“Think of it as being trapped inside of an invisible shell, where you’re often shielded from awareness of your actions, thoughts and expectations about yourself and others." 

That’s the analogy that ASU social scientist Jennifer L. S. Chandler uses to describe how any human learns — and lives — the dominant norms in their social groups.  ASU's Jennifer Chandler (pictured at ASU's Polytechnic campus) studies racial socialization and racial literacy. Photo by Catherine Slye Download Full Image

“We frequently have no recognition of them at all. When something happens to us personally to rupture that shell, it upends our sense of reality or illusion. We often feel shock, outrage and disbelief,” said Chandler, a lecturer in ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. “But it’s in those fractures where learning and growth can take place, where we realize we can work to continually push outward and upward to create a little more space in which we all can thrive."  

Chandler has a new book out that explores social processes by looking at whiteness norms.

In “Colluding, Colliding, and Contending with Norms of Whiteness,” she shares the results and analysis of her extensive research interviews with 30 white-identifying women from across the United States whose sons and daughters include people of color.

Chandler asked the women to share stories about the social interactions they had as mothers. Because her participants’ children ranged in age from younger than 1 year old to older than 40, she heard stories from across the lifespan — about becoming a mother, mothers and schools, and mothering a maturing adult.

“These women live in a space where they are bumping up against dominant norms about race, about whiteness, about white mothering, about people of color, in everyday interactions with family members, caregivers, teachers and school staff, other parents, neighbors, colleagues, health providers, and even strangers,” Chandler noted. “Their stories shed light on how social racialization and learning take place, and how people teach and strengthen whiteness norms.” 

Chandler said that when she set out to do the study, she thought she might discover ways that these mothers were successfully resisting whiteness norms, and that her analysis might suggest a road map for others. 

What she discovered was pain, confusion and frustration. 

Woke to whiteness

“The mothers’ collisions with whiteness norms started occurring within very personal relationships,” said Chandler, “with people they were expecting to support them and their families in the parenting experience.

“In most cases they recognized that the family, friends, doctors, teachers were not being intentionally malicious, but at first they were bewildered and overwhelmed about what to say or do.

“Many of the moms I interviewed hadn’t read about systemic oppression, but at a gut level they knew it when they encountered it,” continued Chandler. “They also began to recognize that they were often unknowingly tripping over their own collusions with norms of whiteness. As their own racial literacy grew, so did their ability to more effectively respond to situations.”

Within the stories that were shared, Chandler uncovered the mothers’ interactions with 23 norms of whiteness.  

“I came to realize how strong and prevalent these norms are in our society,” she observed, “and that there are three main ways that people interact with dominant patterns of behavior regarding race and other social norms: They collude with them, collide with them or contend with them.” 

Chandler said her resulting model offers a lens for understanding all kinds of dominant norms: not just social norms related to race and ethnicity, but also related to age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, class and even community and organizational norms. 

Her book, published as part of Information Age Publishing’s Urban Education Series, includes recommendations for school administrators, teachers and parents.

“Schools are a place where dominant racial ideologies and norms are perpetuated,” Chandler said. “In the U.S. and Canada, 80 percent of the teachers are white females and more than 50 percent of the students are multiracial or non-white. Norms perceived and enforced about being a ‘good’ student are often whiteness norms.”

She suggests launching conversations and training from a point of common ground.

“Educators agree that we’re all here for the good of our students. So a model that clicks with some people is sitting down together and looking at how our words and assumptions can be subtly oppressive: ‘We don’t listen to that music. That’s the sketchy side of town. You shouldn’t dress like that.’”

Questions, she explained, might focus on: What if we adjust our language? What imagery and words can we be using that engages the full humanity of each student? Do you have the same capacity to look lovingly into the eyes of all children, triggering deep emotions of caring?

Prepare to engage

In January, Chandler used her model as the basis for facilitating a post-election workshop at the Arizona Historical Society’s Arizona Heritage Center. The session focused on the role social norms have played in the contentious presidential election cycle and in creating the current U.S. political divide.

“Eighteen community members from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and varied political leanings participated, which made for some really good conversations,” observed Tawn Downs, director of the Arizona Heritage Center. 

“The sign of a good presentation is when people linger long after the event has ended, and I had to shoo people out an hour after this workshop,” Downs said. “People really appreciated going through this model and going through examples of how they can respond to situations that are causing conflict and discover new ways of dealing with that conflict.”   

At her workshops, Chandler reminds people that learning to recognize oppressive norms and contending with them is a continual process.

“When people see their own learning happening, they often have this sense that their learning will eliminate future collisions,” Chandler said. “But the dominant norms don’t go away. So your collisions with them will actually increase over time as your learning and awareness happens. You might feel like things are getting worse instead of better.

