2025 RACIAL EQUITY SUMMIT FUTURES LABS
GUIDE
“Perhaps the mission of the university is to train social poets, men and women who, upon learning the grammar and vocabulary of humanity, have a spark, a brilliance that allows them to imagine the unknown.”
– Pope Francis
FUTURESLABSGUIDE
SESSION I: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
SESSION II: 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Resisting Authoritarianism: Lessons from Scholars and Organizers
Admin 202 l Rachel Luft, PhD & Natalie Cisneros, PhD
We’ll draw on lessons from anti-authoritarian scholars and social movement organizers to make sense of what is going on in a rapidly shifting landscape by addressing our roles as community members, employees, and teachers. We’ll start with a big picture framework, characterize an anti/authoritarian politics of emotion, and discuss anti-authoritarian practices.
Sankofa Impact
Admin 203 l Felicia Ishino, MEd & Nathan Bean, Sankofa Impact
Our Pilgrimage-In-Place program offers participants an immersive, place-based experience built on a theme that brings historic sites and hidden narratives to life.
Fearless: Learning from Student-Led/Youth Organizing
Admin 205 l Gary Perry, PhD
Students or young people have always been at the forefront of revolutionary movements The centrality of student-led or youth organizing is the focus of this Futures Lab This session will (1) highlight this often-marginalized history of studentled movements as we (2) learn from their tactics, strategies, and mistakes when fighting for just futures No more waiting; the time is now!
Bridging the Digital and Mobility Divide: Smart Commoning for Inclusive Walkable Communities
Admin 206 I Shiny Abraham, PhD & Wan Bae, PhD
This interactive session will explore the intersection of digital equity and urban mobility, focusing on how technological innovations and community-driven approaches can bridge disparities in both digital access and walkability Using insights from walkability assessment research—which employs deep learning techniques to analyze urban accessibility— participants will engage with strategies for enhancing walkability as a component of digital inclusion The session introduces the concept of "smart commoning" from urban studies and highlights how community-led initiatives can utilize digital tools to promote walkable, connected, and equitable cities. Participants will explore case studies and engage in hands-on activities to envision and design participatory, just, and transformative solutions that integrate technology, mobility, and equity.
What’s in Your Toybox? Toys/Tools/Practices to Embrace Beloved Solidarity & Racial Equity
Admin 207 I LaKesha Kimbrough
In this session, we will explore some of the toys/tools/practices we might use to aid us in creating the space we need to design and bring to fruition a future that supports and sustains an Inclusive Democracy a place and way of embracing and realizing beloved solidarity and racial equity
Liberation (through or from) the Law
Admin 208 I Nazune Menka, JD & Pilar Margarita Hernández Escontrías, PhD
As Indigenous and Latinx law professors we regularly navigate settler colonial spaces and places of power. Join us in a dialogue about how our communities might collectively resist, and create pathways of liberation from, the ongoing settler colonial landscape.
Let’s Close the Academic Gap!
Admin 220 I Frank Shih, PhD
U2’s One (1992) asks, “Is it getting better? Or do you feel the same?” In some ways, yes In many, no But blaming students is the easy way out let’s never do that I won’t allow it I’ll review URM student performance, retention, and trends, seeking input on data-informed, measurable solutions within today’s realities
Exploring Indigenous Narratives as a Way of Transforming Democracy
Admin 221 I Jill La Pointe, MSW
Many of the Lushootseed-speaking tribal communities in the Puget Coast Salish region were grounded in the core principles of inclusive democracy. Students will learn briefly about these core values. Next students will be presented with an Indigenous narrative and explore interpretations and meaning through self-reflection and small group dialogue.
Neurodiversity and Racism: Addressing the Intersectionality of Ableism and Racial Discrimination
Admin 222 I Kim Thompson, MSW
This Future Lab will explore the intersection of neurodiversity and racism, focusing on the compounded challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals of color. It will touch on the systemic and societal barriers that result from both ableism and racism, and how these intersecting forms of discrimination impact access to education, employment, and social participation. The lab will facilitate awareness, conversation and strategies to dismantle these barriers, promote inclusion, and amplify the voices of neurodivergent individuals from marginalized racial backgrounds.
Sustaining your mental health and well-being in your work using a trauma-informed approach
Admin 306 I Anne Farina, PhD
In this session, we will explore resilience-building skills to help navigate stress responses that come up in our work based on our own experiences, identities, and trauma survivorship. Participants will be introduced to trauma-informed principles and other practices for fostering space for safety and healing.
