The GLBT Center invites students, faculty and staff to join the Social Justice Cohort, a space for intersectional social justice education. The Cohort for the fall semester will bring together a group of dedicated individuals interested in exploring concepts of race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, religion, social justice, privilege, power and oppression as they overlap, intersect and manifest within society and on college campuses.

Focusing on a shared learning experience, participants will devote the first meeting to forming community expectations for modeling an inclusive and equitable approach to discussing complex issues. The Social Justice Cohort will explore hard questions, face hard truths and practice holding each other accountable in creating equity. Each meeting will focus on a different facet of social justice, including Black students having the police called on them, voter disenfranchisement, workers’ rights on college campuses and LGBTQ inclusion in residence halls. Discussion will be sparked by a short video and facilitated by GLBT Center staff members.

Together, members of the Social Justice Cohort will unpack the ways in which each system of oppression operates within our culture and how we can move toward liberation as a community. By the end of the semester, members of the Cohort will be able to define multiple overlapping and intersecting forms of oppression and privilege, especially in regard to their own unique identities and social position. Discussions will also address how oppression can be interrupted individually and collectively, with the goal of equipping members with some of the skills necessary to work toward liberation.

The Social Justice Cohort will meet every other week on Thursdays from 5:00-6:00 p.m. Attend the first meeting on August 30, 2018 in the GLBT Center lounge.

Andy DeRoin is assistant director of the GLBT Center.