Radical Self-Care (Inside Higher Ed)
How to Listen Less: Setting Boundaries When It Comes to Students' Emotional Disclosures (Inside Higher Ed)
Resources to support Staff:
This resource offers insights for employers on fostering compassion and understanding in the workplace during times of external conflict, essential for maintaining a positive work environment.
Workplace Compassion Amid Conflict: A Guide for Employers During the Israel-Hamas War (Virgin Pulse)
Coping with Stress at Work (APA)
Resources to support Students:
These resources provided offer different perspectives and materials for discussing the Israel-Hamas War with students, aiding educators in approaching this sensitive topic in a suitable and educational manner, and helping guide faculty in understanding the challenges unique to these communities.
Resources for Discussing the Israel-Hamas War with Students (School Library Journal)
How to Talk About the Israel-Hamas War: Resources for Educators (EdWeek)
Risky teaching: Developing a Trauma-Informed Pedagogy for Higher Education
HANDLE WITH CARE: SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE DURING CRISES (Southern Poverty Law Center)
Perceived academic challenges of Jewish and Arab undergraduates during the first wave of Covid-19
Seven Recommendations for Helping Students Thrive in Times of Trauma (Inside Higher Ed)
Resources to support Children:
This NPR article is aimed at assisting adults in explaining and discussing violent conflicts in a child-friendly manner, a valuable resource for parents or guardians seeking to address current events with young children compassionately.
How to talk to children about the violence in Israel and Hamas War (NPR)
Creating an inclusive classroom means practicing how to navigate difficult conversations.
We want to get it right, but we need a strategy. As educators, how we manage a conversation or engage in "certain behaviors can close opportunities for learning and decrease students’ sense of belonging" ("Inclusive Classroom").
The following resources provide tools and strategies for engaging in and managing difficult conversations in the college classroom.
Want to learn more about Facilitating Difficult Conversations, such as the Israel-Hamas War, and the impact on civilians?
Read the articles Discussing War and Conflict: Resources for Educators, Parents and Caregivers and "Transforming Conflict in the Classroom: Best Practices for Facilitating Difficult Dialogues and Creating an Inclusive Communication Climate" and How to talk about the Israel-Hamas war: Resources for Educators.
Use the Toolkit for the Gentle Catalyst
Additional articles are available upon request via ILL:
Suárez-Orozco, C., Casanova, S., Martin, M., Katisaficas, D., Cuellar, V., Dias, S., & Smith, N. (2015). Toxic rain in the classroom: Classroom interpersonal microaggressions. Educational Researcher, 44(3),151-160.
View additional resources on managing challenging conversations on the Padlet below.
Why should we teach about Islamophobia?
Teaching about Islamophobia is one piece of an essential framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning based on an inclusive approach to supporting all students.
Ready to learn about some tools to support reducing Islamophobia in our pedagogy?
- Read: Teach Palestine as a framework to support understanding for Muslims and Palestinians in our community and this article about Reducing Muslim/Arab Stereotypes through Evaluative Conditioning.
- Use: Lesson Plans about Muslims and Islam such as these from the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA
- Explore: Middle East Research and Information Project and the Institute for Middle East Understanding to discover how to increase awareness and understanding of fellow Muslim community members.
Ebooks:
The following eBooks provide insights into the topic of Islamophobia, which can be a valuable resource for educators aiming to discuss and address this subject sensitively and informatively in their classrooms.
