Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership
Across the United States, many colleges and universities have issued statements pledging to take a stand against racism in all its forms. The Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership is designed for academic administrators who have joined the growing movement for racial justice. It is for leaders who feel an urgent need to deepen their understanding of the history and manifestations of racist ideas, policies, and practices. The purpose of the Academy is to develop critical leadership competencies, most centrally racial literacy and the race- and racism-conscious schemas needed to dismantle whiteness, white supremacy, and what Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw refers to as the ‘norms of perspectivelessness’ that have become infused in postsecondary policies and practices at colleges and universities across the postsecondary spectrum.
Program
Our program offers select topics for academic leaders such as the importance of examining white supremacy and anti-Blackness, Blackness as a conceptual framework for critical leadership, taking anti-racist action through discourse, demonstrating leadership through racially minoritized faculty hiring and retention, articulating anti-racist values and commitments in leadership statements, and recognizing the ‘Math People Myth’ as an expression of hegemonic whiteness in STEM.
Participants
Since welcoming its first cohort of leadership academy participants in 2010 to our companion program, the Academic Leadership Academy (ALA), Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) has endeavored to enhance the ability of academic administrators to provide leadership within their respective institutions. For those who have gained initial experience as an anti-racist leader and wish to strengthen their transformative leadership capabilities, we are pleased to now offer the Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership. Offered for the first time in 2021, this program provides time with faculty experts and peers to hone perceptions of oppressive racial dynamics, especially as situated in anti-Blackness and intersectionality. Participants are administrative leaders in a variety of roles such as program director, diversity officer, department head, associate dean/provost, or other executive leadership positions. They may or may not have responsibility for equity, diversity, and inclusion, but all aspire to advance these ideals through their practice of leadership. Note that the Academy is not designed for academic leaders of colleges and universities outside the United States or for leaders of the branch campuses of U.S. institutions in other countries.
A Message from the Director
LaWanda W. M. Ward, J.D. Ph.D.
Director, Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership
Associate Professor, College of Education
Associate Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education
Program Coordinator, Residential M.Ed. in Higher Education
Janice Byrd, Ph.D.
Co-Convenor, Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership
Associate Professor of Counselor Education
The landscape of higher education is constantly in a state of flux. Laws restricting pedagogy and training about race, gender, and LGBTQ affirmation require institutions of higher education to quickly draft policies with unknown consequences. Leaders must consider the effects of political attacks on the accurate teaching of U.S. history and racism and the morale in campus communities. The well-financed movement to stifle racial equity efforts within campus communities and society writ large is alarming. “What logics inform my actions to demonstrate anti-racist leadership?” This is one question I and other academy faculty will invite participants to reflect upon during our time together.
Self-reflective practice is imperative in this context. Leadership is a Euro-American masculine construct that conjures a normed image of who should or can embody leadership. Leaders often engage in whiteness-oriented approaches to leadership unless they actively work to develop racial literacy. Transformative leadership that produces results as noticeable structural and systemic change is demanded by racially minoritized students, faculty, and staff.
Accordingly, the Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership offers time and space to those leaders who are ready to exercise transformative leadership to address and advance personhood affirmation in campus communities. Participants are not offered definitive solutions, but instead are invited to name, acknowledge, and contemplate the socio-political realities inside and beyond campus communities that render decision-making complex.
I am pleased to welcome Dr. Janice Byrd as co-convenor of the 2024 Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership.
Nomination Information
To be considered for the Academy, potential participants must be nominated by a colleague or complete a self-nomination form. Click on the “NOMINATE” button on this page to submit a nomination.
The nomination form includes a question requesting a brief statement (e.g., 4-5 sentences) of recommendation or for self-nominators a statement of interest explaining how the nominee’s/your prior professional experiences and current responsibilities position the nominee/you well to benefit from participation in this Academy. Please be sure to answer this question. The form is not considered complete, and an admission decision will not be made, for nominations lacking this statement.
Registration materials and payment are due by May 15, 2024. To enable timely registration, nominations will be reviewed, and acceptance decisions made, on a rolling basis. Accepted nominees will receive an email containing detailed registration instructions. Please plan to submit your registration materials at least ten days prior to the registration deadline to leave time for your forms and payment to be processed. Refer to the Details tab of this website for pricing information and registration details.