Equity Conference

This year’s virtual Equity Conference from March 12-14 will explore the ways we thrive together, how we moved purposefully through the chaos, and maintain our focus to resist as a collective. Together, we remember that we are the power, we are united in purpose, and we are enough!

Speakers and workshop presentations will wrestle with these concepts and prepare conference attendees for active resistance: 

Thrive – We see a value in the word “thrive” to signal ways to move together united in purpose with care, courage, security, and joy. Making space for joy is not an afterthought: it is a core strategy for maintaining our solidarity.  

Chaos – The “chaos” refers to rising fascism and the speed at which harmful attacks are being enacted with the intention of breaking our solidarity. The rising fascism is intensive and is also rooted ongoing systemic structures and histories of racism, classism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, and xenophobia, At the university, we know the chaos is about the university-level budget cuts and the lack of participatory budgeting; surveillance; and silencing. If the chaos is intersectional, so too is our resistance.

Resistance – Thus, we see value in understanding “resistance” as collective action. Fear is an important response, but we envision how to move from being afraid to inhabiting purposeful anger and unifying power. We will not comply in advance; we will imagine and rise together and build better structures, institutions, and systems.

Community – Without community, we fall. Community is understood here in both the global and local sense: how do we connect with community to support each other, build structures for resistance, and new systems.

Registration Information
This conference is open to CFA Members and CFA Staff only. Please use the form below to select the sessions you wish to attend. 

The deadline to request accessibility accommodations (i.e. captioning, interpreting) is February 27. 
*Please note that all accommodations will be provided upon approval.

The deadline to register for this conference is March 6. Registration is required.

Contact Us
Feel welcome to contact Events Specialist Kiarra “KiKi” Lee at klee@calfac.org or ARSJ Administrative Assistant Cailey Bronny at cbronny@calfac.org with any inquiries you may have.

Virtual: Wednesday, March 12 & Thursday, March 13, 2025

In-Person: Friday, March 14 – Sunday, March 16, 2025 in San Diego

The Council on Racial and Social Justice announces the 2025 Equity Conference. For the first time, the conference will be offered in a hybrid format. The conference planning committee is very much looking forward to the richness of a face-to-face experience since the last time the Equity Conference was in person was on the eve of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shut-down.

This annual conference reflects CFA’s concerted efforts to center anti-racism and social justice, something all the more urgent today. Significant gains made in the recent re-opener contract struggle reflect CFA’s pledge to center ARSJ. We [our peoples, sovereignties, and nations] continue to be threatened by political upheaval, blurred lines between state and religion, challenges to the core mission of the CSU, and looming austerity.

Equity Conference 2025 will focus on the ways we hold fast and thrive while weathering seasons of change as we tend our legacy and plant our future. Guiding themes for the conference are:

• Care, Community and Connection (Fall)
• Joy and Jubilation (Spring)
• Radical Self-Care (Winter)
• Rupture and Reconciliation (Summer)

Virtual Conference at a Glance

IN-PERSON Conference at a Glance

View PDF Speaker and Moderator Biographies

View Conference Journal

CRSJ Structure Chart

CRSJ and Caucus Leader Contacts

Our Way Forward Volume II

Click here to see information about the conference

Download the images below to use these for the Equity Conference 2025.

Click your profile picture, then click on Settings. In the left menu bar, click on the Virtual Background tab (if you don’t see this tab, log in to the Zoom website, go to Settings and toggle on Virtual Background). In the Virtual Background tab, select any of the images you downloaded OR Watch this video to set up your zoom background.

Equity Conference 2025 is offering a continuing education course at CSU Chico. Those interested who register for the offered course and attended conference sessions will be reimbursed the course fee. Click on link to register.

Despite National Setback CFA Member

Heartfelt Pleas: Save Sonoma State

Use code CFA25 for 10% off books

CFA Community Agreements

Research and Data Center

Shortchanging Students

Following a tumultuous and historic year of strikes across the nation and global unrest with local impact, Equity Conference 2024  will focus on solidarity and healing through connectedness and collaboration.  Picture two different bodies of water meeting, churning and forming another body of water with its own powerful sustaining life force.   

This year’s virtual conference will delve into the depths of merging waters, highlighting the benefits and challenges of anti-racism and social justice liberation and collaboration for the university community and beyond. Speakers and workshop presentations will track along the following conference themes to uplift and showcase the power of transformative solidarity and organizing: 

• Collaborating for the Common Good: Trouble the Water 

• Care and Healing: Ebb and Flow 

• Living Joyously and Free: Jubilee 

Keynote speakers and workshops will be offered in webinar format and with the potential for concurrent sessions. And as always, the conference planning committee is looking to create opportunities for faculty and students to connect as social beings. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 – Saturday, March 16, 2024

Conference Narrative:

The CFA Council for Racial and Social Justice champions and promotes anti-racism and social justice in the CSU and CFA. The Council leads, organizes and acts to ensure CSU and CFA engage racially and socially just practices based on our guiding principles. CFA members are invited to dive into this work with us. 

Following a tumultuous and historic year of strikes across the nation and global unrest with local impact, Equity Conference 2024  will focus on solidarity and healing through connectedness and collaboration.  Picture two different bodies of water meeting, churning and forming another body of water with its own powerful sustaining life force.   

