The Allies 101 Seminar and Ally Skills Workshop were developed by the Ada Initiative, originally designed to teach men how to support women in open technology and culture; these materials have now been expanded to cover oppression along any dimension, including race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, body size, parental/caretaker status, and age. We customize our scenarios for an academic audience. Workshop and seminar leaders receive training from Dr. Sheila Addison through Frame Shift Consulting.
Allies 101 Seminar:
Summary: In this 45-minute presentation, we introduce the concepts of privilege and oppression, and allyship actions to dismantle systems of oppression and promote inclusion and equity. We emphasize why inclusion and equity requires the participation of everyone, instead of relying on members of underserved communities to fix things. The seminar focuses on everyday allyship actions, and resources to further develop ally skills.
Audience:
Open to all participants regardless of hierarchy
Ally Skills Workshop:
Summary: The 3-hours, hands-on workshop is geared towards training in actionable ally skills. After a short introduction, most of the workshop is spent in small groups, discussing real-world scenarios, and the pros and cons of possible actions that an ally could take in each scenario. Each group shares their solutions in a report-out. Participants learn ally skills by practicing them in discussion groups: listening, amplifying voices, apologizing and correcting themselves, and more.
Audience:
20-30 participants
Attendance is voluntary only (non-negotiable)
Participants are a mixture of people with different experiences of privilege and oppression
Attendance limited to two or three levels of hierarchy (e.g. student, grad students, postdocs--not students and Deans)