RaceWorks: Bridging Research and Practice to Foster Racial Literacy 

Addressing race, ethnicity, and culture in the classrooms is critical for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. RaceWorks is an open access resource developed by Stanford University for educators who want to develop students racial literacy. RaceWorks includes: (1) a series of short videos with Stanford scholars from various disciplines that explore how people "do race" and ways to "undo racism" and (2) an accompanying digital toolkit with discussion questions and activities that complement the videos. This event is intended for faculty, students, staff, and other members of our academic community to discuss how we can all address issues of racial diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Kentucky. The presentation will tackle the experience of Stanford University addressing issues of race and undoing racism in their academic community through the design and implementation of RaceWorks. 

Please join the University of Kentucky College of Public Health for a virtual presentation featuring internationally recognized speaker MarYam Hamedani, Ph.D., Managing Director and Senior Research Scientist at Stanford SPARQ, Stanford University. 

 MarYam Hamedani, Ph.D., is Managing Director and Senior Research Scientist at Stanford SPARQ. SPARQ is a "do tank" that partners with industry leader and changemakers to reduce societal disparities and bridge social divides using insights from behavioral science. SPARQ works in the areas of criminal justice, economic mobility, education, and health. At SPARQ, Dr. Hamedani studies and puts into practice strategies to help people live, work, and thrive in today’s increasingly diverse and divided world. She works on improving police-community relations, promoting racial literacy, educating people about social differences, and designing empowering schools and programs for underrepresented students. Dr. Hamedani is the former Associate Director of Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE). Her work has been published in leading journals such as Psychological Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Perspectives on Psychological Science, and has been covered by national media outlets like National Public Radio, The New York Times, ABC News, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, and The Huffington Post. 

This symposium is sponsored by the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET), Center for Equity and Social Justice, the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CELT), and the Office of Institutional Diversity. Drs. Rafael E. Pérez-Figueroa and Kathryn Cardarelli (Health, Behavior, and Society) are serving as coordinators for the event.