This year’s virtual conference will delve into the depths of merging waters, highlighting the benefits and challenges of anti-racism and social justice liberation and collaboration for the university community and beyond. Speakers and workshop presentations will track along the following conference themes to uplift and showcase the power of transformative solidarity and organizing: 

• Collaborating for the Common Good: Trouble the Water 

• Care and Healing: Ebb and Flow 

• Living Joyously and Free: Jubilee 

Keynote speakers and workshops will be offered in webinar format and with the potential for concurrent sessions. And as always, the conference planning committee is looking to create opportunities for faculty and students to connect as social beings. 

Conference Workshops and Presentations 

The conference committee is extending keynote invitations to scholars and activists. CFA caucuses are invited to collaborate with each other for workshop hosting. There are a limited number of available time slots.  

Please submit workshop abstract proposals for committee review and approval no later than Friday, February 9, 2024. Early submissions are greatly encouraged. Submit proposals using this form (submissions closed). Expect responses by Friday, February 16, 2024.  

As we are deep in bargaining and strike organizing, we encourage Chapter Presidents and Council for Racial and Social Justice representatives to invite faculty activists and new faculty to the conference. Here is a link to a shareable save the date flyer.  

To learn more about CFA and our recent collective bargaining and our Anti-Racism Social Justice work visit the informative links provided below. 

For more information about the conference, contact Director for Anti-Racism and Social Justice, Audrena Redmond at aredmond@calfac.org  and Administrative Assistant, Laura Ambrosecchio at lambrosecchio@calfac.org.     

Equity Conference Committee, 

• Sharon Elise, San Marcos, Sociology
• Chris Cox, San José, Sociology, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences   
• Mark Allan Davis, San Francisco, Africana Studies 
• Vang Vang, Fresno, Library 
• Dahna Stowe, Bakersfield, Sociology  
• Leslie Bryan, San Bernardino, Theatre Arts 
• Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Sacramento, Library 
• Audrena Redmond, CFA Staff: Director for Anti-Racism and Social Justice
• N’dea Johnson, CFA Staff: Program Director of Anti-Racism and Social Justice  

• Speaker and Moderator Biographies
• Schedule of Events with Session Descriptions
• Download Conference Journal
• Book Vendor
• Interruption Statement
• Our Way Forward
• Data Book
• Equity Interrupted
• Bargaining Gains
• PA/LEG update
• CRSJ Structure Chart

The Making of Our Nation

Featured Speaker: Colin Woodard, a New York Times bestselling historian and Polk Award-winning journalist
Host: Dr. Kim Geron, Professor in the Department of Political Science at CSU East Bay

Victory! Victory! Para Las Promotoras!
Featured Speaker: Ya Basta and CFA Womxn’s Caucus
Host: Dr. Anne Luna, Assistant Professor of sociology at CSU Sacramento

Mindfulness in the Movement: Embodiment as a Political Act
Featured Speaker: June “Jumakae” Kaewsith, a professional artist and wellness consultant
Host: Audrena Redmond, M.A, Director for Anti-Racism and Social Justice

Journey of Story and Poetry
Featured Speaker: Judy Juanita, an award-winning poet and short story writer, novelist, essayist, and playwright
Host: Mark Allan Davis, MFA, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies in Black Performance Studies/Dramatic Literature and Music/Theatre History at San Francisco State University

Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?
Featured Speaker: Keith Boykin, a TV and film producer, national political commentator, New York Times best-selling author, and a former White House aide
Host: Dr. Charles Toombs, Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University and CFA President

Capitalist State Violence
Featured Speaker: Dr. Sebastián Sclofsky, an associate professor of Criminal Justice at CSU Stanislaus
Host: Dr. Sharon Elise, Professor of Sociology and CFA Asst VP for Racial and Social Justice

Book Banning Resistance
Featured Speakers: Ginny Barnes, Lisa Cheby, Amanda Grombly, Raymond Pun, and Catherine Paolillo
Host: Catherine Paolillo, Outreach and Engagement Librarian at CSU Channel Islands

Student-Faculty Suppression at CSU Campuses: Healing the Wounds of Injustice
Featured Speakers: Professor John Caravello, Dr. Sang Hea Kil, and Dr. Akhila Ananth
Host: Dr. Akhila Ananth, Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice & Criminalistics at California State University, Los Angeles

Radical Empathy and Inclusion
Featured Speaker: Brandon Kazen-Maddox, a sign language artist, director, choreographer, dancer, acrobat, and filmmaker
Host: Leslie Bryan, Theatre Arts Lecturer at CSU San Bernardino

Reclaiming the Radical Politics Self-Care: A Crip of Color Critique
Dr. Sami Schalk, a professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and an author
Host: Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Social Sciences Librarian at Sacramento State University

Rest Is Resistance
Featured Speaker: Tricia Hersey, an artist and theologian
Host: Talitha Matlin, MLIS, STEM Librarian at CSU San Marcos

We See Each Other
Featured Speaker: Tre’Vell Anderson, a journalist, podcast host, and authoress
Host: Dr. Tracey Salisbury, Department Chair and Assistant Professor of Black Studies at CSU Bakersfield

Artificial Intelligence, Race, Gender, and Education
Featured Speaker: Dr. Avriel Epps, a computational social scientist, scholar, and strategist
Host: Dr. Kevin Wehr, Professor of sociology at CSU Sacramento

We are all very excited for the virtual 2023 Equity Conference! The conference planning team is putting together a conference program that will feature dynamic speakers, workshops, and other sessions from CSU faculty and guest presenters.

