Note: The Decolonizing the Academy Committee is currently inactive. If you are interested in chairing the committee, please contact the Senate President.
Scope
The committee serves the Senate’s and the College’s commitment to continual reflection by giving deep consideration to the structures, policies, and culture of the institution. By working toward a decolonized academy, the committee will review and respond to campus-wide matters and give recommendations that aim to alleviate the cycle of colonization.
Function
- Begin a process of acknowledgment, reconciliation, and healing.
- Identify the structures, policies, and regulations that may perpetuate a colonized hierarchy and discuss ways to reduce their harm.
- Respond to state- and college-wide undertakings and propositions.
- Examine inherited constructs and culture and their effects on the campus and its people.
Land Acknowledgment and Action Practice
The Decolonizing the Academy Committee is motivated by a deeply-felt and shared belief that in order to shape a more interdependent, collaborative, and sustainable world we need to recognize and redress the colonial structures that currently shape and define our inequitable and unsustainable reality.
The principle guiding the Decolonizing Committee is the desire for more imaginative
control over our shared reality - this includes our relationship to the land.
In 2021, Tongva elder Julia Bogany visited with us to discuss the process of renewing
our connection to the land. Shortly after her visit, Julia died of a stroke (read
the L.A. Times article on Julia Bogany here), but her work continues.
Watch the recording of Julia Bogany's visit and read her website, To Be Visible, for more information about the enduring relation between Native peoples and the land.
Community Read
Fall 2021: adrienne maree brown
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
If you missed the visit, check out the adrienne maree brown zoom recording
Spring 2021: Prof. Gina A. Garcia
Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining Servingness at HSIs.
It's one thing to be an HSI; it's another to serve our Latinx students. Watch a recording of Professor Garcia's 2021 discussion at SMC.
Fall 2020: Prof. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Decolonizing Events
No events at the moment.