“But when we recognize that collisions with dominant norms will be coming, we can prepare and choose how to interact with them. Sometimes more gently reacting makes the confrontation less damaging to ourselves and allows us more energy to invest in contending with the norms.”   

Being prepared to engage with norms, she said, is an effective way for each of us to create more space under our invisible shell boundary and — perhaps — break it. 

Chandler, who joined ASU in the fall to teach in the organizational leadership degree program in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, earned a doctorate in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University. She has conducted organizational analyses with corporations, federal agencies and not-for-profits, including Motorola, NASA, and the U.S. Army, Navy, Treasury and Secret Service.

She is heading a research team at ASU that is doing a meta-synthesis, distilling whiteness norms from 17 studies conducted in the United States, Canada and England. 

“By consolidating the results of these studies, we will propel research in this area forward,” said Chandler. “Gaining greater understanding of the dominant social and behavioral norms that divide us is an important first step in bridging that divide.”

On Saturday, Feb. 18, Chandler and ASU colleagues L. Marie Wallace and Kristen Elwood will discuss the findings of their meta-synthesis at the ASU conference “Speaking the Unspeakable: A Conversation on Colorblindness, Racism and Antiracism,” in the ASU Memorial Union on the Tempe campus. Register for the free conference, which runs Feb. 17-18, at https://csrd.asu.edu/SpeakingTheUnspeakable

Vera Coleman has a strong interest in environmental and social debates. Coleman also loves studying Spanish culture, literature and language. Through her PhD dissertation and the School of International Letters and Culture, she has found a way to bring the disciplines together.

Her dissertation is titled “Beyond the Anthropocene: Multispecies Encounters in Contemporary Latin American Literature, Art, and Film.” Quote by Vera Coleman Download Full Image

Coleman has looked at how Latin American artists pull nature into their work, and applying those findings to environmental solutions.

In an explanation of her research, Coleman wrote, “Writers, filmmakers and artists of Latin America today verge away from pessimistic images of environmental destruction and instead look to mutually beneficial interactions among members of different species as a beacon of hope lighting up a better future for our shared planet.”

“I’m interested in the ways that contemporary 21st-century Latin American writers, filmmakers and artists are confronting this notion of the Anthropocene, which is still being hotly debated,” Coleman said, speaking to SILC from the Modern Language Association Convention in Philadelphia.

The Anthropocene, as Coleman describes it, is a label used by some scientists and cultural theorists to describe the current age in terms of global human impact.

“I was a biology major for two years and took courses in genetics and evolution and chemistry and physics, and then became really passionate about Spanish literature,” Coleman said. “I kind of thought that those two years were wonderful, but I don’t know what I’d end up doing with them.”

“I became very interested in SILC and ASU. I was very drawn to the fact that it’s a multi-language school,” she continued. “There’s not just a Spanish department, but a school that has multiple languages working and collaborating together”.

Obviously, merging language and environmental study is complex, but Coleman found support for her many interests at the School of International Letters and Culture. Faculty support and guidance helped her find ways to meld different fields together.

“All the professors have been so welcoming of my ideas and so supportive of me wanting to take these risks and take these new perspectives and draw connections with other disciplines,” Coleman said.

Coleman started studying different art forms that comment on the environment in countries like Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. She even learned about indigenous communities in some of those countries.

Coleman has enjoyed exploring discussions about the environment outside of the English-speaking world and has enjoyed merging different areas of study at ASU.

“Cultural study looks at film and art and journalism and performance, digital media. So it’s the very broad focus on the notion of text,” Coleman explained. “So we can analyze whole different forms of cultural expression to get a sense of what’s going in these countries. Those are the things that I really liked, that really drew me to SILC.”

An award-winning professor in counseling and psychology, an international expert in linguistics, and a renowned authority in geographical sciences and urban planning have been named the Outstanding Doctoral Mentors of 2016-2017 by Arizona State University Graduate College.

Terence Tracey, Elly van Gelderen and Elizabeth Wentz have been lauded for their generous commitment to their students’ success while maintaining daunting speaking and publishing schedules of their own.  Download Full Image

Nomination letters from students and colleagues praised the mentors for championing students from diverse backgrounds, for including their graduate students as co-authors on published papers, providing the skills for their students to be professionals in their chosen careers and instilling high values and standards.

“ASU is fortunate to have hundreds of outstanding mentors,” said Alfredo Artiles, dean of the Graduate College. “We are honoring these three individuals who exemplify the commitment and caring of extraordinary mentors.”

