Antiracist Conference Organization, Planning, and Resources

Mara Lee Grayson, Ph.D. Watson 2021

Point #1: Context Matters.

• Racism is contextual.
• Racial literacy is contextual.
• And anti-racism is contextual.
• You can’t have an anti-racist conference if you don’t have an anti-racist organization.

Point #2: Effort, Honesty, and Realism Matter.

• You won’t have an anti-racist conference or an anti-racist organization simply because you attend a few presentations on anti-racism and conference planning.
• This is deep, long, ongoing work.
• No single event, handout, consultation, or conference is going to fix the intentional design and unintentional complicity of our field in racism and white supremacy.

Point #3: I Have One Question for You.

• What are you doing on a daily basis, in praxis, to decenter, destabilize, delegitimize, and dismantle white supremacy in your organization?

Anti-racist Conference Planning: General Questions for Organizers

Policy

The policies and procedures that define not only the conference but the organization itself will need to be considered.

• What is the overall theme or philosophy guiding this particular event? Anti-racism can’t itself be the theme of every conference, but it has to be integrated into the theme of every conference.
• What ideologies and frameworks guide that philosophy?
• What terminology are we using in the call for proposals?
• When will the conference be held? Who will be impacted by this decision?
• When will the announcement be made?
• When are proposals due? Who will be impacted by this decision?
• When are notifications sent out? Who will be impacted by this decision? Cutting things down to the wire is not exactly anti-racist when we remember that registration fees require funding which, if it is available to BIPOC who occupy graduate student and non-tenure-track positions, requires lead time.
• Who will be compensated for their work on this conference? How are those decisions made? Knowing that racism and capitalism are intertwined, how anti-racist is it to expect people to present their work for free? Or for CV lines that the white academy requires?

Programs

The overall philosophy of the conference should inform the program and procedures for determining the program.

• Whose voices are represented on the program? Why?
  • Whose voices are not represented?
  • What epistemologies and ideologies guide the review and selection processes? How do you create space for non-western modes of meaning-making?
  • How do you plan to categorize non-western modes of meaning-making and presentation on the program?
  • At what time(s) are events scheduled? Who will be impacted by that timing?
  • Which sessions will overlap?
  • Who will have no choice but to miss sessions?
  • What kind of collaboration is encouraged or required?
  • How is consistency of messaging ensured?
  • What checks and balances are in place?
  • How is expertise acknowledged?
  • How is expertise in anti-racism acknowledged?
  • What kind of labor do you require from presenters?

Practice

Anti-racist conference planning in practice requires not only attention to timing, but also transparency and the implementation of structures for preventing and managing racist encounters.

• How will organizers communicate with participants?
  • What kind of labor do you require from attendees?
  • Will communication be targeted to particular stakeholders and constituents?
  • What happens if someone experiences an act of racist violence?
  • What happens if someone experiences microaggressions?
  • What’s the reporting structure?
  • Who is held accountable and how?
  • What anti-racist and critical whiteness education is provided for conference organizers?
  • What anti-racist and critical whiteness education is provided to attendees?
  • How will organizers communicate with participants?
  • Will communication be targeted to particular stakeholders and constituents?