The conference will focus on our development as co-conspirators, organizers, and mobilizers, working towards scholar activism and radical praxis, engaging activist resistance, and mounting counternarratives from the perspectives of marginalized communities. This will guide our continuing themes:

1) Envisioning radically different futures

2) Strategies for Co-liberation

3) (In)/(Hyper)Visible Labor in the CSU

4) Care and Healing

Chapter presidents and CRSJ representatives are asked to begin now to share the save the date flyer with your chapter leaders, activists and others with whom you’d like to strengthen relationships. You can find a link to the flyer here. Registration will be available mid-February.

Conference Narrative:

The Equity Conference 2023, “Co-conspiring for an Equitable Future: Building the Social Justice Bridge,” will focus on anti-Blackness and anti-indigeneity in the CSU. Our goal is to learn and share ways to effectively organize and mobilize to achieve our goals for a more equitable future. We will emphasize being co-conspirators who actively participate in dismantling systems of oppression. Co-conspiratorship, in contrast to allyship, is a commitment to take action towards liberation and abolition, to working with marginalized communities and backgrounds in ways that take on some of the risk of fighting for equity against powerful and sometimes ambiguous agents.  

This year’s conference will focus on our development as co-conspirators, organizers, and mobilizers, working towards scholar activism and radical praxis, engaging activist resistance, and mounting counternarratives from the perspectives of marginalized communities. This will guide our continuing themes: 

1) Envisioning radically different futures 

2) Strategies for Co-liberation 

3) (In)/(Hyper)Visible Labor in the CSU 

4) Care and Healing 

In the spirit of access, justice, equity, and inclusion, this year’s conference will provide attendees with opportunities to have thoughtful conversations about research, policies, and practices with other CFA member-activists to co-conspire to build the social justice bridge to a more equitable future with intentionality and determination.  

Conference Participation 
We look forward to seeing you at this powerful conference. The registration link will be made available mid-February. For more information about the conference, contact Director of Programs for Anti-Racism and Social Justice, Audrena Redmond at aredmond@calfac.org and Events Specialist Kiarra “KiKi” Lee at klee@calfac.org.     

Welcome to Equity Conference!
Featured Speakers: Charles Toombs, CFA President; Sharon Elise, CFA AVP CRSJ, South; Chris Cox, CFA AVP CRSJ, North; and CFA Equity Conference 2023 Tri-Chairs: Talitha Matlin, Aparna Sinha, and Nicholas Centino

We Are Owed: Language and Liberation
Featured Speaker: Ariana Brown, Author We Are Owed. and Sana Sana
Host: Sharon Elise, CFA AVP CRSJ, South

No More Police: A Case for Abolition
Featured Speaker: Andrea Ritchie, Author, Activist, Lawyer
Host: Alexa Sardina, Professor, Division of Criminal Justice, Sacramento State

Telling Your Anti-Racism Social Justice Story
Featured Speaker: Melissa Morgan, Education and Youth Advocate
Host: Diane Blair, CFA Secretary

Public Sociology: Planting Preemptive Seeds Through Wraparound Educational Empowerment
Featured Speakers: Dr. Marisa Salinas, Associate Professor, Sociology, CSU San Marcos; Dr. Xuan Santos, Associate Professor, Sociology, CSU San Marcos
Host: Nicholas Centino, CFA Equity Conference 2023 Tri-Chair

Crutches and Spice
Featured Speaker: Imani Barbarin, Disability Rights and Inclusion Activist
Host: Leslie Bryan, CFA Disability Caucus Co-Chair

Finding Our Way to Community Justice Strategies
Featured Speaker: Monisha “Moe” Miller, CFA AVP Lecturers, South
Host: Talitha Matlin, CFA Equity Conference 2023 Tri-Chair

Adopting a Disability Justice Framework
Featured Speaker: Alex Locust
Host: Leslie Bryan, CFA Disability Caucus Co-Chair

Unions are for Everyone
Featured Speaker: Yvonne Wheeler, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO President
Host: Charles Toombs, CFA President

More Than 25 Screaming
Featured Speakers: Melina Abdullah, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles; Sheila Bates, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles; Henry Perez, InnerCity Struggle; Luis López Resendiz, CIELO
Host: Audrena Redmond, CFA Director of Programs, Anti-Racism and Social Justice

Toward an Experimental Poetics of Radical Care & Deep Organizing
Featured Speaker: Jason Magabo Perez
Host: Melissa-Cardenas Dow, CFA Librarian Committee Chair

A Closing Reflection: CFA’s Equity Conference 2023
Featured Speakers: Charles Toombs, CFA President; Sharon Elise, CFA AVP CRSJ, South; Chris Cox, CFA AVP CRSJ, North; and CFA Equity Conference 2023 Tri-Chairs: Talitha Matlin, Aparna Sinha, and Nicholas Centino

• Speaker and Moderator Biographies
• Schedule of Events with Session Descriptions
• Download Conference Journal
• Book Vendor
• Swag Items
• Interruption Statement
• Our Way Forward
• Data Book
• Equity Interrupted
• Bargaining Gains summary
• PA/LEG update

Download the images below to use these for the Equity Conference 2023.

Click your profile picture, then click on Settings. In the left menu bar, click on the Virtual Background tab (if you don’t see this tab, log in to the Zoom website, go to Settings and toggle on Virtual Background). In the Virtual Background tab, select any of the images you downloaded OR Watch this video to set up your zoom background.