Terence Tracey
professor, counseling and counseling psychology
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts

Tracey’s research focuses on interpersonal models of personality and psychotherapy, the structure and development of vocational interests, and minority student academic success. His scholarly contributions have been recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA) with the Leona Tyler Award for Lifetime Distinguished Contribution to Counseling Psychology and an APA presidential citation for the impact of his research on the fields of counseling and social psychology. One of the most published authors in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, Tracey shares the spotlight with his graduate students, including them as co-authors in publications, presentations and book chapters. He is a registered psychologist and National Board Certified Psychologist as well as Counselor, and has also been a practicing therapist.

Tracey created the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI), a general assessment tool for measuring vocational interests and competence perceptions for those 15 years and older. The downloadable software is in use in schools internationally. Students credit his superior knowledge of statistics, research methods, supervision and clinical counseling as critical to their future careers. As a deeply committed mentor who communicates the highest expectations to students, they praise him as generous with his time, knowledge and patience. Tracey states that one of the goals of mentoring is to move students from receivers of information to contributors of knowledge.

“I give an annual lecture entitled 'Get B’s — stop getting A’s.' The gist of which is that graduate school is different," Tracey said. "Figure out what you wish to gain and then seize opportunities to do so. These opportunities do not generally arise in your courses. Search out mentors to give you wisdom.”

Elly van Gelderen
Regents’ Professor, Department of English
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

A renowned author and authority in her field, van Gelderen lectures at conferences nationally and internationally. Her work focuses on linguistics, particularly in historical and comparative syntax. A colleague notes that her passion for linguistics is contagious to native and non-native speakers of English. Students aiming for a career in teaching and academics are her traditional students, but she also mentors students going into an applied area of linguistics such as Artificial Intelligence. “I have encouraged knowledge of and enthusiasm for my own area of syntax,” she says, “but have been excited to work with students in areas that are not my own.”

As van Gelderen continues to expand the boundaries of her own expertise, she encourages research in many languages and has conducted reading courses in Arabic, Dutch, Yiddish and Swedish, and with students who also wanted to study O’odham, Navajo and the Mayan languages. She has formed linguistics workshops at ASU which serve as a place for students and faculty to read the most current work in syntax and to practice their conference publications or dissertation chapters.

Selflessly dedicated to her students, she has been praised as consistently available to students, in person and by email, when she is traveling internationally. In addition to being an inspiration to students from many different backgrounds, nationalities and experiences, she is also an active participant in human rights and environmental organizations.

“I am very thankful to my PhD students in working with me on so many exciting projects,” van Gelderen said. “Students at ASU have incredibly diverse interests. I have had the pleasure to deepen my work on the grammar and history of English as well as to look into different languages, from Ainu to Zuni. I believe in enthusiasm, gaining a broad picture of the field, and in hard work.”

Elizabeth Wentz
professor, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
dean of social sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Wentz uses geographic technologies, which include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and spatial analysis to offer insight into urban environments. One of her current projects focuses on water resource management to help local decision makers, such as planning and zoning committees. One aspect of this is using the Environmental Spatial Decision Support System (ESDSS) modeling to improve household water and energy consumption, and how to plant trees so that they use minimal water while providing maximum shade for homes.

As a teacher of geographic technologies, research design and proposal writing, her students praise her for her willingness to share skills knowledge and expertise, teaching them to think critically and creatively, her encouragement to reach their full potential, and on her insistence that they maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Active in the Association of American Geographers and GIS community, her strong professional relationships have contributed to the success she has placing doctoral students after graduation. She keeps her students aware of the latest developments in the field as well as funding opportunities. Wentz stated that it is “an honor to be trusted by individuals with this important step in their professional and personal lives.”

Among her many publications is the book “How to Design, Write, and Present a Successful Dissertation Proposal,” which guides students through the dissertation proposal process.

“I consider it a privilege to advise hard working and intelligent individuals,” Wentz said. “It is the most significant place where I believe I’m making an impact.”

Photos by Andy DeLisle/ASU

Arizona State University student Isabella Jaber shows that learning a language doesn’t just help get you a job, but can elevate your role in a workplace and help you achieve a number of goals.

Jaber, a student in the School of International Letters and Cultures (SILC), works at American Express as a business Centurion relations manager, where she manages, “a direct portfolio of about 40 to 60 of the company’s most valued clients." Download Full Image

"Within that, I do personal, business travel – I do any type of concierge’s request and all of their financial servicing with the company,” Jaber said.

While a huge responsibility, Jaber has used her skills in business and language to not only support her clients, but also her coworkers at American Express. As the only bilingual person in her department, her Spanish language skills have allowed her to translate for clients in Peru, Mexico, Chile and Spain.

“The travel and international presence that’s done in our work on a daily basis, [being bilingual] has really come in handy with that,” Jaber said. “Spanish has been an everyday part of my role since I started.”

Jaber, who is half Hispanic and half Lebanese, also speaks Arabic, which she has used more to relate to clients who are multilingual themselves. She also used Spanish and Arabic at her previous job with Bank of America.

