The Office of the Provost's Addressing Racism initiative awarded seed grant funding for a new project proposed by faculty members from two programs in Columbia's School of Professional Studies.
“Activating Racial Justice Through Narrative Negotiation”—a collaboration between Danielle Spencer, Derek McCracken and Carmen Price of the Narrative Medicine program and Beth Fisher-Yoshida of the Negotiation & Conflict Resolution program—is among more than 50 cross-unit collaborations and individual-unit projects to receive funding for “faculty projects that engage with issues of structural racism and enable collaborative dialogue, action and insight for systemic change.” The project aims to synthesize the tools of Narrative Medicine with Negotiation and Conflict Resolution to promote reciprocal engagement in conversations regarding race, power, privilege, oppression, and discrimination.
The Office of the Provost issued a request for proposals in June as part of its broader call to action for the University to address systemic racism.
“After we received an overwhelming response to the call for proposals, members of the Board of Trustees made generous contributions that more than doubled the original expected number of funded projects,” the Office noted in its announcement of the grant recipients.
See the full listing of Faculty Seed Grant awardees, learn more about the Narrative Medicine and Negotiation & Conflict Resolution programs, and watch a panel discussion (below) with Columbia faculty on addressing racism in higher education.
