Ally Tips

Preparing for Critical Conversations as Allies for Equity

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

As allies and advocates, we’d like to engage in dialogues on equity and justice with our beloved friends and families. But we also know that such conversations can be particularly tense if our friends and family have not taken the time to examine their privileges. In this Ally Tips, we want to encourage you to reflect on how you’ve approached these conversations, what we know about how/why they  happen, and ways that you can prepare for any potential conversations you might encounter. Going into critical (i.e., difficult) conversations without preparing will often lead to conflict. Knowing this, we often respond to these situations with silence. Allyship is a practice that needs to happen in all parts of our lives, requiring the intentionality to show up and educate our peers/communities with privileged identities about sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other systems of oppression that shape our world. Therefore, being prepared for critical conversations is part of being an ally. 

Unpacking Hidden Curriculum in Graduate Studies

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

As we are approaching the stressful time that the end of the semester can be, we’d like to highlight some aspects of social class that are often invisible and under-addressed to support the diverse students in the classroom. Higher education has been valorized as a way to equalize opportunities for people of all different classes of backgrounds, but does it? We take time to unpack how classism manifests itself within higher education and how we can do better for our students, peers, and beyond when it comes to social class equity. This week, we will explore how class can be perpetuated in the form of a hidden curriculum. This curriculum operates as a series of unspoken rules and expectations that influence one’s success in higher education - ranging from the reasons for attending college to strategies for navigating university resources. 1, 2 Thus, effective advocates and allies in higher education develop practices that make the hidden curriculum explicit to all students. This week, we will specifically use some examples from graduate programs and how to create an equitable graduate learning environment.

Myths about Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders

Tuesday, April 02, 2024

Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage observance takes place in May in the United States. However, IU celebrates AANHPI Heritage Month in April so that our campus can fully honor the observance before the summer break begins. IU’s Asian Cultural Center hosts diverse events under the theme of “Celebrating Intersectional Identities of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community.” As this theme indicates, AANHPI individuals hold various identities that are often marginalized  in U.S. society  but remain unaddressed due to both the aggregated nature of the term “Asian American”  and the prevalent myths about them being the model minority.1  More importantly, despite reports showing significantly disproportionate discrimination and hate crimes against AANHPI women, these critical issues  receive little attention. Relatively,  recent examples include the Atalanta Spa shooting of six Asian female spa workers and the bus attack on an Asian IU student right here in Bloomington. While honoring and celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month, we hope this episode of Ally Tips helps you better understand the diversity and challenges of the AANHPI communities and the achievements of AANHPI women in higher education. 

Apologizing as Allyship

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Although we carry good intentions, there are times when we make mistakes—misgendering someone, forgetting to credit the person who originally shared an idea, and so on. When allies realize that they have misstepped and harmed minoritized colleagues, they are often perplexed about what to do and may feel ashamed for having caused such harm. It’s understandable that, on the path to becoming better allies and advocates for equity, we are bound to make mistakes. In many of these cases, there may not be a way to retract the negative impact of the mistake—an apology may be the only action an ally can take in this case. Apologies are important because they give hope to your colleague(s) that the incident won’t repeat itself in the future. So, in this episode of Ally Tips, we will suggest healthy steps for apologizing as allies for the mistakes you’ve made to your colleagues.  

Stories from Our Campus: Taking a Closer Look at Gender Equity

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

In March, we celebrate Women’s History Month in the U.S. and  International Women’s Day (March 8) more broadly speaking. These observances are to honor the achievements of women and their contributions to national and global efforts that often go unsung. In addition, it is time for us to take a deeper look at the biases and discrimination that put unnecessary burdens on women—in both our classrooms and workplaces—while learning effective ways to challenge and transform discrimination in higher education by acting as allies and advocates for gender equity. One way we can educate ourselves is by listening to and reading what other renowned scholars or professionals have to say about allyship and advocacy for women, yet we don’t often get the opportunity to hear from the women on our very own campus. In this episode, we’d like to share some salient quotes from IUB women, particularly about how they experience bias and equity on our campus and examples of effective allyship that benefited them.  