While she grew up speaking Spanish, Jaber saw the benefit of studying it in a more formal setting. She learned how to adapt her skills to a professional sphere through a major in Spanish linguistics, also taking classes through the SILC's heritage program. She’ll be graduating this May.

“I knew with my goals of wanting to eventually study global management and work internationally, I wanted to be as proficient in Spanish as I am in English – to have that same level of articulation and proficiency overall,” Jaber said.

“As far as the Arabic goes, I, being half Lebanese, I was never really taught Arabic or anything about the culture. So Arabic studies, that’s what really drove me to SILC, I had this strong passion of wanting to learn more about that world and speak the language too, have that ability to communicate,” Jaber said.

Jaber appreciates having language skills in her personal life as well: “on a day to day basis, it has really opened my mind to how I communicate with people.”

“I do love to travel a lot,” she said, “it’s that much more motivating because I know I can go out there into the cities and learn about the culture, what it has to offer. That’s my passion, learning other cultures and traveling the world.”

The American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University, in collaboration with ASU’s Entrepreneurship + Innovation, The Department co-working space, Maricopa County Small Business Development Center and The Visionary Magazine, announces the Inno-NATIONS Tribal Business Collision Community — an inter-tribal initiative championing tribal entrepreneurship and economic development across Arizona.

“This community we are building is really needed in Arizona and in the country. There are no other spaces like it,” said Dr. Traci Morris, AIPI director and Inno-NATIONS founder. “In fact, there are few tribal incubators in the country. We see the need, and the Phoenix Valley has a very large urban Indian population with a strong commitment to tribal business owners and is surrounded by tribes with tribal enterprises. Now is the time and this is the place.” The Inno-NATIONS Tribal Business Collision Community promotes entrepreneurship for Native American businesses. Download Full Image

By spearheading innovative partnerships and leveraging resources from ASU, tribes and community organizations, game-changers at Inno-NATIONS hope the “collision community” will cause a ripple effect of change in tribal communities. The goal is to support up-and-coming Native American entrepreneurs and ignite enterprises to fuel sustainable tribal economies by rejuvenating and modernizing traditional trade networks.

“One of our biggest priorities at ASU is to help diverse entrepreneurs succeed through culturally relevant programming,” said Ji Mi Choi, ASU associate vice president for strategic partnerships and programs. “Inno-NATIONS will support Native entrepreneurs to foster solutions that meet the needs of their communities and create economic impact.”

The inaugural Inno-NATIONS cohort will be housed at startup coworking hot spot The Department in downtown Phoenix on March 1 and 4, with the three-day pilot cohort starting in June.

“This is such an exciting and unique endeavor for Indian Country,” said Nathan Pryor, chair of the AIPI Advisory Board. “Native people have always been entrepreneurs; Inno-NATIONS will provide the means to grow more formalized tribal businesses through dynamic and contemporary means. We are overwhelmed from the positive support that Inno-NATIONS has received from ASU as we launch this new economic opportunity.”

Within a year after launch, plans are in place to expand and relocate the “collision community” to a culturally relevant space housing several anchor tribal businesses, a “maker” space, business incubator and coworking space.

For more information on the Inno-NATIONS program, steps to apply or become a partner, visit Inno-Nations.org, email Inno-Nations@asu.edu or call 480-965-1055.

The sixth annual ASU Prison Education Conference will bring together a broad coalition of experts and community members to discuss criminal justice and the transformative power of education. Organized by Arizona State University's Prison Education Awareness Club and sponsored by the Department of English and the School of Social Transformation, the conference is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in the Turquoise Room of the Memorial Union on ASU’s Tempe campus.

Two keynote speakers will headline the event: Judge Lilia Alvarez, former Guadalupe Municipal Court presiding judge and founder of the Guadalupe Teen Court, and Gigi Blanchard, a “delinquent-turned-activist,” writer and juvenile justice advocate. Photo by Corri Wells Download Full Image

Other conference sessions feature two Arizona Department of Corrections educators and a panel of ASU volunteer prison teachers who will share their perspectives on the challenges and triumphs of prison education initiatives. A discussion on re-entry programs is to be led by Kristin Eidenbach, founder of the Arizona Transformative Law and Social Justice Center.

As stated in its charter, ASU prides itself on innovation and accessibility and measures its impact “not by whom we exclude, but rather by whom we include and how they succeed.” The university’s annual Prison Education Conference explores and celebrates the value of educational inclusivity.

“The conference is a great opportunity to learn about what the ASU community is doing to promote education in all populations,” said Brigitte Nicoletti, ASU history major and president of the Prison Education Awareness Club. Nicoletti teaches a weekly class in law and community at the Florence State Prison.