One Campus, Many Languages: A Podcast for Faculty Working with Multilingual Students, AYS23-25 CAS Professor Angela Dadak, International Student Coordinator; CAS Professor Sarah Knowles;  and CAS Professor Polina Vinogradava, TESOL Program Director

The Writing Studies Program and the departments of Literature and World Languages and Cultures are collaborating on an initial 10-episode podcast designed to help faculty connect with and teach international students, multilingual and otherwise, through building their knowledge and skills in inclusive practices. The podcast and accompanying website with additional resources will focus on multilingual student voices to explore best practices and enduring questions about teaching and being in community with international students and colleagues. The team hopes to sustain the project by eventually including multilingual staff, faculty, and alumni perspectives and creating a special digital collection at the AU Library. 

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Transgender Representations with Tre’vell, AY23–24 Sherri Williams, School of Communication (SOC) Professor and Antiracist Research and Policy Center Faculty Affiliate 

Tre'vell Anderson is a Black nonbinary journalist who uses journalism and writing to illustrate inequity of queer Black people and document their contributions to society and history. This talk and Q&A advance the university's inclusive excellence goals by increasing AU students’ knowledge and awareness of impacts of systems of power, privilege, and inequality, as well as BIPOC history, excellence, joy, and resistance. 

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Study of Immigration-Impacted Students at American University, AY23─24Saba Ahmed, Staff Attorney and Adjunct Faculty, Defending the AU Dream Initiative, Immigrant Justice Clinic, Washington College of Law 

Researchers will conduct qualitative research to understand the profile of immigration-impacted students at AU, including first-generation and second-generation immigrants of all legal statuses as well as students from mixed status families, where the child has legal status, but other family members do not. The questions will investigate both personal and institutional factors that facilitate or impede students’ adjustment, adaptation, and success at AU to reveal immigration-impacted students’ sense of belonging. It will focus on specific factors in the student experience, examining stressors such as financial resources and mental and physical well-being and how they impact access to and equity in an AU education. An extensive literature review determined that little research in this area of study has been conducted on the East Coast and DC metropolitan area. 

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SciPop! Talks, AY 23─24 Raychelle Burks, PhD, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Professor, and AU Library 

This program will create a space for asset-based science learning through exciting, accessible, and popular fandoms. SciPop! Talks are based on the premise that everyone is a fan of something, pop culture is the path of least resistance for people to learn, and learning through pop culture creates community. Combining shared fandoms with asset-based learning brings people together across perceived barriers to create an engaged, equitable, and diverse learning community. The program strives to increase STEM equity, enrich the STEM culture on campus, and broaden the community of people who believe that they, too, are science people. 

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District of Inclusivity: IE Strategic Communication Plan and Pilot Project AY22─23; AY23─24 Priya Doshi, Associate Dean of Faculty and Inclusive Excellence and SOC Professor; Stacy Merida, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Kogod School of Business Professor; Shreya Joshi, Kogod/BSBA '25, SPA/BA '25; Kelly Ma, SOC/BA '25; Taraji Ellington, CAS/BS '25; Vikram Lakshmanan, SIS, BA '23

The District of Inclusivity pilot project is a student-run and faculty-supported social media platform designed to amplify programming and positive messaging about diversity, equity, and inclusion at AU. It is the result of a small team of campus experts who developed a strategic IE communication plan to help better engage the student body, envisioned and launched a pilot project in alignment with that strategy, and conducted an initial evaluation of impact and recommendations for next steps (summer 2022 through late spring 2023).