Becoming A Better Mentor for An Inclusive Research Lab

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

On February 11, we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, designated by the United Nations. This day highlights women’s and girls' resilience and critical roles in science and technology communities while addressing their challenges to advancing their careers and representation in leading research labs and STEM societies.   Inclusive lab leadership and mentoring have been mentioned and studied as critically impactful elements in increasing the retention of women in STEM and women’s career advancement in STEM as they facilitate more equitable lab cultures.1, 2, 3 However, understanding and implementing these practices can be elusive to many of us. In this week’s Ally Tips, we will list exemplary practices to improve your leadership and mentorship to help create an inclusive research lab environment and help women and minoritized scholars advance and thrive in STEM particularly. These examples can also be applied to many other collaborative projects in different disciplines.  

Learning about the Scholarship of Black Women and Nonbinary Intellectuals

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Higher education, a traditional site for knowledge production, has systemically excluded Black women and nonbinary women by devaluing their intellectual abilities and their ways of representing themselves because of their untraditional research or approaches to their work.1  However, Brittney Cooper, associate professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, attests that Black women and queer-identified scholars in academia choose deviant and novel forms of knowledge production because their objectives for intellectual work have often been different. These scholars have aimed to humanize themselves—  so that American society can/will see them as equal humans and citizens and, in this way, restore their dignity. With such an objective, Black women and non-binary scholars want their work to set an example for what research would look like if it were truly equitable. In this regard, it is foremost for us to accept and appreciate the untraditional approaches of Black women and nonbinary scholars. For this, the action that advocates and allies can take is to put efforts to familiarize those scholars and their work and to credit their work. While there are countless Black women and nonbinary scholars, in this week’s Ally Tips, we hope we can learn about how innovative Black women and nonbinary people’s scholarship has been through some examples of pioneering Black women and nonbinary intellectuals.  we hope we can learn about how innovative their scholarship has been through some examples of pioneering Black women and nonbinary intellectuals and their work in this week’s Ally Tips.   

Small Actions to Help Women to Thrive in Higher Education

Tuesday, February 06, 2024

There are multiple ways to create an environment in  which women can thrive in higher education.  Although large, one-time, institutional initiatives may grab headlines, it may in fact be our individual commitments to regular and consistent small gestures and actions that will  transform the workplace and learning environment  most effectively.  While we advocate for institutional changes, we can simultaneously  work at a personal level to learn about ways  to support women and women of color to thrive. Today, we will focus on practicing micro-affirmations, which can be done on an everyday basis.  We hope learning about micro-affirmations can help you build a culture of care and inclusion from the beginning of each semester forward.

Gender-conscious use of generative AI

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Increased use of generative AI, such as Chat GPT and MidJourney, has raised multi-faceted issues and challenges in higher education. While these text and image-generative AI platforms are known to increase work productivity and creativity, one particular  issue with  those platforms is that their outputs tend  to discriminate against women.1, 2  Compounding issue is the fact that people might not have a prior expectation that AI can  be biased. As a result, the users of the AI generative platforms may not implement the same gender-conscious guidelines they employ when engaging with their own writing and other creative work. Thus, in this episode of Ally Tips, we focus on ways of advocating for the gender-conscious use of AI.

Establishing Habits of Allyship

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

We began this week of the Spring semester by commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 15. This day is a federal holiday and national day of service—a “day on, not a day off.” It’s a day that offers a time to reflect and start your year in the spirit of commitment to making just changes in your communities. However, these changes cannot be made with a one-time commitment, hence, allies should  consider pursuing long-term and sustainable efforts for equity by establishing habits of allyship. The definition of habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” A habit is a daily action that makes you who you are; thus, sometimes, you do it even without realizing that you are doing it. Furthermore, you do not feel stressed by the habit because it’s natural to you. In today's ally tips, we will provide ideas and suggestions to help you explore daily actions for equity that you can develop as habits.  

