Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!) is an annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) learning symposium featuring a series of events that incorporate the voices and experiences of students, faculty, staff and alums.
Over the last ten years, BOOM! sessions have explored topics from cultivating anti-racist pedagogy and praxes and challenging gender-based oppression to examining histories, legacies and stories of inclusion and creating supportive strategies for countering bias.
BOOM! sessions are designed with care to meet the campus community where we are in our learning capacities to engage in topics on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Learn more and explore the schedule below. Note that all virtual Zoom sessions will be hosted via the Zoom Events platform.
For those of you who'd like to see the BOOM! Schedule in a different format, please access the BOOM! Attendee Guide. You'll find tips to help maximize your experience, a Schedule-at-Glance, a list of plenary and concurrent sessions, etc. Feel free to download to have on your device and/or print! Additionally, this year, you can view and build your personalized itinerary via the Zoom Events Portal. Register and login to the Zoom Event Lobby for more!
As part of your BOOM! journey, check out the BOOM LibGuide. LITS has curated a range of resources to help our community deepen our engagement with each session. Pieces include works created by this year’s speakers and facilitators.
We strongly encourage you to access the BOOM! Zoom Event Portal early so you can register and familiarize yourself. If you have any trouble registering and/or accessing any of the virtual sessions through the BOOM! Zoom Events portal, please email the DEI Team.
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 8:45am to 9am
This is a past event.
We will welcome Nipmuc Elder and Director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center, Larry Spotted Crow Mann to open our tenth annual Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!): Community Day. About Larry Spotted...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 9am
This is a past event.
This memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin’s time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980’s Detroit. Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe...
Mary Woolley Hall, Chapin Auditorium
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2:30pm to 4pm
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The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) pronounced “Snick” was a Black-led, multiracial group of college students across the country. SNCC pushed the Civil Rights movement to new...
Mary Woolley Hall, New York Room
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 4:30pm to 5:45pm
This is a past event.
BOOM 2026 features the incredible artist, activist and poet aja monet! aja monet is a surrealist blues poet, musician, and cultural worker whose poems sing to us of love, gender, justice, and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 6pm to 7pm
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Dr. Sayu Bhojwani is a civic entrepreneur and democracy futurist committed to advancing the leadership of Black, Native, indigenous, and immigrant women. Born in India and raised in Belize, she is...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 7pm
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Join us for our tenth annual Queer & Trans Open Mic. Read and listen to queer and trans writing - your own or others! Come early to sign up for the open mic or sign-up online in...
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Gamble Auditorium
free
Tue, Apr 28, 2026
This is a past event.
This module introduces the core components of antisemitism and Islamophobia, offering a structured exploration of both topics through their historical roots, contemporary expressions, and...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10am to 12pm
This is a past event.
This interactive workshop will be an opportunity for Mount Holyoke students to explore intergroup dialogue (IGD) as an empowering practice for affirming neurodiversity on campus, within...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12:30pm
This is a past event.
Join Executive Producer and Writer John Kane (Mohawk) for a screening of “The Long Hope” followed by a talk back. Told through the voices of Seneca and Mohawk activists, “The Long Hope” explores...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
This session will be an in-person workshop focused on preserving the stories we carry within us and deciding how we want to be remembered. Engaging in playful archival practice, participants will...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
In honor of National Poetry Month, this year’s BOOM conference includes a series of poetry workshops, performances and creative sessions. This particular session will be a guided workshop and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
A Soundbath with KAMAUU is unlike any other experience - a synthesis of meditation, and yoga - an hour of calm, intention, introspection, and humor. Rapper, poet, thinker, producer, and language &...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
This workshop is facilitated by Erik Esqueda who will explore a brief history of undocumented and migrant movements within U.S. contexts and help participants develop strategies for leveraging your...
Virtual Event
Free
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
We are divinity made flesh, a network of lineages descended from the stars above. Who we are is an intergenerational experience, a collection of both stories and storyteller. Stories are more than...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
Join us for a screening of three short films: I Think We Hope We’re Right (Charlie Theobald), The Truck (Liz Rao), and VERSE (Noam and Sappir Argov) followed by a moderated conversation with the...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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The support of international students in higher education is often relegated solely to international student advisors/educators. Presenters Amanda Wong and Gabriel Andres Hall will review trends in...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12:30pm
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Who is Dolores Huerta? One of the most important, yet least known activists of our time, Dolores Huerta was an equal partner in founding the first farm workers union with César Chávez. Tirelessly...
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Gamble Auditorium
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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Please join us for a Reproductive Justice Futurisms Mini Think Tank with Queer/Trans Birth and Postpartum Doula, Axis Dade. Drawing on their work as a birth and postpartum doula with Birthrise and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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Our bodies —our birthright— have become highly politicized during these times. This somatic session offers ways to reclaim our sovereignty through breathwork, light movement, guided meditation and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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This workshop examines what campus incidents reveal about communication, division, and solidarity at Mount Holyoke. Using case studies from this academic year, especially discourse on Fizz, it...