Conference Narrative:

The 2020 and 2021 Equity Conference titles were “Connecting for Co-liberation.” We were laser focused on developing strategies to address the intertwined past and futures of our caucus constituencies (Black, Asian Pacific Islander and Desi Americans, Chicanx/Latinx, Disability, LGBTQIA+, Native American and Indigenous Peoples, Palestinian Arab Muslim, Teacher Education, Women’s). We invited speakers such as Lorretta Ross, Tara Yosso, Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, and Tommy Orange to help guide us through our themes of “decolonization, liberation, joy and resistance; intersectional continuums of violence & power; and (in)/(hyper) visibility.” Participants are still talking about the impact of speakers and the conference as a whole. This year’s conference will continue creating pathways for co-liberation. 

For the Equity Conference 2022, “From Here to There: Building the Social Justice Bridge,” the goal is to showcase the liberatory social justice work being done in educational institutions and our communities. We will strive to envision a radical future where we identify and dismantle systems of oppression. We will strategize the steps we need to take to realize that future. This future must actively address “the dynamics of oppression, privilege, and isms, recognizing that society is the product of historically rooted, institutionally sanctioned stratification along socially constructed group lines that include race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability” (Cochran-Smith, 2004). The themes for this year are:  

• Envisioning Radically Different Futures  
• Strategies for Co-liberation 
• (In)/(Hyper)Visible Labor in the CSU  
• Care and Healing Justice

The hope is that this year’s conference will provide attendees with opportunities to have thoughtful conversations about research, policies, and practices that advance the goal of achieving racial and social justice in education and our communities to help us both build and walk the metaphoric social justice bridge that will help us to get to our manifested future. 

Conference Participation
We look forward to seeing you at this powerful conference. For more information about the conference, contact Director of Programs for Anti-Racism and Social Justice Audrena Redmond at aredmond@calfac.org and Events Coordinator Kiarra Lee at klee@calfac.org.   

Welcome to Equity Conference!
Featured Speakers: Charles Toombs, CFA President; Sharon Elise, CFA AVP CRSJ, South; Chris Cox, CFA AVP CRSJ, North; and CFA Equity Conference 2022 Tri-Chairs: Talitha Matlin, Aparna Sinha, and Nicholas Centino

Crutches and Spice
Featured Speaker: Imani Barbarin, Disability Rights and Inclusion Activist
Co-Hosts: Leslie Bryan, CFA Disability Caucus Chair, and Scott Hopkins, Professor, CSU East Bay

Cancel Culture
Featured Speakers: Loretta Ross, Professor of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College; Loan Tran, leader in liberation struggles
Host: Talitha Matlin, Tri-Chair of CFA Equity Conference 2022

Acknowledging and Caring for Our Trans Siblings
Featured Speakers: Hector Plascencia, movement consultant, community builder, and social justice advocate; Fatima Shabazz, President/CEO of Fatima Speaks LLC
Co-Hosts: Vickie Harvey, Professor, Stanislaus State; Audrena Redmond, CFA Director of Programs for Anti-Racism & Social Justice

Your Debt is Someone Else’s Asset
Featured Speaker: Astra Taylor, Co-Founder of The Debt Collective
Co-Hosts: Aparna Sinha, CFA Equity Conference 2022 Tri-Chair, and Audrena Redmond, CFA Director of Programs for Anti-Racism & Social Justice

Embracing Yoga’s Roots
Featured Speaker: Susanna Barkataki, Teacher and Yoga Culture Advocate
Host: Talitha Matlin, CFA Equity Conference 2022 Tri-Chair

Defining “Servingness” at Hispanic Serving Institutions
Featured Speaker: Dr. Gina Garcia, Associate Professor in Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy at University of Pittsburgh
Co-Hosts: Tracey Salisbury, Assistant Professor, CSU Bakersfield; Chris Cox, Associate Vice President, Racial and Social Justice, North

A Movement for Caste Equity: Addressing Caste Discrimination in Higher Education
Featured Speakers: Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Executive Director of Equality Labs; Prem Pariyar, GSW, CSU East Bay alum; manmit singh, Chico State student (Pariyar and singh advocated for adding caste to the list of categories protected from discrimination in the CSU)
Co-Hosts: Lisa Kawamura, Co-Chair of CFA’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Caucus; Vang Vang, CFA Treasurer and Co-Chair of CFA’s APIDA Caucus

The Power of Visionary Fiction
Featured Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Eagan, Professor of Philosophy and Public Affairs & Administration, CSU East Bay
Co-Hosts: Charles Toombs, CFA President; Sharon Elise, CFA AVP CRSJ, South; Audrena Redmond, CFA Director of Programs for Anti-Racism & Social Justice

Dreaming As Strategy: Envisioning Ourselves as Future Ancestors
Featured Speaker: June “Jumakae” Kaewsith, Founder of Your Story Medicine and professional artist, wellness consultant, and storytelling coach
Co-Hosts: Aparna Sinha, CFA Equity Conference 2022 Tri-Chair; Moe Miller, AVP, Lecturers, South

Islamophobia, Palestine, and the CSU’s Checkpoints along the Bridge to Social Justice: Healing the Wounds
Featured Speakers: Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson, Associate Professor, CSU Long Beach; Yazan Zahzah, Lecturer, San Diego State; Stevie Ruiz, Associate Professor, CSU Northridge; Rana Sharif, Lecturer, CSU Northridge; Theresa Montaño, Professor, CSU Northridge; Manzar Foroohar, Professor, Cal Poly; Vida Samiian, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Fresno State; and Rachael Stryker, CFA East Bay Chapter President
Co-Hosts: Rabab Abdulhadi, Co-Chair of Palestine, Arab, and Muslim (PAM) Caucus; Janet Winston, CFA’s PAM Caucus Co-Chair