Navigating Stress in Service Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Future
Admin 307 I Chris Fiorello, PhD
Looking toward the future and all that needs to be accomplished can be stressful, especially when we realize our role in creating a better, more just, and equitable society. This session focuses on acute and chronic stress sources, our responses to stress, and our ability to utilize simple practices to retrain our stress response.
Leadership Incompetence Malice
Pigott 102 I John Vassall, MD, Seattle University Board of Trustee
Leadership consists of teachable and learnable skills. Most teaching about leadership assumes or assigns benevolent intent to leadership. In this session we will explore together how we might make change when leaders are incompetent and malicious. We'll use John Kotter's change model.
Understanding emotions as power: A Black feminist perspective of Women of Color in leadership
Pigott 103 I Paige Gardner, PhD
Emotional labor is an inevitable and often invisibilized aspect of our leadership journey to and through higher education. It can be difficult to detect – and even more challenging to manage – especially in environments that prioritize human connection. Join this session to identify, disrupt, and reframe our relationship to emotional labor in leadership. Together, we will radically re-position our emotions as a source of power to cultivate change.
Future of Feminism
Pigott 105 I Nova Robinson, PhD
This Futures Lab will provide a brief history of efforts to improve the lives of women in the US and around the world. Using this shared knowledge, participants will be invited to imagine future feminisms that take lessons from the past and build toward a more equitable future
No Divide and Conquer: Working in Solidarity to Dismantle Antiblack Racism
Pigott 106 I Darozyl Touch & Julius Moss, EdD
Our presentation will include a robust discussion on consolidating marginalized groups in an effort to dismantle antiBlackness, as a phenomenon within institutional and structural racist systems. This issue goes across race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality. This is about our connection to each other, to humanity, that is being severed through their dehumanization tactics – part of their larger systematic genocide of bodies of culture and visibly melanated people.
Celebrating Indigenous Sovereignty
Pigott 107 I Natalie Welch, PhD
This session will empower participants with knowledge about the concept of sovereignty as it pertains to Indigenous communities. Participants will also be asked to explore how they can engage with Indigenous sovereignty in their own communities
Recognition, Restoration, Reimagination: Embracing Radical Accountability to Design an Equitable American Future
Pigott 108 I Kristin DiBiase, JD
This futures lab explores reparative justice by examining Germany’s accountability process after WWII atrocities and South Africa’s truth and reconciliation approach post-apartheid. Drawing insights from both models, the session considers pathways toward a restorative framework to address and dismantle America’s historical legacies of Black enslavement and structural anti-Black racism--beginning with acknowledgement of their purposeful design.
SU's Jesuit Catholic Mission: Love Animating Justice
Pigott 109 I Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos, PhD & Jennifer Tilghman-Havens, PhD
This workshop will look at what makes the Jesuit Catholic commitment to justice distinctive. It will invite participants into reflection and conversation about how to discern a call to action on behalf of love and justice in today's context.
The World we Dream: Collective Visioning for Inclusive Democracy
Pigott 200 I Jeanette Rodriguez, PhD
Inclusive democracy isn't just about formal structures but about fostering a space and environment where everyone feels that their voice is valued; where every opportunity is given for equitable participation. This interactive session will discuss the challenges to inclusive democracy and potential responses within the context of our work here at a university with the main focus on how our Jesuit Institutions can help preserve, foster and provide the skills to preserve global democracy.
Principles of Democracy
Pigott 201 I Carlyn Ferrari, PhD
What does democracy look like when we center marginalized voices? In this Futures Lab, we will analyze a poem by Danez Smith (they/them), a queer, Black, non-binary poet, who imagines an America where there is truly liberty and justice for all. Smith pushes the boundaries of poetry and invites us to create a something new. All are welcome. No experience with poetry is needed, but your imagination is required.
Developing and Facilitating Community Norms
Pigott 202 I anton ward-zanotto, PhD
Whether we're advising a group, facilitating an academic class, or supporting students in conflict, students often share challenges related to their experiences with others As we prepare our students for their roles in our democracy, preparing them for navigating group settings is critical to their future success. This session will focus on providing tools for developing community norms and navigating instances when members of the community act in ways that breach those norms. Participants will: understand the importance of community norms in our learning communities, develop possible community norms for a group you advise or teach, establish strategies for addressing breaches to these norms, and practice having conversations to address breaches in community norms.
