International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2022: What can higher education institutions do to eradicate racism from within and in their societies?

The webinar What could higher education institutions do to eradicate racism from within and in their societies?, in the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2022: What can higher education institutions do to eradicate racism from within and in their societies?, is hosted by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), the International Centre for Higher Education Management (ICHEM) and the Race Equality Taskforce (RET) of the University of Bath, UK; the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina, the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense (URACCAN) and The University of the West Indies (UWI) on March 21, 2022. 

 

Time: 10.00-11.30 (Caracas) / 11.00-12.30 (Buenos Aires) / 14.00-15.30 (London). Please check your local time zone

In English and Spanish with simultaneous interpretation. 

Zoom webinar. Open to all with prior registration required.

Register at: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eFDj73b8R4OGBejno_YDUg

 

About the webinar 

To mark International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2022, this webinar highlights the positive actions that higher education can take in contributing to the eradication of racism worldwide. It builds on a well attended event hosted by UNESCO IESALC in November 2021, ‘Racism in the Academy: Global perspectives on multiple forms of racism and struggles for equity’. The event covered institutional racism, epistemic violence, and the communities that higher education excludes, and touched on movements, policies, and strategies to overcome racism.  

This webinar continues this conversation by moving the discussion to the real actions that higher education can take to genuinely challenge and contribute to the eradication of racism. This recognises that small successes are not sufficient to undermine the power and the mechanisms that reproduce the larger patterns of social injustice worldwide. Nevertheless, through the speakers’ exploration and presentation of positive actions, important insights for transforming higher education institutions, systems, and public policies can be offered. 

Join us on 21 March 2022 as four leading global scholars debate what higher education institutions, systems, and public policies can do to eradicate racism from within and in their societies. Professor Daniel Mato (UNTREF, Argentina) and Professor Rajani Naidoo (University of Bath, UK), speakers at the November 2021 webinar, will be joined by Professor Alta Hooker (Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas del Caribe Nicaragúense, Nicaragua) and Professor Verene A. Shepherd (University of the West Indies) in a conversation moderated by Dr Emma Sabzalieva and Salma Ahmed (UNESCO IESALC). 

 

Speakers

Alta Suzzane Hooker Blandford is an Afro-descendant woman, Nurse by profession, with a Master’s Degree in Intercultural Public Health and a Postgraduate Degree in University Management. Rector of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense) since 2003. Coordinator of the Network of Indigenous, Intercultural and Community Universities of Abya Yala (RUIICAY). Researcher and International Lecturer on topics such as: Human Rights, Intercultural Models of Health and Education, cultural diversity and interculturality in Higher Education. 

Daniel Mato is Principal Researcher, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research – (CONICET), and Director of UNESCO Chair in Higher Education and Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Argentina. Professor Mato chairs the Initiative for the Eradication of Racism in Higher Education in Latin America. He has published extensively in the fields of cultural diversity, racism and higher education, and culture, communication and social transformation. 

Rajani Naidoo is UNESCO Chair in Higher Education Management and Vice-President (Community and Inclusion) at the University of Bath. She is also Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Management. Before this, she contributed to an alternative higher education institution that was set up to act as a model for transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Her publications and research projects focus on the escalation of competition, audit and bureaucracy in higher education, and the contribution of universities to inclusive development and social justice.    

Verene A. Shepherd is a graduate of The University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Cambridge and Hon. Fellow, Jesus College, Cambridge. She currently is a Professor Emerita of Social History at The UWI, Director of the Centre for Reparation Research at The UWI, a Vice-Chair of The CARICOM Reparation Commission and a Vice-Chair of the oldest UN Treaty Body, The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). 

 

Moderators 

Dr Emma Sabzalieva is Senior Policy Analyst at UNESCO IESALC, leading on a range of projects including the futures of higher education, new forms of student mobility, and academic freedom. Dr Sabzalieva is a comparative and international higher education specialist. Her research focusses on the effects of geopolitics and globalization on higher education policy, and she has extensive experience in higher education policy analysis, teaching, and university administration. 

Salma Z. Ahmed is an intern at UNESCO IESALC and a Master’s student in Education Policies for Global Development. This Erasmus Mundus Master’s was developed by a consortium of four European universities. She also has experience working as a member of the National Selection for Equality and Diversity in Norway’s biggest Teacher Union. 

 

Agenda

Times shown are Caracas time (UTC -4); please check the local time for your region

10.00-10.10	Welcome Introductions
10.10-10.50	In conversation with Alta Hooker, Daniel Mato, Rajani Naidoo, and Verene A. Shepherd. Moderated by Emma Sabzalieva/Salma Z.Ahmed
10.50-11.20	Open Q&A with audience
11.20-11.30	Closing remarks

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Image credits: Freepik.com/pikisuperstar