Racelighting
Featured Speaker: J. Luke Wood, Ph.D, Vice President of Student Affairs & Campus Diversity at San Diego State
Co-Hosts: Charles Toombs, CFA President; Gloria Rhodes, Librarian, San Diego State

Closing Keynote: Dream Work Makes the Team Work
Featured Speaker: Dr. Cecil Canton, Professor Emeritus at Sacramento State and former CFA Board of Director

Equity Conference 2022: A Closing Reflection
Panelists: Sharon Elise and Chris Cox, CFA Council for Racial and Social Justice Co-Chairs; Nicholas Centino, Talitha Matlin, and Aparna Sinha, CFA Equity Conference 2022 Tri-Chairs; Charles Toombs, CFA President; Audrena Redmond, CFA Director of Programs for Anti-Racism & Social Justice

• Speaker and Moderator Biographies
• Schedule of Events with Session Descriptions
• Download Conference Journal
• Vendor List
• Interruption Statement
• Swag Items

Boldly Foward: Changing Faces of the CSU Faculty and Students Vol. IX

Conference Narrative:

The 2020-2021 Equity Conference mark the first time the Equity Conference, birthed as a project of the California Faculty Association’s Council for Affirmative Action, is offered in consecutive years and as a project of the Council for Racial and Social Justice.  This is more than a name change, as it reflects the concerted efforts undertaken in the last several years to center Anti-Racism and Social Justice in all things CFA, beginning with the recognition that racism and white supremacy is institutionalized in our organization and a commitment to what we began calling our Anti-Racism Social Justice Transformation.

The 2018 Equity Conference, called us to take the lens of intersectionality to our practices and vision following the framework of Black feminist and Critical Race scholar/activist Kimberle Crenshaw as we sought to respond to the “resurgence of racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and White supremacist discourses in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election” and to build upon the resistance expressed by progressive activists across the country. We saw intersectionality as a framework for coalition building in the labor movement.

Now, for Equity 2020-21, we build upon that framework by merging notions of belonging and bridging (cf John Powell, Facing Race) and of redefining difference as a source of power (Audre Lorde) as we connect for co-liberation. We now view our oppressions as linked in a matrix of domination, therefore, so too are our freedoms. This envisioning inspires us to call on members to organize in a new, distinctive way.  Instead of working within individual caucuses (e.g., Asian/Pacific Islander, Women’s, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender, Chicanx/Latinx, Indigenous Peoples, Disability, African American and Teacher Education) to prepare workshops and guest speakers, caucus leaders and conference planners were tasked with approaching key themes intersectionally, while offering their collective wisdom in consideration of how these themes are best articulated with particular identities and experiences so that we may “connect for co-liberation.” 

The chosen themes chosen are:

• Decolonization, Liberation, Joy and Resistance
• Intersectional Continuums of Violence & Power
• (In)/(Hyper)Visibility

We look forward to mapping a way toward co-liberation and are thrilled to announce confirmed series of keynotes from:

• Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams
  Writer, Activist, ordained Zen priest and Author
• Jenny Yang
  Comedian
• Dr. Fania Davis
  Attorney, Artist, Author
• Tommy Orange
  Author of “There There”
• Dr. Shaun Harper
  Executive Director of USC Race & Equity Center
• Dr. Tara Yosso
  Professor, Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside
• Loretta Ross
  Activist, Public Intellectual, Professor

Connecting for Co-Liberation with CFA Leaders
Featured Speakers: Charles Toombs CFA President Sharon Elise CFA AVP CRSJ South Margarita Berta-Avila CFA AVP North

Urban Natives: In/Hypervisibility
Featured Speaker: Tommy Orange Author of “There There”

Calling in the Call Out Culture
Featured Speaker: Loretta Ross Activist, Public Intellectual, Professor

Race and Restorative Justice
Featured Speaker: Dr. Fania Davis Attorney, Artist, Author

Transformative Change and Discomfort
Featured Speaker: Rev. Angel Kyodo Writer, Activist, ordained Zen Priest and Author

Download the images below to use these for the Equity Conference 2021.

Click your profile picture, then click on Settings. In the left menu bar, click on the Virtual Background tab (if you don’t see this tab, log in to the Zoom website, go to Settings and toggle on Virtual Background). In the Virtual Background tab, select any of the images you downloaded OR Watch this video to set up your zoom background.

1. Connecting for Co-Liberation 
2. Connecting for Co-Liberation – Join Hands
3. Equity Conference 2021 – Stronger Together
4. Equity Conference – Logo

“If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” 
― Australian Aboriginal Elder Lilla Watson

This year marks the first time the Equity Conference, birthed as a project of the California Faculty Association’s Council for Affirmative Action, is offered as a project of the Council for Racial and Social Justice.  This is more than a name change, as it reflects the concerted efforts undertaken in the last several years to center Anti-Racism and Social Justice in all things CFA, beginning with the recognition that racism and white supremacy is institutionalized in our organization and a commitment to what we began calling our Anti-Racism Social Justice Transformation. 

The last Equity Conference, in 2018, called us to take the lens of intersectionality to our practices and vision following the framework of Black feminist and Critical Race scholar/activist Kimberle Crenshaw as we sought to respond to the “resurgence of racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and White supremacist discourses in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election” and to build upon the resistance expressed by progressive activists across the country. We saw intersectionality as a framework for coalition building in the labor movement.

