MCLA's English Department understands deeply that people of color and LGBTQIA+ individuals have long navigated social systems built upon and maintained by both physical and rhetorical violence.
In pursuit of transformative justice, we cannot ignore the structural conditions that have contributed to oppressing and silencing many of our fellow community members.
Committing to social and racial justice rhetorically, in the form of public statements, is an important starting point, but our faculty are also committed to employing restorative strategies on a daily basis at the curricular and programmatic levels.
All of our courses, and all of our programmed events, feature a high percentage of writers of color and gender diverse authors. Working towards parity in our syllabi and in our events will amplify the voices of the minoritized and oppressed, while also encouraging a relational and intersectional understanding of how BIPOC, gender diverse people, and white people inhabit, navigate, and interpret the world differently because of persisting power inequities.
We commit also to continuously evaluating and assessing how our department serves the mission of public liberal arts by engaging in individual and collective teaching and learning practices that best affirm our value.