Reese Psychology & Education Building, Room 302
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 11:30am
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The Nonotuck and Nipmuc were the original inhabitants and stewards of the land Mount Holyoke occupies in Western Massachusetts. Nipmuc elder, Larry Spotted Crow Mann will walk participants through...
Prospect Hall, Prospect Hill, departing from the Lower Willits Parking Lot
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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“As a culture worker who belongs to an oppressed people my job is to make revolution irresistible,” Toni Cade Bambara, quoted from An Interview with Toni Cade Bambara with Kay Bonnetti...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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Learn how to respond proactively to ICE sightings or attempts to detain residents. Gain the skills to act as a bystander and provide meaningful support to our immigrant neighbors. Facilitated by...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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Following a collaborative external review focused on inclusive excellence, the Departments of Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Neuroscience & Behavior will come back together to identify...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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In this session, we will introduce Intergroup Dialogue (IGD), a structured approach for facilitating critical conversations about race, racism, privilege, and oppression between and within groups...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
The Raíces Clatsop docuseries includes six short films in a blend of Spanish & English, filmed and edited by Jasmine Garcia De Los Santos. It beautifully illustrates the authentic quotidian stories...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
Faculty are navigating an unprecedented convergence of pressures and stressors, including attacks on academic freedom, the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and work-related burnout....
Willits-Hallowell Conference Center, Morrison Room
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 11:30am
This is a past event.
This session is for folks about the process of repatriation folks who are themselves, or have family/loved ones exploring the process of repatriation. Repatriation, the act of returning to one's...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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This session creates space for those who feel unmoored in their identity. It centers the experience of not having a single home, clear origin, or cohesive cultural narrative. It honors those whose...
Community Center, Blanchard 227
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 11:30am
This is a past event.
Join Holyoke native and Latin dance artist Roshay for a high-energy workshop where movement meets neuroscience. No dance experience needed—just come ready to move. Rooted in Latin culture and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 11:30am
This is a past event.
Come attend this film screening and discussion hosted by the MHC Ethnic Studies Working Group! We will be screening “On Strike: Ethnic Studies - 1969-1999,” a 30-minute long documentary put...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12:30pm
This is a past event.
Screening of Second Nature documentary narrated by Elliott Page, followed by a Q&A with Professor Patty Brennan and the filmmaker, Drew Denny. Did you know that clownfish change sex from male to...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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In this session, participants will learn about personal, professional, and organizational equity dimensions. They will identify their personal roadblocks to being active bystanders when witnessing...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
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Mount Holyoke is proud to welcome The History Makers Founder and President, Julieanna Richardson to campus for a very important conversation on the importance of preserving African American oral...
Mary Woolley Hall, The New York Room
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 10:30am to 12pm
This is a past event.
Join interdisciplinary artist Yehimi Cambrón Álvarez who will facilitate a banner-making workshop focused on solidarity, hope and healing. This session is co-sponsored by the Art Department.
Tue, Apr 28, 2026
This is a past event.
This module introduces the core components of antisemitism and Islamophobia, offering a structured exploration of both topics through their historical roots, contemporary expressions, and...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 12pm to 1pm
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All faculty, instructional and teaching staff are warmly invited to attend this year’s Teaching and Learning Initiative Lunch. Join in this informal opportunity for coommunity connection! This...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 12pm to 1:30pm
This is a past event.
We invite all faculty of color who teach at institutions within the Five College Consortium (Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of...
Willits-Hallowell Conference Center, Wiese-Merriwether, Faculty Club
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 12:15pm to 1:30pm
This is a past event.
During this interactive session we will cover updates on the immigration landscape, rights when interacting with police and immigration agents, and how your family can prepare. This session is a...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
Immigrant justice is something that has been fought for by various communities over many decades. This workshop will share strategies leveraged from past intergenerational lines of solidarity...
Virtual Event
free
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
This session features a film screening of Amma’s Pride which is an award winning short documentary that chronicles Valli’s unwavering support for her trans daughter, Srija, as she navigates the...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
Join us this very special BOOM for an open workshop for Frances Perkins Scholars, FP alums and MHC community members led by returning facilitator, Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz. This workshop is an...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
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Join us as Nick Daily engages our community on healthy relationships and boundaries at small colleges. We will discuss consent, bodily autonomy, self- advocacy, dominant scripts, and any topics...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
Land acknowledgments are often the first step in institutional recognition, but without a foundation of action, they risk becoming performative gestures that reinforce colonial mindsets. This...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:15pm
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In collaboration with the Department of History, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion continues our Pathways to the Professoriate Series featuring Dr. Brian Kwoba in conversation with...
