Call for proposals: Beyond Diversity Speak: Practicing Cultural Humility in your Library
ACRL DVC 2019 Annual Fall Program
October 25, 2019, 9:00am – 3:30pm at Cedar Crest College
This year’s program will be focused on incorporating cultural humility into equity, diversity, and inclusion professional development in academic libraries.
Sara Ahmed (2012) describes diversity initiatives as frequently being “happy talk” that institutions write into their strategic plans and mission statements to manage their image but then do not integrate into everyday practice. While some libraries make a concerted effort to provide diversity or cultural competency training opportunities, often the attention is superficial and/or uninformed. Nicole Cooke (2016) stresses the importance of cultural humility in serving diverse populations.
Cultural humility is a cousin to cultural competency, but while cultural competency means learning about other cultures, cultural humility means continuously working to uncover how we and the institutions in which we engage are complicit in underserving some and overserving others and making ourselves accountable for rectifying the disparity. To do this, librarians and libraries need tools to help them reflect on themselves and their institutions, facilitate difficult discussions, and imagine new possibilities.
Lorin Jackson, the Research and Instruction Resident Librarian from Swarthmore College and co-founder of WOC+Lib, an online community dedicated to amplifying the voices of librarians of color, will run an interactive workshop in the afternoon on cultural humility that promises to be fun, enlightening, and practical.
We are now looking for proposals from academic librarians, staff members, and administrators for the morning session that examine the successes and failures they have experienced during their attempts to develop an environment of cultural humility within their libraries.
We also welcome theoretical explorations of the concept and practical discussions on how to apply these principles. We are accepting proposals for presentations, panels, and lightning talks. You may submit your proposal here. Please include the following information:
- Proposal title
- Name, affiliations, positions, and email addresses of the presenters
- Preferred presentation format:
- Option A: 20-30 minute presentation
- Option B: 20-40 minute panel
- Option C: 10 minute lightening round presentation
- A 250 word summary of the topic you wish to present including the points you intend to make and the way(s) you intend to engage the audience, if applicable.
Email acrlpa.dvc@gmail.com with any questions about the process. We look forward to hearing from you!
The deadline to submit your proposal is Monday, September 23 with notification by Friday, September 27.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Cooke, N. A. (2016). Information services to diverse populations: Developing culturally competent library professionals. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.