Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Diversity | February 2023

Black History Month

This month, join us as we celebrate Black excellence and the struggle for equality today and across history. Our speakers will examine the progress we’ve made–and the work we have yet to do–towards achieving racial equity and justice. Visit the Happenings calendar for the listing of key events.

In Conversation with Michelle Alexander

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics is honored to host Professor Michelle Alexander for a public conversation on the state of legal and social movements against mass incarceration. Professor Fannie Bialek will ask Alexander about the state of legal and social movements for carceral reform and prison abolition and their invigoration of religious activism for social change. Join this in-person event (followed by a reception) or virtually on February 28 (7 p.m.). more information

Commemoration of International Women’s Day

March 8

The Academic Women’s Network at Washington University School of Medicine will host the event “Celebration of Women on International Women’s Day” on Wednesday, March 8 from 1-6 p.m. You can find more details and the registration information here.

WashU is now a Sustaining Member of the Scholars at Risk Network

Scholars at Risk is an international network of institutions and individuals whose mission it is to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. By arranging temporary academic positions at member universities and colleges, Scholars at Risk offers safety to scholars facing grave threats. Scholars at Risk also provides advisory services for scholars and hosts, campaigns for scholars who are imprisoned or silenced in their home countries, monitoring of attacks on higher education communities worldwide, and leadership in deploying new tools and strategies for promoting academic freedom and improving respect for university values everywhere. learn more

Featured Events

Spring Faculty Workshops on Graduate Student Mentoring

In Person Spots Still Available

February 8 and 15 (12-2:30 p.m.)

These workshops will cover core competencies for effective mentoring of graduate students. Faculty participants will engage in cross-disciplinary dialogue, and collaboratively discuss and problem-solve mentoring concerns.

Registration closes February 6.



Virtual Town Hall: Equity-Minded Reform of Faculty Evaluation, Principles, and Action

February 21 (12-1:30 p.m.)

The Here and Next Faculty Development and Support Initiative will host a university-wide presentation by Dr. KerryAnn O’Meara, professor of higher education and distinguished scholar teacher at the University of Maryland. She'll share lessons from working with campuses on faculty evaluation reform, equity-minded principles to guide the process, and evidence-based considerations to guide revisions to faculty evaluation policies and practices.

Igniting Imagination & Creative Collaboration

February 23 (4-5:30 p.m.)

April 6 (4-5:30 p.m.)

This event series will bring WashU faculty together to meet new colleagues, spark new and creative conversations, and consider new ways of collaborating through interdisciplinary research. Sponsored by WashU's Here and Next Strategic Plan and hosted by Arts & Sciences and The Brown School Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures.

Distinguished Visiting Scholar

Malinda Maynor Lowery

Women's Building Formal Lounge

March 29 (3:30 pm.)

The American Culture Studies Program will host the visit of Dr. Malinda Maynor Lowery, Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, under the Office of the Provost Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program. SAVE THE DATE.

Learn more about hosting a Distinguished Visiting Scholar.



Opportunities

• WashU Mentoring Resources: At WashU we are strengthening our commitment to mentorship and are excited to launch mentoring.wustl.edu to centralize mentorship resources. Effective and culturally competent mentoring is critical to the success and thriving of students, trainees, postdocs, and faculty. Our new web page offers tools to help our community members as we support the next generation of scholars, researchers, and faculty.

• Funding to Participate in NCFDD Faculty Success Program:·The Office of the Provost is sponsoring assistant and associate professors to participate in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Faculty Success Program. If you would like to participate in the Summer 2023 Faculty Success Program, please send your name, department/school, rank, and a brief justification (up to 200 words) to vpfad@wustl.edu by February 15, 2023.

• Faculty Recruitment Liaisons: Would you like to help recruit faculty of diverse identities and backgrounds to WashU? Do you enjoy living in St. Louis and want to help faculty considering WashU learn more about the area? If so, sign up to be a Faculty Recruitment Liaison and meet with prospective new faculty here. 

• Free NCFDD Free Membership Includes Spring Workshops, "Professor-ing!" Podcast, and Virtual Writing Retreats: Claim your free membership to the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). Learn more about this free membership, available to all WashU faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and trainees. Plus, the NCFDD spring programming calendar is live and visible upon joining NCFDD. The semester kicks off with a 14-Day Writing Challenge (February 20-March 5), 5 Secrets to a Super-Productive Semester (February 8), and Academic Branding (February 21). And be sure to listen to NCFDD's new podcast, "Professor-ing!" Co-hosts Badia Ahad-Legardy, PhD, and Anthony Ocampo, PhD, share the R&R (the real and real-er about life in academia.) Join NCFDD and register today.

Events

• John Mundell, AFAS Postdoc Colloquium: “The Drag of Mestiça Nationalism: Performing Brazilian Africanity in the Samba of Clara Nunes” at Seigle Hall, February 3 (2-3 p.m.). more information

• Association for Women Faculty Monthly Happy Hours: Join the AWF at the Clayton Winehouse (7911 Clayton Road) on February 3 (3:30 p.m.). Learn more about the Association for Women Faculty here.

• Intersectionality Training Institute’s Summer Intensive 2023: In Philadelphia, PA from July 10 - July 14, 2023. If you’re interested in learning how to apply intersectionality to qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research or community-led or community-engaged work and want to do so in a transformative, intellectually stimulating, and engaging learning environment with a community of other researchers, scholars, and practitioners passionate about applying intersectionality to their health equity work, you won’t want to miss Summer Intensive 2023. Application deadline is Friday, February 3. more information

• TRIADS Speaker Series with Deen Freelon: Operation Dumpster Fire; or, toward balance in the detection and profiling of low-quality content online. February 17 (12 p.m.). more information

• Forum on Medicine, Race and Ethnicity in St. Louis, Past to Future: Along with a welcome by Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Equity, and keynote address by Will Ross, MD, associate dean of diversity at Washington University School of Medicine, 22 speakers, including scholars, public health leaders, artists, and citizens of St. Louis, will take part in six moderated panels. February 25 (8 a.m. - 6 p.m.) more information

• Climate Change Speakers Series - Urban Legacies, Mosquito Ecology, and Human Exposure Risk: Join a faculty panel followed by keynote Shannon LaDeau, Community and Disease Ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. March 1 (4-6:30 p.m.). more information

• Center for Teaching and Learning: Learn what’s happening at the Center for Teaching and Learning and how you can take part. more information