{"id":164325,"date":"2020-09-16T07:41:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T11:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=164325"},"modified":"2022-06-22T08:28:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:28:30","slug":"brave-space-series-will-uconn-dialogue-justice-equity-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/09\/brave-space-series-will-uconn-dialogue-justice-equity-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Brave Space’ Series Will Further UConn Dialogue on Justice, Equity, and Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a time in American history marked by demands for racial justice and political division, a common refrain has emerged: Listen to each other.<\/p>\n

A new interview series being produced by the Office of University Communications hopes to contribute to the broader dialogue surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion, and racism through frank conversations with members of the University community from various backgrounds and groups.<\/p>\n

The series, called \u201cBrave Space,\u201d will air occasionally on the\u00a0UConn 360 podcast<\/a>\u00a0and will be shared on UConn Today.<\/p>\n

The project grew out of a task force that was assembled in University Communications in early 2020 in response to a call from University leaders to coordinate efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout the University.<\/p>\n

The task force explored actions that University Communications could take to better integrate DEI into its mission. Among the ideas that emerged was a series of communications to promote DEI issues and cultural awareness.<\/p>\n

The subgroup that became the Brave Space team wasn\u2019t sure whether it would host live Facebook or Instagram conversations or a standalone podcast, says Jesele Zurell, director of communications for the School of Fine Arts and a member of the team.<\/p>\n

What they did know was that \u201cit was important to give space to have these important conversations, these difficult conversations, and sometimes these awkward conversations that people are afraid to have because they think they\u2019re going to say the wrong thing or use the wrong term, or get something wrong,\u201d Zurell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really a space to just be brave and say what you want to say, talk about your experience on campus, your experience as a student, as a member of the faculty, as a member of the staff, and just shed some light on these areas that we don\u2019t otherwise talk about and see what we can do to really improve the culture on campus and the community as a whole,\u201d Zurell says.<\/p>\n

As the team was preparing to launch the series, one of the first interview subjects, James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History Manisha Sinha, had to postpone her interview due to the national\u00a0Scholar Strike for racial justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, coverage of the strike in higher education news source\u00a0Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u00a0discusses Houston Community College Professor Carolyn Cross advocating for the use of \u201cbrave spaces\u201d for discussion of sensitive issues in the classroom, as opposed to \u201csafe spaces\u201d where certain topics are off-limits.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cbrave spaces\u201d was introduced in 2013 by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens in a chapter of their book \u201cThe Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections From Social Justice Educators,\u201d entitled \u201cFrom Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Stiepock, editor of UConn Magazine<\/em>\u00a0and team member, said she’s excited for “so many things” as the series gets underway, especially the opportunity to amplify diverse stories.<\/p>\n

“In my role with the magazine, I’ve been blown away by the voices that we have on campus and how there are too many stories and not enough ways to tell them,” she says. “The combination of another way to tell these stories, another venue for them, with the timing of something that needs to be done now\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I\u2019m just excited to have these conversations. I\u2019m excited to learn more about what I don\u2019t know and share that with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Sinha, the team has recorded interviews with Avinoam Patt, Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and Doris and Simon Konover Chair for Judaic Studies and with Kelly Ha, a student pursuing her master\u2019s degree at the UConn School of Social Work. The first \u201cBrave Space\u201d segment is scheduled to appear on the Sept. 30 episode of the UConn 360 podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Brave Space,’ a new audio interview series launching this month, seeks to further the conversation at UConn on issues of justice, diversity, and equity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":164326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,92,174,2225,90,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1929],"class_list":["post-164325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-hartford","category-uconn-stamford","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-waterbury","category-university-news","series-bravespace"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 21:30:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181444,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164325\/revisions\/181444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/164326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164325"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=164325"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=164325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}