CARLISLE, Pa. — The Antiracist Development Institute (ADI) will hold its second annual convening on Oct. 16-18 at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle. The convening will bring together people from across the country interested in co-creating methods to dismantle structures that scaffold systemic racial inequality, using a three-pillar approach based on systems design, institutional antiracism and critical pedagogy.
The convening will be organized into three cohorts: admissions and financial aid, teaching and learning, and leadership and community. It kicks off with a breakfast on Wednesday, Oct. 16, leading into three days of film screenings, discussions, workshops, presentations and lectures.
The convening is open to everyone, all are welcome. During last year’s inaugural convening, attendees included those in the Carlisle community, some of whom never previously entered the Law School building nor attended an antiracism event; as well, attendees were people in legal education and those writing chapters for the ADI-shepherded book series, titled “Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession,” which will be published by ADI partner University of California Press.
“The convening is open to all. If you have ever asked yourself, ‘How do you make a more equal and just society,’ then the convening is for you,” said Penn State Dickinson Law Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway, the executive director of the ADI. “Whoever you are and whatever your background, we welcome you to the convening. It is critical for people to engage with one another to understand that many in society do not experience the full spectrum of rights guaranteed by America’s system of laws. People should see the convening as an opportunity to answer the question, ‘What should we do about this?’”
The keynote speaker at this year’s convening is Eddie Glaude Jr., a New York Times-bestselling author and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University.
“We are so thrilled to welcome Dr. Glaude to Penn State Dickinson Law. We expect an even greater turnout at this year’s convening, and we look forward to more robust programming for all who will attend,” said ADI Program Manager TaWanda Hunter Stallworth. “We have been particularly intentional about how we involve the local Carlisle community in the schedule and anticipate continued collaboration with the borough.”
The convening will also include screenings of and discussions about several documentaries related to antiracism; a deep dive into design thinking; a conversation between Conway and Anu Gupta, a systems designer for the University of California Press book series and author of the new book "Breaking Bias"; cohort-specific programming; and presentations by the PODs (mini thinktanks) established during the ADI’s University-wide scaleup earlier this year.
A chance for PODs to share their progress
The PODs mark the first phase of a recently approved five-year plan for a significant University-wide scaleup of the ADI to support and grow strong, interdependent and interdisciplinary partnerships to advance institutional antiracism and bolster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB).
Each POD utilizes systems design and design thinking practices to develop projects in areas such as transformative justice, leadership, and reimagining higher education policy. The PODs began meeting before the beginning of the semester, and the convening offers space to share their progress with the University community and convening attendees.
PODs will meet on Day One of the convening to continue the design thinking process of determining their goals and approaches. Hunter Stallworth notes that critical networking and relationship-building have been taking place the past several months, creating the trust and understanding vital to conducting honest conversations. POD presentations will occur in the afternoon on Thursday, Oct. 17.
“We are looking forward to the next outward-facing phase of the University-wide scale-up, which was met with so much enthusiasm and support from the community at our June kickoff event,” said Hunter Stallworth. “Featuring the PODs in our convening provides a fantastic opportunity for them to present to the wider ADI community and hear valuable feedback from our University of California Press book series chapter contributors and systems designers as well as our other attendees.”
A welcoming environment for all
Last year, convening attendees came from as far away as New Mexico and as close as down the road. Carlisle community member Jim Griffith, a health IT consultant who volunteers for many local nonprofit causes, attended the inaugural convening after asking Hunter Stallworth about it. He had worked with her on previous community projects and became curious after reading about the ADI’s embrace of system design. His attendance sparked a passion for using design thinking to benefit the ADI or similar programs and organizations, he said, which led him to complete a systems design certificate course through Harvard University. He drew on that knowledge to present a design thinking workshop at the ADI’s spring writing workshop in Hyde Park, New York, and will teach additional workshops this fall at the second convening.
“On the very first day of the [inaugural convening], I was immediately heartened by the warm welcome that I received from both ADI leadership and attendees alike. Despite the strong sense of belonging and of shared purpose, I felt uncertain as to what specifically the ADI and its [then] 62 [now 82] supporting organizations were striving to achieve. Within the first two hours, I had my answer, and it was revolutionary in its impact,” Griffith later wrote in an email to Conway.
Penn State Dickinson Law Associate Dean for Antiracism and Critical Pedagogy Shaakirrah R. Sanders looks forward to connecting with those both within and outside of the legal academy at the convening. “It is a wonderful opportunity for camaraderie, connection, learning, and teaching on race and the impact of race, not just in American legal institutions but American society as a whole,” said Sanders, who is also a Penn State Dickinson Law professor of law and the Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar.
ADI Convening keynote speaker Eddie Glaude Jr. will discuss voting rights
Gaude will deliver his address on voting rights at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 18, during the “Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws (REPL)” class, a requirement for first-year students that invokes critical theory and critical pedagogy, aiming to transform how students see their place and role in an imperfect and still-evolving democracy. Convening attendees will join the class for the keynote presentation.
Sanders, who co-teaches REPL with Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jeffrey A. Dodge, attended a Black History Month keynote address that Glaude delivered at Dickinson College last February. Glaude spoke with Hunter Stallworth, Sanders, Conway and several others from Penn State Dickinson Law that evening, and they hit it off immediately, Sanders said. Sanders was struck by Glaude's approachability and how inspired students were by his talk.
“It just so happened that we had already decided to focus on voting rights for the fall for REPL, and Dr. Glaude fit right in with that,” said Sanders. “In the October class with Dr. Glaude, we will focus on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment, and how they dramatically changed voting rights in the United States. That history of Jim Crow followed and prevented African Americans, Indigenous individuals, and other people of color from full participation in democracy. If you look at Dr. Glaude’s expertise, who better to help our students understand that?”
Glaude, a frequent contributor to MSNBC and a Time columnist, recently published a book titled "We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For," in which Glaude argues that “the hard work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of Black politics.” In making his case, Glaude examines the lessons imparted by Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ella Baker. Attendees of the convening will receive a copy of the book. Anyone can sign up to attend the convening by clicking here.