Islamophobia by
Islamophobia existed in premise before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but it has increased in prevalence and standing during the past decade. This volume introduces the reader to a broad spectrum of views on Islamophobia. Disparate viewpoints of issues are encapsulated in each chapter with the use of a question-and-response format. By evaluating contrasting viewpoints on topics such as Sharia law, whether America is Islamophobic, and the use of face veils by Islamic women, readers can attain a complete and balanced knowledge of the issues. Important facts, perfect for report writing, are dispersed throughout in eye-catching boxed insets, and an extensive bibliography is included.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780737762358Publication Date: 2012-11-10
Claiming Belonging by
Claiming Belonging dives deep into the lives of Muslim American advocacy groups in the post-9/11 era, asking how they form and function within their broader community in a world marked by Islamophobia. Bias incidents against Muslim Americans reached unprecedented levels a few short years ago, and many groups responded through action?organizing on the national level to become increasingly visible, engaged, and assertive. Emily Cury draws on more than four years of participant observation and interviews to examine how Muslim American organizations have sought to access and influence the public square and, in so doing, forge a political identity. The result is an engaging and unique study, showing that policy advocacy, both foreign and domestic, is best understood as a sphere where Muslim American identity is performed and negotiated. Claiming Belonging offers ever-timely insight into the place of Muslims in American political life and, in the process, sheds light on one of the fastest-growing and most internally dynamic American minority groups.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781501753596Publication Date: 2021-03-15
American Islamophobia by
On Forbes list of "10 Books To Help You Foster A More Diverse And Inclusive Workplace" How law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the resurgence of Islamophobia--with a call to action on how to combat it. "I remember the four words that repeatedly scrolled across my mind after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. 'Please don't be Muslims, please don't be Muslims.' The four words I whispered to myself on 9/11 reverberated through the mind of every Muslim American that day and every day after.... Our fear, and the collective breath or brace for the hateful backlash that ensued, symbolize the existential tightrope that defines Muslim American identity today." The term "Islamophobia" may be fairly new, but irrational fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims is anything but. Though many speak of Islamophobia's roots in racism, have we considered how anti-Muslim rhetoric is rooted in our legal system? Using his unique lens as a critical race theorist and law professor, Khaled A. Beydoun captures the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the frightening resurgence of Islamophobia in the United States. Beydoun charts its long and terrible history, from the plight of enslaved African Muslims in the antebellum South and the laws prohibiting Muslim immigrants from becoming citizens to the ways the war on terror assigns blame for any terrorist act to Islam and the myriad trials Muslim Americans face in the Trump era. He passionately argues that by failing to frame Islamophobia as a system of bigotry endorsed and emboldened by law and carried out by government actors, U.S. society ignores the injury it inflicts on both Muslims and non-Muslims. Through the stories of Muslim Americans who have experienced Islamophobia across various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, Beydoun shares how U.S. laws shatter lives, whether directly or inadvertently. And with an eye toward benefiting society as a whole, he recommends ways for Muslim Americans and their allies to build coalitions with other groups. Like no book before it, American Islamophobia offers a robust and genuine portrait of Muslim America then and now.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780520297791Publication Date: 2018-04-03
Islamophobia in Higher Education by
While Islamophobia was present in our society before 9/11, it has become more pervasive in recent years. This is evidenced by the current social and political climate, hate speech and hate crimes directed at Muslims, and the Supreme Court's upholding of Presidential Proclamation 645 that effectively bans Muslim immigration from coming to the U.S. What does this mean for Muslim students in college, and indeed for institutions of higher education as they navigate law and policy on the one hand and adhere to their mission of achieving inclusive and equitable educational environments on the other? Two thirds of Muslims in the U.S. are vexed with current policy, and there has been an alarming increase in reports of bigotry and discrimination against them since the 2016 presidential elections. The fear of Islam, in general, and Muslims, specifically, not only compels non-Muslims to differentially treat Muslims, but also trade some of their own civil rights and civil liberties under the guise of national security. To address these issues, institutions require a nuanced understanding of laws and policies that institutionalize Islamophobia, and a greater understanding of the diverse college students that identify as Muslim. This book fills what has been a dearth of research that explores the experiences and navigation of Muslim students in colleges and universities, and addresses the even less studied domain of the experiences of Muslim students who hold multiple marginalized identities -- such as race, ethnicity, and LGBTQ status - as well as the intersection of those identities that may create multiple burdens of oppression and discrimination. This book begins by critically engaging with how current laws and policies institutionalize Islamophobia and affect the intersectionality and diversity within the Muslim community. It includes multidisciplinary voices, such as an international human rights attorney, a civil rights attorney, a criminal law attorney, student affairs practitioners, and research faculty whose work on this marginalized student population is traditionally not recognized within academic settings; and brings the voices of female Muslim scholars to the fore. Each chapter includes a critical analysis of the literature, a legal analysis when appropriate, a set of recommendations for policy and practice, and discussion questions.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781620369746Publication Date: 2020-08-07
Islamophobia and Racism in America by
Choice Top Book of 2017 Confronting and combating Islamophobia in America. Islamophobia has long been a part of the problem of racism in the United States, and it has only gotten worse in the wake of shocking terror attacks, the ongoing refugee crisis, and calls from public figures like Donald Trump for drastic action. As a result, the number of hate crimes committed against Middle Eastern Americans of all origins and religions have increased, and civil rights advocates struggle to confront this striking reality. In Islamophobia and Racism in America, Erik Love draws on in-depth interviews with Middle Eastern American advocates. He shows that, rather than using a well-worn civil rights strategy to advance reforms to protect a community affected by racism, many advocates are choosing to bolster universal civil liberties in the United States more generally, believing that these universal protections are reliable and strong enough to deal with social prejudice. In reality, Love reveals, civil rights protections are surprisingly weak, and do not offer enough avenues for justice, change, and community reassurance in the wake of hate crimes, discrimination, and social exclusion. A unique and timely study, Islamophobia and Racism in America wrestles with the disturbing implications of these findings for the persistence of racism--including Islamophobia--in the twenty-first century. As America becomes a "majority-minority" nation, this strategic shift in American civil rights advocacy signifies challenges in the decades ahead, making Love's findings essential for anyone interested in the future of universal civil rights in the United States.
