Culture, Identity/Marginalization and Resilience

In a commentary published Friday, October 16, a group of scholars from Lehigh University and Ohio State University highlight the importance of opening and maintaining LGBTQ+ resource centers on college campuses, offering greater support for LGBTQ+ students during the pandemic, which can be a time of heightened anxiety and depression. "LGBTQ+ campus resource centers provide essential services for college and university communities and are increasingly necessary in light of the ongoing and reverberating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," wrote the scholars.

Scholars from Lehigh and Ohio State University argue that LGBTQ+ college and university campus resource centers are essential to the health, well-being and academic achievement of LGBTQ+ students. “Why LGBTQ+ Campus Resource Centers are Essential” has been published by Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, and is authored by Chelsea Gilbert, PhD student in Educational Studies at Ohio State University; Nicole L.

Universities and schools have been working together to encourage a diverse group of students to explore science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) across America. While the growth of women and minorities in STEM professions has been inconsistent and often sluggish, diversity programs are—slowly—doing the work they were designed to do.

Join guests Dr. Donald Collins, Dr. Floyd Beachum, and Dr. LaGarett King in Courageous Conversations: Whitewashing of Education. Hosed by Pastor Phil Davis. Lehigh Valley Public Media presents Courageous Conversations. These weekly, 30-minute programs air on Sundays at 4 p.m. on PBS39.

The Council for Equity and Community; Development and Alumni Relations; the Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Equity; Library and Technology Services; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; Student Affairs, and the Office of Student Engagement offered a forum on July 20, 2020 “Are We In This Together? A forum on transforming Lehigh into an antiracist institution.” 

This panel featured a conversation between Dr. Germán Cadenas, assistant professor at Lehigh’s Counseling Psychology program, Delia Heneghan, Director of Education - India at SannamS4, Bhavvna Jolly, Senior Progam Officer for EducationUSA, United States-India Educational Foundation, Shikha Vij, Career & College Counsellor at Step by Step School, Noida and Sameer Arora - Vice Principal at Legacy School, Bangalore.

Colleagues, 

I wanted to reach out to share my reflections--solely my own--regarding the outrageous police attack in Minneapolis last week and the subsequent acts of protest that have ensued. I know that words are insufficient in a time of social unrest and yet as a community of scholars, words are what we have. I know that the College leadership will prepare a response as well but I wanted you to hear about this directly from me as well and with a sense of urgency that a joint letter in summer does not allow. 

The Gender, Race, Inclusion and Trauma Lab is working with local Lehigh Valley community partners Resilient Lehigh Valley, Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21, Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, Shanthi Project, and Wildlands Conservancy to provide trauma-informed, mindfulness, and social emotional learning (SEL) resources to K-12 educators, students, parents and caregivers.

The partners have created a collaborative resource page that offers weekly lesson plans, self-care strategies, and curated articles to support education, learning, and mental health amongst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Nicole ‘Nic’ Johnson, PhD, started as a researcher investigating violence against women and through this work noticed a trend  –  sexual identity continuously arose as a “confounding variable.” Researchers frequently controlled for sexual identity, essentially erasing it from the research and moved on without further consideration. As a queer woman and survivor herself, Johnson began to delve into this recurrent and ignored aspect. This led to the creation of The Resistance Lab and the refocus of her research by acknowledging sexuality rather than controlling for it.