How Physical Space on Campus Exacerbates Weight Bias

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Weight bias is a negative/stereotypical attitude, belief, and judgment about people because of their weight. While weight bias exists on a spectrum that can include people who are underweight, we are covering biases against plus-sized/fat people because this group predominantly experiences negative attitudes and discriminatory practices at colleges and universities. In this Ally Tips, we grapple with the potential roles that the physical structure of college classrooms and meeting spaces may play in creating and/or perpetuating weight bias. This Ally Tips will also highlight ways to advocate for fat students and colleagues.  

The-End-of-Year Allyship Reflection Guide 

Tuesday, December 05, 2023

We are around the corner from closing the semester. Many of us may be dashing to complete projects, helping students prepare for finals, getting ready for family gatherings, and so on. The end of the year can be an extremely stressful time for many of us, possibly making us overly self-centered and, thus, more insensitive to others. As a result, we may unwittingly put aside our identities as allies during this time without even realizing it. Nonetheless, this is a crucial time to remind ourselves that inequity never pauses, and we should not let up on our allyship actions. For many women faculty, staff, and students, this time of the year is the most stressful time.1  A survey by the American Psychological Association (APA) showed that end-of-year stress can even put women’s health at risk. To stay strong as allies when our allyship and advocacy are most needed, one effective strategy is to intentionally reflect on your individual allyship goals and actions and to renew your motivations and determinations in this regard. Thus, this Ally Tips will introduce some of the critical questions you can reflect upon at this crucial time of the year.  

Thriving with International Colleagues and Students

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

With the rise of globalization and a knowledge-based economy, nations around the world and their higher education institutions have actively pursued internationalization to increase their global competitiveness. The U.S. is no exception to this trend. Currently, one-fourth of faculty in U.S. higher education institutions are foreign-born.1 These faculty members “provide links to the outside world, particularly for first-generation students” as well as other minoritized students with socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Faculty of foreign origins are also significant contributors to the local communities, serving as role models for immigrants or expatriates. The presence and contributions of international/ foreign-born faculty remind us that higher education institutions “are globally, nationally, and locally implicated" in the globalized world. Not surprisingly, however, barriers to higher education remain for foreign-born individuals and are exacerbated for women, especially refugee women, a subject we don’t often address.

Why are Pronouns Important for Transgender People?

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Transgender Awareness Week starts on November 13 to raise public awareness of the diverse challenges that individuals with transgender identities face so that people can participate more meaningfully  in the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. This day  was founded in 1999 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a trans writer and activist, to commemorate the life of Rita Hester, a Black Transwoman who lost her life to cruel violence. This day then became an annual observation that honors many other transgender individuals who lost their lives to anti-transgender violence each year. This week, as allies for transgender individuals, we will focus on learning about very simple but fundamental steps for creating an inclusive and safe workplace as a way of preparing to commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance next week. 

Can you name a Native American woman who made history in the U.S.?

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

November is Native American Heritage Month, so we return to our conversation about Indigenous people as one the most underrepresented communities in higher education - particularly Native women. These groups report various challenges to them as intellectual women, yet they persist and improve our scholarship to address the needs of not only their communities but all communities.3 The scholars’ contributions to indigenous women’s way of knowing have fostered significant advancement in the women’s rights movement in the U.S.—a history that is not often talked about and acknowledged.7 This week, we discuss how higher education recognizes (and erases) Indigenous peoples, Native experiences in higher education, and what you can do to support Native people in higher education. To learn more, check out the First Nation’s Educational & Cultural Center's numerous Indigenous events! 

Talking about National Work and Family Month through Mid-career Women Faculty Experiences

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

October is National Work and Family Month. This observation was established to celebrate working families' achievements and focus on the challenges they face. Achieving a good sense of life-work balance becomes even more difficult for mid-career faculty and middle-level managers. There are various definitions for “mid-career”: for faculty, this typically means in the post-tenure period, with 12-20 years of teaching, research, and service, or in the “middle years” of their life.1, 2  During the mid-career period, women’s attrition is generally greater, and they are more likely to struggle than men to get to full professorship or top leadership positions. Thus, this week, we will discuss ways of supporting mid-career faculty, particularly women.  