Call Number: E184.M88 L68 2017; also available as an eBookISBN: 9781479804924Publication Date: 2017-05-23
Articles:
The following articles provide insights into the topic of Islamophobia, which can be a valuable resource for educators aiming to discuss and address this subject sensitively and informatively in their classrooms.
- Disrupting Islamophobia: Teaching the Social Construction of Terrorism in the Mass Media This article presents a critical media literacy technique for teaching about the social construction of terrorism. In a post-9/11 context where the human rights of Arabs and Muslims in the United States and overseas are threatened by drone attacks, profiling, detentions, and hate crimes, educators must not shy away from this issue. I use visual media to engage students with three questions: (1) How do everyday Americans define "terrorism" and perceive "terrorists"? (2) Where do these images come from? (3) What are the consequences for domestic and foreign policy? Using students' own socialization as a starting point, I challenge them to consider how media representations can have real-life consequences.
- Seeking Truth about Muslims: Critical Media Literacies in an Era of Islamophobia Across various forms of media, Muslims are often portrayed as a homogenous group prone to violence, yet scholars have increasingly called upon schools and teachers to transcend stereotypes and prepare students to understand Muslims in more thoughtful and nuanced ways. This qualitative case study recounts how students and a teacher in a high school multicultural studies class investigated problematic media materials about Islam sent by an organization called the Christian Seniors Association. Drawing upon Mihailidis's (2014) 5A's of Media Literacy heuristic, I analyzed field notes from classroom observations, interviews, and student produced artifacts. Findings revealed how a teacher's use of questioning techniques and encouragement of close readings of texts supported students to critically analyze media materials. Yet, opportunities for students to address issues of power and take up activist-oriented roles in responding to media were limited. Implications are offered for research and practice.
- Disrupting Islamophobia: Teaching the Social Construction of Terrorism in the Mass Media This article presents a critical media literacy technique for teaching about the social construction of terrorism. In a post-9/11 context where the human rights of Arabs and Muslims in the United States and overseas are threatened by drone attacks, profiling, detentions, and hate crimes, educators must not shy away from this issue. I use visual media to engage students with three questions: (1) How do everyday Americans define "terrorism" and perceive "terrorists"? (2) Where do these images come from? (3) What are the consequences for domestic and foreign policy? Using students' own socialization as a starting point, I challenge them to consider how media representations can have real-life consequences.
Teaching and talking about anti-semitism in the classroom
The topic of anti-semitism with students can be uncomfortable- that's okay.
However, ignoring anti-semitism and shying away from these conversations in the classroom can be harmful to marginalized students and faculty.
If you'd like insight into the lived experiences of those impacted by anti-semitism as directly experienced by college students, and for practical strategies on pedagogical practices more widely:
Read The Lived Experiences of Anti-Semitism Encountered by Jewish Students on University Campuses: A Phenomenological Study to understand the impact of anti-semitism on Jewish college students and Teaching Race, Racism, and Racial Justice: Pedagogical Principles and Classroom Strategies for Course Instructors by Harbin, et al. to gain an understanding of pedagogical principles, and for examples of course design strategies, and classroom practices.
Delve into the many resources in Vanderbilt University's Teaching Race: Pedagogy and Practice Guide and then examine Karin Stögner's exploration of antisemitism in Intersectionality and Antisemitism - A New Approach and this one on Teaching for Coalition: Dismantling "Jewish-Progressive Conflict" through Feminist and Queer Pedagogy.
