Queer People of Color Conference 2013

E-Portfolio Entry

Activity Name & Description

Queer People of Color Conference 2013

The 2013 Queer People of Color Conference was held  at California State University, Fullerton on April 6! Please save the date! The theme for this year is To Exist is to Resist: Empowering our Roots Through Activism, Community, and Intersectionality. The Queer People of Color Conference aims to empower queer communities of color by providing them with the tools, spaces, and dialogue to empower themselves. We aim to do this through proactive engagement and critical analysis. The Queer People of Color movement is not simply a reactive movement; it is a proactive movement that focuses on creating and analyzing our own spaces so that we are able to understand and help our communities.

This year’s theme To Exist is to Resist was chosen because of the parallels between the struggles queer communities of color face and the Palestinian struggle. Our movement has been co-opted, often our voices have been left unheard, and we are fighting this. This is not to say the struggles are the same because they are not, but we feel as though we can relate to the same dynamic. Queer communities of color are part of the struggle of occupied peoples. And even though we face innumerable odds, even though we struggle against imperialism, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, and ableism we continue to struggle. In the same manner, Palestinian resistance opposes imperialism, Islamophobia, racism and the constant threat of genocide. In the face of all of this, the Palestinian people stand strong in their struggle. They are constantly told to give up, and asked why they stay when it is so hard to do so. They answer “To Exist is to Resist,” if they leave they abandon their people, their land, their culture. It’s when communities stop trying that they are defeated. To utilize a quote that El Centro Cultural de Mexico in the heart of Santa Ana (who also understand gentrification and imperialism): Cuando la cultura muere, la gente muere. We feel that queer communities of color understand the importance of the struggle and the difficulty of continuing that struggle so we referenced the Palestinian struggle so that we can persevere and celebrate ourselves despite all adversity.

In the Fall Semsester of my Graduate Assistantship, my supervisor tasked me to work as a mentor and co-programmer for the Queer People of Color Club at CSUF. My role was to help advise, mentor, co-plan and offer advice on the Spring Semester People of Color Conference. This all day conference would welcome different queer college students of color throughout the country. Mostly a regional conference, this year we had over 30 delegations and over 15 workshops. My role developed as a lead co-facilitator of the conference where I would assist in any way that I could to make the conference a success.

Date/Semester

 April 6th, 2013, (Spring Semester)

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels)

X Leadership
X Social Justice & Advocacy

XEducation

o Assessment & Evaluation
X Personal Development

Learning Outcomes

Student will be able to integrate 3 different student development and college impact theories/strategies while helping the Queer People of Color Club plan for the Conference.

SWiBAT utilize strengths both as representing a LGBTQ student of Color and paraprofessional leader in this programming event.  Student will assume at least three different leadership roles.

SWiBAT recall 5 different learning experiences while attending the conference   

Assessment Rubric (One Per Learning Outcome)

Rubric: HEAT WEEK

	SLO #1 – Integrating college impact theories/strategies into mentor role.	SLO #2 – Identifying 3 different leadership roles in preparing and implementation of the Conference	SLO #3 –Identifying Learning Experiences
Advanced	I will be able to use several different college impact theories/ strategies into mentor role.	I will be able to utilize and identify several leadership roles as I prepare and implement the conference.	I will be able to identify several learning experiences as a result of planning and attending the Conference.
Competent	I will be able to use three different college impact theories/ strategies into mentor role.	I will be able to utilize and identify three leadership roles as I prepare and implement the conference.	I will be able to identify three learning experiences as a result of planning and attending the Conference.
Basic	I will be able to use two different college impact theories/ strategies into mentor role.	I will be able to utilize and  identify two leadership roles as I prepare and implement the conference.	I will be able to identify two learning experiences as a result of planning and attending the Conference.
Poor	I will be unable to use any college impact theories/ strategies into mentor role.	I will be unable to utilize any leadership roles as I prepare and implement the conference.	I will be unable to identify several learning experiences as a result of planning and attending the Conference.

 

 

Evidence

            For my first learning outcome, I was able to multiple college impact/student development theories and strategies as my role as a mentor for the Queer People of Color Club as we prepared and implemented the conference. Once again I was able to connect the concept of intersectionality to the overall theme of the conference. ‘Intersectionality refers to the interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power” (Crenshaw, 1991). Using this theory was another over-arching theme for the program, I worked to create conversations in our weekly meeting to make sure that this concept would not only be thought about in our meetings but to make sure that our workshops and mission aligned with creating space to uncover and discuss different layers of self. As we understood our different roles in the planning team, I helped the students understand some of the important theories surrounding the history of people of color.