Solidarity Amongst People of Color
Pigott 203 I Nalini Iyer, PhD
As people of color, we often work within our communities of belonging. We do not talk about tensions and hostilities across ethnic line nor of the possibilities of working together despite histories of conflict. What are the barriers that communities of color experience when trying to work across ethnic and cultural boundaries? How do we build an inclusive democracy where intersectionality is the foundation of solidarity?
A Fresh Education: Flipping School Choice on it’s Head
Pigott 204 I James Miles, MFA
Instead of addressing the issue of failing schools and working on improving outcomes, the current federal administration want to expand school choice, allowing parents to send their children to private schools To be clear, the Department of Education is in charge of funding for public schools, administering student loans, enforcing civil rights law that preventing race or sex-based discrimination, and running programs to help students from low income communities and students with disabilities There’s no denying the impact to students if the Department of Education’s policies and programs were eliminated, but what if we leaned into the heart of school choice, which is designing a school that every student and parent would choose? A school that doesn’t require vouchers or payment to attend A school where students felt welcome, seen, heard, respected, and valued, while also providing access to a well rounded education facilitated by fantastic and dedicated educators. What if we could choose a school that provided rigorous instruction and helped students succeed? What if we could actually choose an education that was truly…Fresh? What’s the first thing we should do? Now, let's do it.
Race and the Death Penalty in the United States
Pigott 205 I Michael Russo, JD
Issues of race and racism infuse the system of capital punishment in the United States. The cost of maintaining that system is not limited to the financial expense of capital trials, but also the cost to the criminal justice system as a whole to preserve a system in which race and racism is embedded We will explore the fundamentals of death penalty cases and try to understand why race plays such a significant role and what might be done to address the problem
Never Again is Now
Pigott 208 I Dale Watanabe & Paul Kurose, MA
In 1942 E O 9066 allowed for the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry The government used the Alien Enemies Act to justify this imprisonment Both the use of an executive order and the use of the 1798 act have ramifications for today We will discuss this history and highlight the work opposing a repeat event
Making Apology Pompom for Healing: creating a temporary installation art with Naomi Kasumi, the artist!
Pigott 304 I Naomi Kasumi, MFA
This creative workshop invites participants to reflect on their inner selves and identify past wrongdoings related to racism, discrimination, bullying, or harm toward individuals or the LAND. Acknowledge your actions, admit mistakes, and express your apology through a creative process into the pompom. The collection of Apology Pompoms will be a part of an inclusive installation art on SU campus.
From Doing to Being: Wellness Practices to Imagine an Inclusive Democracy
Pigott 305 I Tai Maddox, Experiences by Tai
It can be hard to "imagine an inclusive democracy" if we are in a state of stress or overwhelm. This lab features an opportunity to slow down and tend to our wellness in community, through the immersive experience of a sound bath. A sound bath is a meditative experience where participants are “bathed” in the healing vibration of sound waves. The resonant sounds produced during a sound bath can help settle the nervous system and facilitate relaxation and rest. No experience is necessary, and a willingness to shift from constantly doing to simply being is encouraged
Transgender Solidarity Workshop
Pigott 307 I Kat Cole, MSW & Sam Harrell, PhD
Join is in an exploration of the intersections of transgender identity, racism, and oppression. Utilizing the lens of the current political climate, we will delve into the complexities of transgender experience focusing on the ways in which race and gender intersect to create unique challenges and resilience. Additionally, we will review the current political and social landscape highlighting key policies that have immediate impact on transgender faculty and staff.
Cultivating Inclusive, Thriving Classrooms through Equity Pedagogies
Pigott 308 I Carol Adams, PhD, Kerry Soo Von Esch, PhD, Ana Rivero, PhD & Colleen Loranger, MEd
This session will actively engage participants in exploration of equity pedagogies by utilizing a teaching & learning social justice framework to analyze teaching practice and imagine future classrooms that center justice and joy
Ignatian Dialogue
Through
Differences:
Pigott 309 I Andrea Fontana, MDiv
Can we take an alternative path in polarizing times?
Learn about Ignatian principles for dialogue and engage in interactive exercises to explore how these principles could help us navigate racial/political conflict in our current context.
Sticking Together in Tough Times
Admin 321 I Dean Spade, JD
All solidarity and resistance work is rooted in relationships. Growing up in racial capitalism and patriarchy, most of us lack relational skills that help us stick together, and our groups often fall apart over conflict. In this workshop, we'll look at some common causes of conflict that impede our work for racial justice, and we will practice some skills that might help us stick together more effectively, across our differences, in these difficult times