Butler Center talk to focus on what leaders should know about microaggressions

The Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence is hosting a talk on "What Leaders Should Know and Do: Gender, Race, Culture and the Why, When, and How of Macroaggressions" on Feb. 28.

The talk, scheduled for noon-1:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Purdue Memorial Union's West Faculty Lounge, will feature Edna Chun, author and chief learning officer at HigherEd Talent. Lunch will be provided.

Based on the new book "Rethinking Diversity Frameworks in Higher Education" by Chun and Joe Feagin, this interactive talk will examine the current, too-tame language of racial, gender, and heterosexist microaggressions and proposes a more frank and reality-based terminology. Using examples from the academic front lines, the authors explain how recurring acts of exclusion of nondominant faculty, staff and students are in fact macro-inequities with long-term career, educational, material, health and familial consequences. The authors highlight the day-to-day realities of imposed identity and persistent stereotyping and share the narratives and coping strategies of women and minorities who have faced significant exclusionary challenges.

The talk will identify proactive leadership approaches that will help institutions identify, counteract and overcome behavioral and process-based barriers to inclusion.

All faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend. RSVP is required; register here. For more information, contact butlercenter@purdue.edu.