Now, for Equity 2020, we build upon that framework by merging notions of belonging and bridging (cf John Powell, Facing Race) and of redefining difference as a source of power (Audre Lorde) as we connect for co-liberation. We now view our oppressions as linked in a matrix of domination, therefore, so too are our freedoms. This envisioning inspires us to call on members to organize in a new, distinctive way.  Instead of working within individual caucuses (e.g., Asian/Pacific Islander, Women’s, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender, Chicanx/Latinx, Indigenous Peoples, Disability, African American and Teacher Education) to prepare workshops and guest speakers, caucus leaders and conference planners have been tasked with approaching key themes intersectionally, while offering their collective wisdom in consideration of how these themes are best articulated with particular identities and experiences so that we may “connect for co-liberation.” 

The themes chosen by conference planners, including caucus leaders, are:

• Decolonization, Liberation, Joy and Resistance
• Intersectional Continuums of Violence & Power
• (In)/(Hyper)Visibility

We look forward to mapping a way toward co-liberation and are thrilled to announce confirmed keynote Safiya Umoja Noble author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.

In the words of Sonali Sangeeta Balajee:

“Liberatory-based language and practices have been centered from groups such as Black Lives Matter, the queer Chicana movement, Bioneers, and the Women’s March. I purposefully use co-liberation to account for the understanding of decolonial action and the belief, expressed by many activists, in a collective liberation that connects your freedom to mine, and mine to yours. Co-liberation calls for integrating self, community, and institutions toward a greater good. This definition requires an underlying belongingness; co-liberation is required for the social and spiritual connection to thrive. As Zadie Smith shares in the foreword of her recent book Feel Free: ‘You can’t fight for a freedom you’ve forgotten to identify.’ (Supporting sources: Audre Lorde, Laura Perez, Ramon Grosfoguel, Lyra Butler-Detman, Robyn Avalon).”

More at http://www.otheringandbelonging.org/evolutionary-roadmap-belonging-co-liberation/

Conference Participation

The Council for Racial and Social Justice commits to sponsoring up to six (6) persons from each chapter to attend. Moreover, the Council strongly encourages chapter presidents to invite current or prospective activist colleagues to participate in the conference. In addition, chapters are strongly encouraged to support at their expense additional faculty with whom it wishes to build stronger activists relationships.

We look forward to seeing you at this powerful conference. For more information about the conference contact Audrena Redmond at aredmond@calfac.org or Maureen Loughran at mloughran@calfac.org.

Co-Chairs:
John Beynon (Fresno State, jbeynon@calfac.org)
Sharon Elise (San Marcos, selise@calfac.org)

Equity Conference Planning Committee:
William Arce (Fresno, warce@calfac.org)
G Chris Brown (Fullerton, gcbrown@calfac.org)
Renee Byrd (Humboldt, rbyrd@calfac.org)
Cecil Canton (Sacramento, ccanton@calfac.org)
Dorothy Chen-Maynard (San Bernardino, dchenmaynard@calfac.org)
Mark Allan Davis (San Francisco, mallandavis@gmail.com)
Susan Frawley (Chico, sfrawley@calfac.org)
Rafael Gomez (Monterey Bay, rgomez@calfac.org)
Moe Miller (Fullerton, mmiller@calfac.org)
Theresa Montano (Northridge, tmontano@calfac.org)
Tracey Salisbury (Bakersfield, tsalisbury1@csub.edu)
Erma Jean Sims (Sonoma, ejsims@calfac.org)
George Station (Monterey Bay, gstation@calfac.org)
Charles Toombs (San Diego, ctoombs@calfac.org)
Lori Walkington (San Marcos, loriwalkington01@gmail.com)

CFA Staff Committee Members:
Michelle Cerecerez, mcerecerez@calfac.org
Gary Daniels, gdaniels@calfac.org
Beka Langen, blangen@calfac.org
Jessica Lawless, jlawless@calfac.org
Maureen Loughran, mloughran@calfac.org
Audrena Redmond, aredmond@calfac.org

As we continue to expand efforts uniting for Racial & Social Justice as a union, we invite artists and other creative folks from all 23 campuses to contribute to making a quilt as part of an interactive art project at the 2020 Equity Conference.  

This quilt is grounded in the inspiration, politics, activism, generated by the  NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, began in 1987 and continuing to this day, as well as Nikole Hannah Jones  powerful New York Times 1619 Project. Drawing from the oppressive norms these two cultural phenomena make evident- economic disparity, white supremacy and compulsory heterosexuality, government neglect, genocide, diaspora, land rights, enslavement, colonization, war, migration, rape -through our nation’s history of racialized, gendered, and homophobic violence, we will create a CFA shrine for healing and renewal. We will make the invisible visible by collectively piecing together our cultures, communities, and selves. 

Participants are invited to create a quilt panel in advance of the conference and bring it with them, or with their chapter representatives attending. Collaborations across departments, member classifications, and faculty/students are welcome. Please fill out the Google Form by February 23, 2020, with a brief description of your design, narrative and/or intent for your panel.  

We will also provide supplies at the conference to create a panel on-site as part of the healing justice activities. There will be a ceremony and presentation of the quilt on the evening of February 28. 

We will bring the quilt to Assembly in April and continue to make panels so our shrine keeps growing as we keep growing and healing together through our anti-racism and social justice work. 

Please see the following for ideas and inspiration, as well as specific details for size and materials. 

