Adjunct Professor
Current
Mandel School Of Applied Social Sciences, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
Adjunct Professor to teach undergraduate class on Oppression and Privilege in a Multicultural Society. Privilege flings open the doors of opportunity in a multicultural society. Oppression jams those doors tightly shut. This course provides students with understandings of how oppression and privilege operate in a multicultural society to restrict the life chances of minority and disenfranchised group members. Increasing knowledge about the nature and dynamics of oppression and privilege are fundamental dimensions of the ability to value a diverse world. This undertaking requires self-assessment and reflection on discrimination, oppression, and privilege as components of individual awareness. Such insight will help students live, work, study, and play well with “others” who are culturally different from themselves with respect to race/ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and age. Beyond increasing respectful social interaction, it is hoped that students will be motivated to work towards dismantling systems that perpetuate de-valuing, exploitation, marginalization, and violence against members of subordinate groups. Major consideration will be given to structures of oppression and privilege related to racism, classism, religious bigotry, sexism, heterosexism/ trangenderism, ableism, and ageism.The emphasis is on how oppression and dominant group privilege manifest at the individual, institutional, and societal/cultural levels. This course highlights how the pervasive nature of inequality is interwoven throughout interpersonal social, cultural, political, and economic institutions and systems. The course also focuses on how privilege, the flip side of oppression, opens doors of advantage and favor while oppression locks them tightly. Key concepts will be presented to explain how structures of dominance, privilege, and subordination are manifested, paralleled, and interconnected.