Watch: Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations (Films on Demand)
For a deeper dive, explore the following eBbooks from the JWU Library:
Unity and Diversity in Contemporary Antisemitism by
This book springs from the Bristol-Sheffield Hallam Colloquium on Contemporary Antisemitism at the University of Bristol in September 2015. International experts in Religious Studies, Law, Politics, Sociology, Psychology, and History came together to examine the complexities of contemporary antisemitism. Recent attacks on Jews in European cities have increased awareness of antisemitism and, as this collection shows, such attacks cannot be separated from wider geopolitical and ideological factors. One distinct feature of antisemitism today is its demonization of the State of Israel. Older ideas also feature Jews being blamed for all the world's ills, thought to possess almost supernatural levels of power and wealth, and conspiring to harm the non-Jewish other. These and other ideas forming the background to antisemitism in Europe and North America are unpacked in this book with a view to understanding--and thereby combating--contemporary antisemitism. A key concern is how unifying features might be isolated amid the diverse manifestations of this oldest of hatreds.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781618119667Publication Date: 2019-10-29
Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism by
This volume provides a compendium of the history of and discourse about antisemitism - both as a unique cultural and religious category. Antisemitic stereotypes function as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred, which are stored in the cultural and religious memories of the Western and Muslim worlds, migrating freely between Christian, Muslim and other religious symbolic systems.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9783110611410Publication Date: 2019-11-05
Confronting Antisemitism from Perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences by
The five volumes provide a compendium of the history of and discourse about antisemitism - both as a unique cultural and religious category. Antisemitic stereotypes function as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred, which are stored in the cultural and religious memories of the Western and Muslim worlds. This volume explores the phenomenon from the perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9783110671971Publication Date: 2021-11-08
Deciphering the New Antisemitism by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9780253018694Publication Date: 2015-12-09
What is Implicit Bias?
Yale's Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning notes that "Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes, reactions, stereotypes, and categories that affect behavior and understanding.
In higher education, implicit bias often refers to unconscious racial or socioeconomic bias towards students...(Boysen, et. al 2009).
Instructors can hold assumptions about students’ learning behaviors and their capability for academic success which are tied to students’ identities and/or backgrounds, and these assumptions can impede student growth (Staats, et. al, 2017)."
Awareness of our own implicit biases is a step toward an inclusive classroom.
Ready for self-reflection?
Take Harvard's Implicit Bias test to examine implicit bias and take steps to become more inclusive.
Read the article Student Biases about the Middle East: Lessons from an Experiment or this one on Campus Diversity, Jewishness, and antisemitism.
Use the Anti-Racist Educator Self-Examination Questionnaire and Rubric and offer the Anti-Racist Student Self-Examination Questionnaire.
Explore Dr. Nicole A. Cooke's Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages.
Visit additional resources on self-reflection and bias from the Padlet below
Why Create a Trauma-Informed Classroom?
Like Universal Design for Learning (UDL), trauma-informed pedagogy aims to go beyond accommodations to plan ahead for the possibility—and indeed, likelihood—of teaching students who have experienced trauma (CAST, 2018). As Matthea Marquart and Johanna Creswell Báez write, such approaches aim to address “barriers resulting from the impacts of traumatic human experiences” in order to “create classroom communities that promote student wellbeing and learning” (2021, p. 64). Trauma-informed pedagogy, in short, is a key component of fostering an equitable classroom.*
"Trauma-informed pedagogy recognizes that we and our students have past and present experiences that may negatively affect both teaching and learning. ‘Trauma-informed educators recognize students’ actions are a direct result of their life experiences. When their students act out or disengage, they don’t ask them, ‘What is wrong with you?’ but rather, ‘What happened to you?’" (Huang et al., 2014).**
Here are some steps educators can take to provide a trauma-informed learning environment. Faculty:
- Be mindful of power dynamics
- Be empathic, open, and flexible
- Actively resist retraumatization (e.g., provide content/trigger warnings when applicable)
- Seek ways to promote empowerment, safety, and trust
- Remind students about on-campus resources
- Engage in your own self-care
*Adapted from Barnard College's Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
**Adapted from Montclair State University's Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
Interested in learning more about creating an inclusive, trauma-informed classroom?
Read this Tanner 2017 article on structuring the classroom.
Use the University of Michigan checklists as a guide to inclusive teaching principles.
Explore this Chronicle of Higher Education article on "How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive" or the University of Wisconsin Madison's "Trauma Informed Toolkit," which includes a more specific guide on trauma informed teaching. The Trauma-Informed Teaching & Learning blog also has a thorough resource page with tools, videos, and publications.