Upstander Intervention—Breaking the Silence and Building Anti-Discrimination Norms

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

We just completed two whole months since the semester began. How has your semester been? What has your allyship looked like? Like many other things, allyship is a lifelong journey during which one experiences much satisfaction but also some frustrations -- including reflections on one's own successes and failures and the emotions related to those. One of the biggest challenges that allies face is acting as an “upstander” instead of a bystander -- calling out bias on the spot or in the moment or following up with a victim of discrimination. This week, we will discuss why bystander intervention (upstanding) is essential in changing our IUB campus climate on gender equity and ways to improve allies’ confidence and capacity to be an upstander.   

Neurodiversity as The New Normal

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Last week, we discussed why and how diversity can lead to innovation and excellence at our institution. This week, we will also learn about a different type of diversity: Neurodiversity (or Neurodivergence). Neurodiversity means that there are many ways that people’s brains can be “wired” (such as people with dyslexia, autism, and ADHD) that produce different ways of thinking, problem-solving, and learning. Part of recognizing neurodiversity entails acknowledging that there isn’t a single “normal” way of thinking. A history of ableism, however, has taught us to believe that there is one kind of body and, by extension, one kind of brain that is normal and produces normal behavior. We hope this episode of Ally Tips helps you (1) unlearn certain ableist perspectives that may affect your workplace and (2) learn the strengths and challenges of individuals who are often marginalized due to our lack of understanding about neurodiversity.

Talking about Conditions That Suggest Diversity Can Mean Excellence

Tuesday, October 03, 2023

Gender equity is often addressed to improve institutional diversity and excellence. However, having a woman (or anyone with an underrepresented or minoritized identity or intersection of multiple identities) at the table does not automatically lead to innovation and excellence at our institution. There is a condition for this: letting the diverse perspectives of those around us be shared, respected, and reflected. To this end, it is worthwhile to unpack what we mean by diverse perspectives and how these views can be communicated and appreciated more widely.  

Recognizing Agency and Strength of Muslim Women in Higher Education

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

It has been more than two decades since 9/11. However, islamophobia is still prevalent, and negative stereotypes against Muslim women have only worsened. Such a hostile climate against Muslim women makes it extremely challenging for them to persist and thrive in higher education. This week, our tips focus on debunking the impact of negative stereotypes about Muslim women and extending our discussion to the intersection of religious discrimination and sexism. We also invite you to connect with our campus communities, such as Muslim Voice, which makes extraordinary efforts to create more inclusive cultures for Muslim students and faculty.  

Learning about Ourselves through Hispanic/Latino/a/x Heritage Month

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

As Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15th, we would like to acknowledge the richness, diversity, and struggles that exist within the Hispanic communities, and thus, we will use ‘Hispanic/Latino/a/x communities’ throughout the Ally Tips today while also acknowledging the limit of such language. As we celebrate the culture and heritage of our fellow colleagues and students, we can all reflect on ourselves through the lens of Hispanic, Latina, and Chicana people in higher education and learn how we can be allies for them.

Taking Reporting Bias & Harassment as Shared Responsibilities

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

As it is still the beginning of the academic year, we thought it would be meaningful to share specific actions for allies to practice and campus resources to be aware of throughout this year. This week, we will focus on what allies can do to support and stand up with/for their colleagues who experienced harassment and bias at work.  

Promoting Asset/Strength-Based Thinking and Languages

Tuesday, September 05, 2023

In our first Ally Tips of this new academic year, we addressed that unlearning privilege is the first step to becoming allies. One of the ways is to unlearn our deficit-based thinking and languages and instead learn asset/strength-based thinking and languages. This week, we will delve into concepts and vocabulary that can promote the practice of asset/strength-based thinking in our workplace and classrooms.

Re-defining Allyship and Unlearning Privilege

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

We are excited to welcome you back to campus! We would like to kick off the new academic year by going over basic concepts of allyship and highlighting healthy ways of understanding and practicing allyship and advocacy on our campus. We hope some of the questions raised in the tips today can be used for you to expand the discussion of your roles and engagement as allies throughout this academic year.