Details for panel construction: 

Panels should be 12 x 24 inches, 24 x 36 inches, or 36 x 72 inches. Quilt panels should be constructed of soft materials and ready to be stitched to another panel in some manner, for example: grommets with string, safety pins, loops sewn to the corners  Panels can be painted or have 3-dimensional objects attached, but all components must be secured in some fashion to the quilt panel in a way that it mobile and sustainable. The panel can be representational, for example: an image of a loved one or a collage of photographic images. The panel can be conceptual, for example: weathered jean material to signify labor or plastic bottles, upcycled to represent renewal or transformation/transcendence. The panel can be text-only, up to 250 words. Each panel should include attached documentation showing its origins: campus, creators, contributors, a mention of the theme that intersects the Conference Narrative. 

Ideas for materials to use: Construction choices are left to the quilter and techniques such as traditional fabric quilting, embroidery, applique, paint and stencil, 3D Printing, bedazzling, beading, and iron-ons are common. Items and materials included in the panels can be:  Fabrics, e.g. lace, suede, leather, taffeta, also Bubble Wrap and other kinds of plastic and even metal.  Decorative items like pearls, quartz crystals, rhinestones, sequins, feathers, buttons, Mardi Gras beads, jewelry. Clothing, e.g. jeans, T-shirts, gloves, boots, hats, uniforms, jackets, flip-flops, socks, dresses, baby onesies.  Items can consist of such as: wedding rings, meeting agendas, merit badges and other awards, patches, keys, food wrappers, wax. Unusual and unique items only you can imagine! 

Inspiration:

Alma Lopez, Alisa Golden, Ato Ribiero, Barbara Kruger, Faith Ringgold, Felix Gonzales Torres, Glen Ligon, Israel Haro Lopez, Jacob Lawerence, Jessica Lawless, Joy Harjo, Kara Walker, Lida Abdul, Pae White, Wendy Red Star

Artnews on contemporary quilts, Basic quilting projects, Queer Fiber Artists Pushing Gender Norms

Changing Faces Of CSU Faculty And Students, Vol. VIII

Conference Narrative:

The resurgence of racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and white supremacist discourses in the aftermath of the 2016 American Presidential election has necessarily produced an existential crisis in labor organizing and called into question the efficacy of traditional leftist principles and practices.  At the same time, grassroots political and social movements including #BlackLivesMatter, American Indian resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, ADAPT protesters, the populist appeal of the Bernie Sanders campaign, the Women’s March and the #MeToo movement in the wake of the 2016 election continue to illuminate a path forward that utilizes intersectional theory and practice.

Intersectionality is a framework created by Black feminist scholar and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 to describe conflicting and reciprocal identities that confront both individuals and social movements as they seek to navigategender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental and physical illness as well as other forms of identity. Crenshaw argued that these aspects of identity are not “unitary, mutually exclusive entities, but rather … reciprocally constructing phenomena.”  Intersectionality can be used to understand the multidimensionality of systemic injustice and how different expressions of power and oppression collaborate to create an all-encompassing system reflecting multiple forms of discrimination. Further, any serious comparative historical view of resistance to power suggests that demands for solidarity across social divisions are as likely to compete as to coalesce.

This conference seeks to further CFA’s demands for solidarity across the lines of social division by engaging the framework of intersectionality as a critical mode of organizing and coalescing the multiple identities that comprise the American labor movement.

Conference Participation

The Council for Affirmative Action commits to sponsoring up to five (5) persons from each chapter to attend. Chapter presidents will be sponsored by their own local chapters. Moreover, the Council’s Executive Board strongly encourages chapter presidents to invite current or prospective activist colleagues to participate in the conference. In addition, chapters are strongly encouraged to support at their expense additional faculty (beyond the 5 supported by CAA) with whom it wishes to build stronger activists relationships.

Friday, March 16, 2018
10:00a – 11:00a Caucus meetings
11:15a – 12:15p Council for Affirmative Action
12:15p– 1:30p Conference Welcome Luncheon
Session 1: 1:45p – 2:30p
Being Female: The Many Faces of Sexism in The 21st Century
Campus Climate for LGBTQ and Ally Faculty and Students
Session 2:  2:45p – 4:00p
Intersectionality and Affirmative Action
The Intersectionality of Inequality: Latinx Students in the CSU
Session 3: 4:15p – 6:15p
Film viewing More Than A Word by John and Kenn Little and panel discussion with Craig Stone, Brian Baker, Amanda Blackhorse, Ozzie Monge
6:15p – 7:00p Cocktails/Hors d’oeuvres
7:00p – 8:00p Dinner with guest speaker Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center
8:00p – 10:30p Gus Lease Hospitality Suite for karaoke, fun, and games

Saturday, March 17, 2018
7:00a – 7:45a Yoga with Adesh Kaur
8:00a – 9:00a Breakfast with Jen Eagan, President CFA
Session 4: 9:15a – 10:30a
“Practice What You Preach”: Infusing Social Justice Unionism into Teacher Education Programs
Data & Research Presentation: Changing Faces of CSU Faculty and Students
Session 5: 10:45a – Noon
Disability Studies, Community, Culture, and Activism
Lifting as We Climb: African American Faculty in the California Faculty Association
Lunch & Keynote: Noon – 1:45p 
Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology & Education Teachers College, Columbia University
Session 6: 2:00p – 3:15p
Talking Union: Rights, Resistance & Power in the Wake of Janus vs. AFSCME
Data & Research Presentation: Changing Faces of CSU Faculty and Students
Session 7: 3:30 – 4:15p
Improv with Obama’s Other Daughters
4:15 -5:00pm    CLOSING

Conference Planning Committee​
Cecil Canton, Chair CAA (Sacramento)
Nicholas L. Baham III, Co-Chair (East Bay)
Dorothy Chen-Maynard, Co-Chair (San Bernardino)
Sharon Elise (San Marcos)
Rafael Gomez (Monterey Bay)
Meghan O’Donnell (Monterey Bay)
Erma Jean Sims (Sonoma)
Charles Toombs (San Diego)
Maureen Loughran, CFA Staff
Audrena Redmond, CFA Staff
Michelle Cerecerez, CFA Staff

Direct conference questions or interest in joining the Planning Committee to Audrena Redmond.  