            Another theory that I think I continually utilized was Rendon’s, Validation Theory. “When validation is present, students feel capable of learning; they experience a feeling of self worth and feel that they, and everything that they bring to the college experience are accepted and recognized as valuable” (Rendon, 1995,p. 44). To utilize this theory in practice, I wanted to make sure that we create a space that validated not only the student-programming team, but the conference as a whole. We wanted to create a space for learning through acknowledging the strengths of Queer students of color. We wanted this space to validate them by giving them a forum where their experiences mattered. My personal hope was to make sure that learning would occur in the workshops because all conference attendees would feel accepted and their voices would count here. This wasn’t a space for silence, but of bridging the gaps and creating spaces to feel empowered and wanted.

            Another theory that I utilized when working with the Queer People of Color Club was the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (Jones & McEwan, 2000). The concept of the model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity, “This conceptual model suggests the importance of understanding the complexities of identity development. Student affairs educators must not presume what is most central to individuals, but must instead listen for how a person sees herself,” (Jones & McEwan, 2000, p.412). Using the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity, I wanted to make sure that students were able to authentically speak with me about their core selves in a way that gave them a sense of empowerment. I wanted to be that encouraged students to explore their identity as they deemed most central to their core selves.

For the second learning outcome, I found I took different roles in the conference assisting in these different areas:

Leadership Roles

(1) Co-Mentor

(2) Co-Advisor

(3) Co-Programmer

(4) Facilitator of Queer Multicultural Caucus

(5) Co-Supervisor

(6) Event Planner

(7) Social Justice Advocate

(8) Effective Communicator and Presenter

(9) Reflective Scholar-Practitioner

For my last learning outcome, I found a few key learning experiences:

Learning Experiences

(1) Having a supportive supervisor that believes in you is essential to my own growth and development, when I needed help in the different aspects of helping to organize this conference.

(2) Give students the time they need to discuss their goals, wants and needs. It’s “ok” for me to recognize places of growth, but work with them on the issues that they want to grow and develop and offer different opportunities to show them different strategies they may also need.

(3) It’s ok to take a back-seat role, this conference wasn’t necessarily about me leading and being a “frontman,” it was about giving students opportunities to lead and setting the stage for growth and development.

(4) Conferences are not easy to plan, but if you have stakeholders that believe in the mission of the Conference everything will get sorted out

(5) You have to creatively shift and change programming strategies as new information becomes available to you.

(6) You never know how much you can continually learn from students, peers, colleagues and past organizers working in the field. There are so many opportunities to learn and gain wisdom from other Queer professionals. I really had the opportunity to look at places where I can learn more about myself as a Queer Student Affairs Professional.

           

For additional evidence, I listed the websites and some pictures from the Conference:

https://www.facebook.com/qpocc2013?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://qpocc2013.org/about.html

http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/03/gender-neutral-bathrooms/

http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/04/conference/

Reflection 

Upon reflecting on the Queer People of Color Conference, I was able to learn more about my role as a Queer Professional. I learned that it takes a certain kind of passion and drive to work with students that share many similar backgrounds as you do. This was very rewarding because not only did I try to create a space for students to validate each other, I was validated by a lot of the students’ experiences on what it is like to be a Queer Student of Color.

            In my undergraduate career, I have had many different opportunities to display my expertise in a leadership role. This was an interesting transition to take a “backseat role,” and let students assess some of their strengths, failures and issues that arose and provide them with feedback and tools instead of taking over their learning by “fixing their issues.” I’m still learning that I don’t have to solve students’ problems but be apart of the “challenging and supporting them, so that they can own their development.

Reference:

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and

violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review,43(6), 1241–1299. Retrieved from: http://multipleidentitieslgbtq.wiki.westga.edu/file/view/Crenshaw1991.pdf

Jones, S., & McEwan, K. (2000). A conceptual model of multiple dimensions of

identity. Journal of College Student Development, 41(4), 405-414. Retrieved from: http://emergentrecovery.com/uploads/Conceptual_Model_of_Multiple_Dimensions_of_Identity.pdf

Rendon, L. (1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of

learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19(1), 33-51