Deconstructing whiteness in research and teaching

Deconstructing whiteness in research and teaching: A hands-on workshop on race, coloniality, and organizing

We’re delighted to organize this follow-up event after the wide interest and participation in our recent in-person panel discussion, Race Erased. This time, we’re coming together for a hands-on workshop seminar, designed especially for master’s and PhD students, but open to all who are part of this ongoing conversation.

Event Description:
How do we teach and research race, coloniality, and antiblackness in ways that move beyond description to disrupt systems of power in research, teaching, and writing?

This interactive workshop invites master's and PhD students as well as staff and faculty to collectively reflect on how whiteness, antiblackness, and coloniality shape our research practices, writing habits, and pedagogy and classroom norms.

It draws from Dr. Joëlle Cruz’s doctoral seminar titled “Race, coloniality, and organizing,” which has been described by students as “embodied,” “transformative,” and “a space where I became the most vocal version of myself.”

In this workshop, which bridges both theory and application, participants will collectively:

1. Map how white organizational norms (e.g. professionalism, neutrality, civility) show up in their research and writing (assumptions, questions, methodologies)
2. Deconstruct pedagogy and classroom norms that reproduce whiteness, silence, and tokenization
3. Engage in micro-revision activities: syllabus, feedback style, etc…
4. Reimagine an otherwise/other worlds and come up with a manifesto

Event Schedule:
Date: Wednesday, June 25
Time: 2:00 – 5:00 PM

Location: Queens QB-210, Mile End Campus, Queen Mary University of London

About Dr. Joëlle M. Cruz:
Dr. Joëlle M. Cruz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the current Faculty Fellow in the Office of Faculty Affairs. In that role, she leads programming to support tenure-line faculty and instructors in their first three years, including the Thriving at CU Series and the Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) program. She also serves as a liaison with Faculty of Color and Friends.

Joëlle’s research sits at the intersection of organizational communication, postcolonial theory, and global justice. She focuses on what organizing looks like at the margins—working with indigenous and grassroots movements in places like post-conflict Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, especially among women and LGBTQ communities. Her work examines how dominant cultural assumptions in academia shape what is seen as legitimate knowledge, and how alternative voices and logics can shift that landscape.

Multicultural and multilingual, Joëlle grew up and lived in Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, France, and the United States. When she’s not traveling across Central or South America, she enjoys painting, drawing, and baking—especially perfecting her legendary chocolate cake.

Benefits for Master’s and PhD Students:
This workshop offers master’s and PhD students a unique opportunity to critically examine how systemic whiteness shapes their academic work and teaching. By engaging in reflective activities and micro-revisions, students will gain practical tools to challenge dominant norms, enrich their research methodologies, and create more inclusive learning environments. The collaborative nature of the session fosters a supportive community for deeper learning and transformative change.

About Borderlines

Borderlines is an Interdisciplinary Research Collective dedicated to advancing social justice through radical, experimental, and innovative methodologies. We champion interdisciplinary pedagogies and conceptual paradigms, bringing together scholars from diverse backgrounds who resist the strict definitions of traditional academic fields and disciplines.

Thriving through difference and embracing alternative vantage points, Borderlines is committed to decolonising praxis and interrogating the normative through critical enquiry. Our work seeks to challenge the margins, peripheries, boundaries, and notions of alterity, fostering new ways of thinking and engaging with the world.

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