Changing Faces Of CSU Faculty And Students, Vol. VII

Mark your calendars—CFA’s 10th Anniversary Equity Conference will be held March 16-17 in Los Angeles.

This year’s Equity Conference seeks to further CFA’s demands for solidarity across the lines of social division by engaging the framework of intersectionality as a critical mode of organizing and coalescing the multiple identities that comprise the American labor movement. It also is an opportunity to take action for equity, access and fairness within the CSU system for students, faculty and staff.

The conference serves as a kind of incubator of ideas, and a way for activists of all backgrounds to get involved, said Cecil Canton, CFA’s Associate Vice President of Affirmative Action and a Professor at Sacramento State.

“People can find space in the Equity Conference where they can connect with others on an emotional and intellectual level, and that connection helps sustain and validate who they are and help us arrive at solutions to the issues and challenges we’re all facing,” Canton said.

The Council for Affirmative Action will sponsor up to five people from each chapter to attend.

CFA is in the midst of preparing for an historic strike, but faculty activists converged March 18-19 to discuss social and educational justice for students and colleagues at our 2016 Equity Conference in Los Angeles.

This year’s Equity Conference featured highly motivated and energized speakers, as well as presenters and attendees concerned about fairness and social justice within the CSU and our communities.

Faculty, who are foremost educators, also wear many hats, and this year’s conference foregrounded their passion and compassion for many people who are still denied access and equal opportunity.

“I have never observed so much passion, enthusiasm, and determination among attendees to fight for what is right, to fight for a fair salary increase. It was simply amazing,” said Charles Toombs, Co-Chair of the Equity Conference, CFA’s Associate Vice President South, and a Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State.

Keynote Speaker Kevin Johnson, Dean of the University of California School of Law, spoke about undocumented students, and emphasized the importance of understanding the daily fear they experience about themselves or their families being deported or otherwise “found out.” That fear is one of many challenges students face as they struggle to be successful.

The conference also featured workshops regarding our need to understand the difficulties of Trans and Non-Gender Binary students; the role of “Essential Functions” of faculty and students with disabilities; challenges Ethnic Studies departments and programs face; and the Black Lives Matter movement and how it has helped us all focus on enduring race, class, and gender inequities. Moreover, faculty, faced with salary inequities in the CSU, brought their energy and determination to strike to every part of the conference.

The conference also featured new data and research regarding race and gender issues in the CSU.

As CFA prepares to take action for fair pay – in what is set to become the largest higher education strike in this nation’s history – we also must take action for social justice. 

That theme was the focal point of CFA’s 2016 Equity Conference, held March 18-19 in Los Angeles. The conference also was an opportunity to release the latest Equity Report, the sixth compilation on faculty and student diversity in the CSU.

The report speaks loud and clear: CSU faculty serve an incredibly diverse student body. Shortchanging CSU faculty disproportionately disadvantages students of color.

Click here to download the report.

Mark your calendars — CFA’s sixth Equity Conference will be held March 18-19 in Los Angeles.

This year’s Equity Conference serves as a “clarion call for faculty to analyze, mobilize, strategize and take action in support of efforts and struggles for social justice.” It also is an opportunity to take action for equity, access and fairness within the CSU system for students, faculty and staff.

The conference serves as a kind of incubator of ideas, and a way for activists of all backgrounds to get involved, said Cecil Canton, CFA’s Associate Vice President of Affirmative Action and a Professor at Sacramento State.

“People can find space in the Equity Conference where they can connect with others on an emotional and intellectual level, and that connection helps sustain and validate who they are and help us arrive at solutions to the issues and challenges we’re all facing,” Canton said.

The Council for Affirmative Action will sponsor up to five people from each chapter to attend.

Hundreds of faculty gathered March 7-8 in Los Angeles for CFA’s sixth Equity Conference. 

They came to recharge, re-energize and learn more about the union’s journey to a more accessible and equitable CSU for all.

Among featured speakers at this year’s conference were Dr. Shirley Weber, assembly member and former faculty member, and Jackson Potter, staff coordinator for the Chicago Teachers Union.

CFA’s latest report, “Changing Faces of CSU Faculty and Students: Vol. V,” is a comprehensive, updated summary of data on the racial/ethnic and gender diversity in the California State University. 

The research contained in the report will be featured during one of several workshops during CFA’s Equity Conference, which will be held March 7-8 in Los Angeles.

Click here to download the PDF.

Helping to create a more diversified CSU, combating assaults on effective teaching methods, and examining the challenges facing public education funding in California—these are among the main points of the Council for Affirmative Action’s 2014 Equity Conference.

The conference will be held from 10 a.m. Friday, March 7 through 6 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at the Westin Hotel LAX.

This year’s theme is “A Journey for Change: Re-visioning a Better CSU.” The conference will feature Jackson Potter, staff coordinator for the Chicago Teachers Union as a keynote speaker. Multiple workshops and presentations from each caucus within CFA’s Council for Affirmative Action, as well as the Academic Professionals of CA and the New Faculty Majority, will be held during the two-day event.