Higher Education Anti-Racist Teaching (H.E.A.R.T.) Podcast

In this episode of the H.E.A.R.T. Podcast, Dr. Bryan Dewsbury joins Dr. Milagros Castillo-Montoya and Omar Romandia to explore the critical role of trust and belonging in equity-minded teaching. Drawing from his co-authored book, The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching, Dr. Dewsbury shares practical strategies for moving beyond transactional teaching models to create humanizing and inclusive le...

In this episode of the H.E.A.R.T. Podcast, Dr. Xinnian Chen and Dr. Mark Graham discuss the importance of trust in student engagement and buy-in, particularly for STEM education. They highlight the transformative power of human connection in fostering meaningful learning outcomes and discuss the critical role of non-cognitive aspects of learning in classroom success.  Dr. Chen shares her journey i...

In this episode, we continue our conversation on equity-mindedness and how it can advance antiracist and equitable teaching in the classroom. Our guests Dr. Pallavi Limaye , Assistant Professor in Residence at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Saran Stewart , Director of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affair...

In this episode, we focus on equity-mindedness and how it can advance antiracist and equitable teaching. Our guests Dr. Pallavi Limaye , Assistant Professor in Residence at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Saran Stewart , Director of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Connecticut, D...

The HEART Podcast team reflects on an episode from our archives originally aired on February 4, 2022 called: Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions. Our faculty guests, Dr. Bianca Williams and Dr. Dian Squire , discuss the complex nature of antiracist teaching and the emotional work of engaging in this scholarship. They share what antiracist teaching means to them, how it shows up in their clas...

The HEART Podcast team reflects on an episode from our archives originally aired on March 24, 2021 called: Preparing Educational Professionals through Antiracist Teaching. Our faculty guests, Dr. Grace Player , Dr. Bridget Turner Kelly , and Dr. Michael Funk , share how knowledge is constructed and consumed in ways that center the lived experiences of students. This approach to teaching and learni...

For this episode, the HEART Podcast team reflects on an episode from our archives originally aired on June 4, 2021 called: Community Engagement & Anti-Racist Teaching. Our faculty guests, Dr. Danielle Filipiak and Dr. Johnny Ramirez , share the ways that they engage communities outside of the academy and empower youth to be agents of their learning and development. We also hear student perspec...

For this episode, the HEART Podcast team reflects on their 2023 focus on the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT)™ framework by selecting excerpts from previous guests who provided insights helpful for thinking about how we can bring more curiosity, humility, and compassion to our teaching when our students are making meaning of what is happening in the world around them. Our discussion...

Nadiyah Humber , Associate Professor at UConn School of Law, Dr. Preston Green , Professor of Educational Leadership and Law at UConn, and Dr. Leslie Williams , lecturer of Higher & Postsecondary Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, provide the context for understanding how Affirmative Action fits into a larger history of educational inequality for minoritized students. Our gues...

Dr. Laura Bunyan , Associate Professor of Residence at UConn and Gracie Guzman , Success Program Manager for Higher Edge, explore the topic of economic challenges that students may experience while in college. They discuss how educators can rethink classroom practices in order to support students who experience food insecurity, work full-time, and take care of their families. The conversation in t...

Josh Brown , Director of ScHOLA2RS House at the University of Connecticut and Latrina Denson , Associate Dean of Students, Community and Belonging at Mount Holyoke College, provide their perspective on the importance of having intentional affirming spaces on college campuses. Together, we explore how cultural centers and identity-based residential living communities are designed to provide minorit...

Dr. Jeffrey Hines , Chief Diversity Officer at UConn Health and Dr. Tia Brown McNair , Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT)™ Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) draw on key ideas from the TRHT framework to shed light on how racial equity...

Dr. Mark Overmyer-Velázquez , University Campus Director of UConn-Hartford and Dr. Joshua Abreu , Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence at Albertus Magnus College, share how they have witnessed and been part of social justice-guided transformational practices, given that it is a central pillar of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT)™ framework being advanced...

Michael Vidal , Interim Director of PRLACC & Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at the University of Connecticut, Sharon Stroye , Director of Public Engagement in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University–Newark, and Dr. Apryl Alexander , Metrolina Distinguished Scholar in Health and Public Policy at UNC Charlotte, share insights about racial healing pr...

Dr. Saran Stewart , Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs & Director of Global Education at the University of Connecticut and Dr. Chayla Haynes , Associate Professor of Higher Education Administration at Texas A&M University, provide their approach to and practices related to counternarratives as part of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT)™ framework...

Dr. Frank Tuitt , Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer, and Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Connecticut and Dr. Lynn Pasquerella , President of the American Association of Colleges & Universities, provide their vision and intentionality surrounding the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT)™ approach that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has been...

Professor Martine Granby , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Connecticut and Manuel Gutierrez, a PREP Navigator with Chicanos Por La Causa in Phoenix, Arizona, share how they bring intentional strategies in their work to help capture the needs of historically marginalized populations in order to bring about substantive change. Based on their professional,...

Dr. Davis Chacón , an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut and Mr. Enrique Bojorquez, a Planner III with the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department, both discuss the societal dilemmas and implications surrounding the work of building equitable and sustainable cities. Pulling fr...

Dr. Loneke Blackman Carr , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut and Dr. Anna Marie LaChance , a chemical engineer and STEM educator at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, both discuss the ways in which they cultivate community oriented lab spaces. Pulling from valuable sources of literature and former professors who they have worked...

Dr. Sandra Quinones , the Director of School-University Partnerships at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut and Mr. Robert Goodrich , the co-founder of Radical Advocates for Cross-Cultural Education (R.A.C.C.E.) in Waterbury, Connecticut, both work closely with communities to develop tangible solutions toward dismantling systemic oppression to achieve collective goals. Jo...

Susie Ximenez , the Program Director for Adelante Student Voices in New York whose mission is to support undocumented students’ journey towards higher education and Reyna Montoya , the founder and CEO of Aliento in Arizona who transforms trauma into hope and action for those most impacted by the harms associated with lacking immigration status, are grassroots organizers that focus on the upliftmen...

Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews , a Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University, and Dr. Maria Salazar , a Professor of Curriculum & Instruction and Teacher Education in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver, are mother-scholars who center race in their academic work. Whether it's applying humanizing pedagogy in their classrooms...

Dr. Anna Marie LaChance , a Graduate Assistant at the Vergnano Institute for Inclusion, and  Manuel (Manny) Ramirez , a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology, both at the University of Connecticut, are rising stars in their fields who actively work to bring intersectionality in the spaces they inhabit. Guided by historical figures, scholars, and advisors, they break down what antiracism mea...

Dr. Stephany Santos , an Assistant Professor in Residence and Associate Director & Dr. David G. Embrick , an Associate Professor, both at the University of Connecticut, have made valuable contributions to ODI as faculty affiliates this spring semester. Their disciplines and unique personal trajectory have provided them with perspectives on not only the structural barriers that students and profess...

Dr. Monica Cox , a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at The Ohio State University, shares how her upbringing as an only child in rural southeast Alabama and being raised by educator parents provided her with the foundational tools to persist no matter the circumstances. As a professor, speaker, entrepreneur, among other roles, Dr. Cox makes concerted efforts to bridge notions of excellence an...