THOMAS CONNER
Statement of commitment
to equity, diversity, inclusion & belonging
Throughout my journalism career, I wrote a significant amount of reporting and criticism about folksinger Woody Guthrie (buttressed by a yearlong fellowship researching at the Woody Guthrie Archives). In an oft-quoted passage, Guthrie expresses disdain for any expression that fails to lift people up or open people’s understanding of each other, concluding that “no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built — I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.” His plainspoken advocacy for the dignity and worth of all people is something I strive to keep it in practice daily — making my teaching spaces and my messaging not only accessible to all but protective of an equal opportunity to speak, learn, and share. To paraphrase Woody, I am out to create classroom experiences that make all students take pride in themselves and their work and to produce scholarship in which “all sorts of folks” can see themselves and their significant potential for contributing to their social worlds.
In designing courses, I prioritize and center the contributions of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in the readings and viewing materials. Previously, I had made efforts toward representative equity merely by adding a week or two focused on such perspectives — the “diversity week” approach, which I know now only increases the marked status of certain voices. So when reviewing and updating the syllabus for UC San Diego’s Introduction to Communication lecture, for instance, I first selected works and studies from non-white scholars as nodes for the course themes, and then added additional traditional texts. This re-centering surfaced a more nuanced understanding of the field and its own diverse evolution. Likewise, I learned that starting with the “canonical” texts often meant I was (however inadvertently) reproducing the field’s marginalization of black scholarship as auxiliary to the otherwise unmarked work of white authors. In the future, I plan to continue this process of curriculum development, applying it to both courses I’ve been teaching for a while and new ones.
As I prepare for daily classes, whether lectures or seminars, I make sure that all of my materials are accessible in multiple ways. My typical first-day advice reminds students not only to be tolerant of each other’s opinions and respectful of diverse backgrounds but also to show consideration for different levels and styles of comprehension. I also attend to this in my design and formatting of multimedia materials — making slides available to students well before class begins, preparing different ways of explaining certain key concepts (using examples relevant to different social groups), and enabling transcriptions or captioning videos. If digital captioning is unavailable, I make sure to have the text posted online or printed as a handout. (This has proven crucial to all levels of understanding during my protest-music course as we listen to songs with lyrics that even careful, expert listening may struggle to discern.) The reverse of this is also important: making sure to read aloud any text I’ve placed on slides or otherwise project. The rapid shift to online teaching during the pandemic exposed the challenges of ensuring that digital communication is accessible to all students. I will continue applying what I’ve learned to the preparation of all my classes going forward.
In designing courses, I prioritize and center the contributions of scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in the readings and viewing materials. Previously, I had made efforts toward representative equity merely by adding a week or two focused on such perspectives — the “diversity week” approach, which I know now only increases the marked status of certain voices. So when reviewing and updating the syllabus for UC San Diego’s Introduction to Communication lecture, for instance, I first selected works and studies from non-white scholars as nodes for the course themes, and then added additional traditional texts. This re-centering surfaced a more nuanced understanding of the field and its own diverse evolution. Likewise, I learned that starting with the “canonical” texts often meant I was (however inadvertently) reproducing the field’s marginalization of black scholarship as auxiliary to the otherwise unmarked work of white authors. In the future, I plan to continue this process of curriculum development, applying it to both courses I’ve been teaching for a while and new ones.
As I prepare for daily classes, whether lectures or seminars, I make sure that all of my materials are accessible in multiple ways. My typical first-day advice reminds students not only to be tolerant of each other’s opinions and respectful of diverse backgrounds but also to show consideration for different levels and styles of comprehension. I also attend to this in my design and formatting of multimedia materials — making slides available to students well before class begins, preparing different ways of explaining certain key concepts (using examples relevant to different social groups), and enabling transcriptions or captioning videos. If digital captioning is unavailable, I make sure to have the text posted online or printed as a handout. (This has proven crucial to all levels of understanding during my protest-music course as we listen to songs with lyrics that even careful, expert listening may struggle to discern.) The reverse of this is also important: making sure to read aloud any text I’ve placed on slides or otherwise project. The rapid shift to online teaching during the pandemic exposed the challenges of ensuring that digital communication is accessible to all students. I will continue applying what I’ve learned to the preparation of all my classes going forward.