Summary
Training offer focusing on recognizing privileges/discrimination and developing the capacity for (interdisciplinary) collaboration
Target groups
Implementing organization
Graz University - Coordination Centre for Gender Studies and Equal Opportunities /Contact
Ilse Wieser, ilse.wieser@uni-graz.at
Implemented/introduced
offered at Graz university since 2019
Relation to gender equality targets
University statutes, Equal Opportunities Plan 2017:
§4 Gender Mainstreaming and Managing Diversity
(1) 2. For the purpose of this equal opportunities plan, diversity management is understood to specifically entail the active promotion of equal opportunities and non-discrimination, free from differentiation in particular on grounds of gender, ethnicity, religion or worldview, age, or sexual orientation as well as disability. […]
Focusing on perceiving and utilizing the diversity of persons, diversity management’s aim is to establish structural as well as social conditions in which all members of the university are enabled to hone and develop their capabilities and motivation for the benefit of everyone involved and for increasing organizational success.
§30 Developing Human Resources and the Organization
(1) Human resource development and organizational development are considered important instruments for increasing the share of women at the University of Graz and for guaranteeing freedom from discrimination within the university. Concepts of gender mainstreaming and diversity management are to be applied to all measures related to the development of human resources and/or the organization.
(3) Regarding the elimination of disadvantages and discrimination, the University of Graz takes appropriate measures in relation to staff, organization and finances.
The objective(s) of the tool
A set of three one-day workshops was created in order to increase the visibility of diversity as an issue within studies, research and teaching; to raise awareness, and to support the establishment of diversity related competences to act and reflect. The aim is
- to reflect one’s own identity and the structures of power and privilege present at the university,
- to discuss discriminatory practices and provide argumentative approaches as well as practical solutions based on human rights in order to enable interventions against discrimination,
- to discover and try methods and instruments for inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation within projects.
Description of the tool
As one of several pillars of university diversity management, a set of three workshops was devised in 2018 within a broader package of measures focusing on diversity. Offered first as pilot events in 2018, respectively 2019, the three one-day workshops were continued due to positive participant feedback and demand. They are led by experts both from within and outside the university and aimed at everyone interested (students and staff of Uni Graz). The contents are privilege awareness (understanding privilege as the flip side of discrimination), inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration on projects (e.g.: appreciative communication within heterogenic teams; leadership, decisions and conflicts within interdisciplinary teams), as well as developing the capacity to act in the face of discriminatory behavior. The workshops have been designed independently from one another, they can be attended separately.
How the tool works, practical experience
Feedback from participants resulted in the expansion of the privilege awareness workshop with a three-hour follow up session scheduled roughly two months after the first.
Special Thanks
go to the workshop leaders Dr. Simone Adams, Dr. Karin Grasenick, Barbara Schmiedl and Gregor Fischer.
Attachments
Workshop PRIVILEGE AWARENESS (German content only)
Workshop SEE IT - KNOW IT - DEAL WITH IT! (German content only)
Workshop HOW TO COLLABORATE WITH ALMOST EVERYONE (German content only)