2019 Annual Conference

Community, Minority, and Non-Formal Education

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

Park your biases at the door! Enter the Human Library. Check out a Book (Person), Engage in conversations that challenge stereotypes, prejudices, implicit bias, and racism. Students and community partners planned, developed, and administered Talking Race: Human Library. They will share the challenges, strategies, and lessons learned.

Practitioners, faculty, educators, students, community members interested in organizing/facilitating discussions on race, privilege, and racism

1. Discuss two or more strategies to Increase awareness of varying experiences of culturally diverse populations.
2. Identify two or more strategies to interrupt and dismantle prejudices and stereotypes
3. Discuss two or more challenges in community engagement (immersive learning projects)
4. Identify two or more strategies for effective community engagement (immersive learning)

 In 2018, graduate/undergraduate students and community partners in an adult and community education course planned, developed, marketed, and administered “Talking Race: Human Library.”

The Human Library was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, by a youth organization, Stop the Violence. They wanted to create a space for individuals to have conversations with people who were differed from them by culture, lifestyles, and experiences. Their intent was to reduce the prevalence of prejudice, fear, and hatred. The project grew and Human Libraries are administered throughout the world. One of the tag lines is “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover.” A partnership with Human Library Fort Wayne was established to assist the students in this huge undertaking. Working with an established program provided extensive data on what works, challenges, and recommendations.

Graduate students focused on learning intersectionality of cultural identities, institutional racism, family histories, analysis of positionality of race in their ancestry, and more. Working with community and academic partners, the graduate students increased their knowledge and awareness of race, privilege, and racism in the United States. This served as a valuable foundation for the planning, development and administering of the project. The challenges, strategies employed, and lessons learned will be shared.

1. Overview of graduate students’ immersive learning class activities, Talking Race: Human Library planning, development, and implementation, results of event survey and graduate/undergraduate students’ critical reflections
2. Solicit sharing of experiences of attendees with community based partnerships and facilitating racial dialogues, in and out of the classroom
3. Q&A to respond to attendees’ specific concerns
4. Summary and Review