September 15, 2008 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
The Center for Gender in Organizations announces the first presentation in its Distinguished Scholar Speakers Series for the 08/09 Academic Year.
This event is hosted by Joyce K. Fletcher, Ph.D., CGO’s first Distinguished Scholar
Date: Monday, September 15, 2008
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Place: 409 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA in Green Room
Speaker: Erica Foldy, Ph.D, of the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and CGO Affiliate
Topic: Discussing the Undiscussable: Race Talk, Race Practice and Learning about Race at Work
In many work environments, race and ethnicity tend to be undiscussables, or taboo topics, because they can raise charged and thorny issues and emotions.
Yet, research in clinical fields, including counseling psychology and social work, suggests that skillfully engaging race and culture - what is often called “cultural competence” — enhances clinicians’ work with their clients. This presentation explores two elements that are necessary for cultural competence: high color cognizance and strong learning behaviors.
Color cognizance is a way of understanding the role of race in an organization’s work. Low color cognizance is the equivalent of color blindness, or the perspective that race and culture are not relevant to the work and should be de-emphasized. Preliminary analysis suggests that a team is culturally competent only if it has both high color cognizance and strong learning behaviors.
Please RSVP by September 9, 2008 to CGO@simmons.edu
Plans for other presentations in the Distinguished Scholar Speakers Series will be announced in the near future.
This presentation is sponsored by TJX.
Also, by popular demand, CGO is providing you with information on how to order the groundbreaking publication, Reader in Gender, Work, and Organization by R. Ely, E. Foldy, M. Scully, & the Center for Gender in Organization (eds.) (Blackwell Publishing 2003) PAPERBACK
http://www.simmons.edu/som/centers/cgo/resources/books.shtml#blackwell
