microaggressions – Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

Reading Thoroughgood et al. (2024) on why bystanders should act

mglessmer — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:03:42 +0000

“When advantaged group employees courageously stand up for the rights of their colleagues with marginalized identities, research suggests that they communicate a powerful, public “message of value” to such individuals“, according to Thoroughgood et al. (2024). And this message can have more effects in addition to signaling to the colleagues with marginalised identities that they […]

Source

Currently reading: Connaught (2024) “Reframing the impostor phenomenon for Black college students”

mglessmer — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:16:09 +0000

I have been critical of the “impostor syndrome” — that everybody seems to be talking about everywhere these days! — for a while because it puts the responsibility of dealing with systemic biases on the individuals that need to be “fixed” (see here for women, and here more generally), and in Gonnaught (2024) the focus […]

Source

Striving for accountable spaces (instead of safe or brave ones)

mglessmer — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 06:38:40 +0000

Hearing promises of “safe spaces” is usually a quick way to get me very angry. Safe for whom? And safe from whom? Probably not safe for minorities from dominant discourses… But then calling for “brave spaces” instead does not help a lot either. Brave spaces demand bravery from everybody, so far so good, but what […]

Source

Intervening when witnessing microaggressions (my backup plan in case I don’t have time for this slide in an upcoming seminar)

mglessmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 07:56:09 +0000

I am planning a seminar on relationships in the classroom, and I have way too many things to say on that in general, AND want it to be driven by what participants feel is relevant. One topic I have traditionally included, and talked (and written) about, is how to react when being target, witness, or […]

Source

Currently reading “How well-intentioned white male physicists maintain ignorance of inequity and justify inaction” by Dancy & Hodari (2022)

mglessmer — Tue, 16 May 2023 09:35:01 +0000

This article has repeatedly been making waves in my circles over the last couple of months: “How well-intentioned white male physicists maintain ignorance of inequity and justify inaction” by Dancy & Hodari (2022). My take-away in a nutshell: Ignorance is bliss. It’s totally worth a read! It sounds obvious, and there is a lot of research […]

Source

Currently reading: “Disarming Racial Microaggressions: Microintervention Strategies for Targets, White Allies, and Bystanders” (Sue et al., 2019)

mglessmer — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:36:00 +0000

I have another recommended reading for you! I found this really nice framework for disarming microaggressions, both targeted directly towards the perpetrator, but also institutional and societal macroaggressions, in Sue et al. (2019). The article includes a lot of really helpful examples of what this might look like in practice. Below is a summary of […]

Source

Microaggressions: How intent and impact don’t always go together.

mglessmer — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 09:54:49 +0000

I’ve recently started including the topic of microaggressions in my academic development workshops, and here is one reflection on the topic (including the super helpful sandals&boots-analogy by Presley Pizzo). I initially wrote this for a newsletter to all teachers at my faculty, but then I also wrote a second – much more hands-on-“three-things-to-do” – version, […]

Source

Reducing bias and discrimination in teaching: an annotated, incomplete — WORK IN PROGRESS! — list of references

mglessmer — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 06:43:33 +0000

Already at the time of posting, I have added to my to-read list for an updated version of this post. Please let me know of any additional literature I should include, and of any other comments you might have! As it says in the title, this work is incomplete and in progress! “The rights perspective, […]

Source