By Marcus Neeld, Assistant Director, Student Life, NYU Sydney

Late last year, NYU Sydney faculty met with visitor Monroe France, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Diversity Initiatives. The meeting was the keystone event of Monroe’s invaluable trip to the Sydney campus, augmenting what had already been a jam-packed week of professional development experiences for administrative staff and informal engagements with students.

Monroe provided staff with some base tools in order to identify microaggressions along with strategies to practice allyship.

Town Hall meeting spurs broader dialogue on diversity

Concerns raised during a 2015 Town Hall event acted as a catalyst for NYU Sydney’s administrative team to apply for CMEP’s Global Diversity and Professional Development Grant. Eager to learn more about the experiences of minority students within the NYU community, the team lodged a request to learn more about ways to support students of colour and how social movements are affecting change on college campuses throughout the United States.

Faculty relished the opportunity to engage with Monroe, requesting the seminar focus on the efforts NYU is making to address matters of diversity, equity and inclusion. This request was made to discuss and formulate ways in which local instructors can enhance cultural competency and further support NYU’s institutional mission.

The training Monroe designed encapsulated themes of social identity, social justice and privilege. These topics were contextualised by a corresponding screening of portions from last year’s listening event. The clips shown of featured students provided a succinct focus on core topics central to the meeting, acting as an icebreaker for local faculty and staff to reflect on these important themes. As the meeting progressed it organically moved towards a discussion of individual teaching experiences and plans for future semesters.

The teaching staff were in consensus that future classes should act as an open, safe environment for students to discuss their salient social identity and preferred gender pronouns, a suggestion that Monroe recommended also be integrated into early semester introductions.

Social spheres and identities are malleable and non-uniform

Arguably the most compelling insight into matters of diversity and inclusion was offered by former NYU-Sydney student Ishani Dugar. The speech, which was performed during one of President Hamilton’s inauguration sessions, revealed misconceptions of universal communities. Ishani discussed original intentions to continue activism while in Sydney only to find that the local LGBTQ community was, although connected in solidarity, focusing on addressing different issues. The message served as a reminder of the nuances that exist between marginalised groups across the globe.

Marginalisation through multiple lenses

More broadly, the week’s training helped elucidate which groups feel marginalised at an institutional level. Familiar with local systemic oppression within an Australian context faculty were less attuned to the American experience. Monroe discussed student activism at NYU and progressive discourse as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

As the NYU-Sydney team prepare for future semesters, Monroe’s visit has provided a solid contextual framework to work within. Faculty will be encouraged to select reading materials that help students further interrogate social identity from an Australian perspective. With better understanding of the lenses visiting students employ to understand these issues through, the NYU-Sydney team will endeavour to create supportive environments and further opportunities for the examination of social identities from a global perspective.