Mary Woolley Hall, The New York Room
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1pm to 2:30pm
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Join Fulbright scholars Nohelia Tacca and Eddy Machaca for an immersive and interactive exploration of Quechua culture and the living traditions of the Andes. In this engaging workshop,...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
Nearing the age of forty, with an entire life already lived as a woman—half in Colombia, half in the US—Miles Borrero comes face to face with his father’s impending death. Suddenly realizing that...
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Gamble Auditorium
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
A Soundbath with KAMAUU is unlike any other experience - a synthesis of meditation, and yoga - an hour of calm, intention, introspection, and humor. Rapper, poet, thinker, producer, and language &...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 2:30pm
This is a past event.
Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to explore themes of diversity and climate in STEM fields. Students in this year’s...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
Mount Holyoke College faces a timely challenge: the gap between stated values and digital behaviors, particularly regarding harm caused through anonymous platforms like Fizz. This workshop is open...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
Everyone will become disabled at some point in their life, whether it be a short-term, long-term, or life-long disability. What would it mean to be students of disabled kin who have had to learn to...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm
This is a past event.
For BOOM 2026, Mohegan educator and chef, Rachel Beth Sayet will lead a cooking demonstration of Indigenous New England foods focused on the "Indigenous Edibles of Spring". Sayet educates the...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
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This session will be an informal, collective memory space that engages collaging and conversation as weapons in the fight against cultural erasure and dispossession. Participants will be in...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
Receipts Over Reposts: A Workshop on Moving from Passive Support to Active Accompliceship for AAANHPI & International Students. How to show up, speak up, and share the load in our global campus...
Community Center, Blanchard 227
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm
This is a past event.
Many of the barriers faculty of color face in the academy are structural and systemic, and they result in devaluation of research and service, increased stress and emotional labor, isolation, and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
Drawing on adrienne maree brown’s concept in Emergent Strategy that “small is good, small is all,” this session examines how incremental, sustained personal practices can contribute to broader...
Virtual Event
free
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
Have you ever felt “lost in space” when it comes to conversations around gender? Join facilitator Gabriel Andres Hall for a workshop that explores the connections between our bodies, gender...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 1:30pm to 2:45pm
This is a past event.
Join author and filmmaker, Curtis Chin, for a screening of “Warren King: King of Cardboard” followed by a talkback. Warren King transforms cardboard into sculptural reflections of his...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
This session is open to all staff, faculty, and students focused on embodying resilience, joy and collective care. This workshop explores resilience as a collective, embodied practice rooted in...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3:30pm
This is a past event.
We are divinity made flesh, a network of lineages descended from the stars above. Who we are is an intergenerational experience, a collection of both stories and storyteller. Stories are more than...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
A mother and race scholar seeks to answer her daughter’s many questions about race and racism with an earnest exploration into race relations and affirmative action from the perspectives of Asian...
Virtual Event
free
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3:30pm
This is a past event.
"In Between" is a semi-autobiographical one man show that portrays the complexities and contradictions inherent in Palestinian-Israeli identity. On the precipice between two cultures stands Ibrahim...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3:30pm
This is a past event.
Open to all neurodivergent faculty and staff at Mount Holyoke, this affinity group will explore the intersections between neurodivergence and mental health, with a special focus on the experiences...
Willits-Hallowell Conference Center, Andreola Room
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 2pm to 3pm
This is a past event.
A healing space like no other, all are invited to join Irene “I-SHEA” Shaikly for a workshop focused on healing and restoration. Utilizing her own instruments and inviting others to learn and...
Tue, Apr 28, 2026 4pm to 5pm
This is a past event.
Have you ever felt “lost in space” when it comes to conversations around gender? Join facilitator Gabriel Andres Hall for a workshop that explores the connections between our bodies, gender...
Virtual Event
free
Fri, Mar 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Indigenous Peoples Day is a day of celebration. A celebration of 500+ years of survival and resistance against a colonizing regime. Let's celebrate our...
Virtual Event
Fri, Mar 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. In honor of Disability Awareness Month, join us for a moderated conversation with disability rights activist, writer and cultural access educator Emily...
Virtual Event
Fri, Mar 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Featuring a panel of Mount Holyoke alums, panelists will reflect and dialogue on their involvement in the April 1997 takeover of Mary Lyon Hall. Building on...
Virtual Event
Thu, Apr 17, 2025 5pm
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Please watch the recording at your convenience. Our Sexual Assault Awareness Month Keynote featured activist and writer adrienne maree brown. adrienne maree...
Virtual Event
Sun, Apr 27, 2025
This is a past event.
This module introduces the core components of antisemitism and Islamophobia, offering a structured exploration of both topics through their historical roots, contemporary expressions, and...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. As part of the ongoing work of documenting stories connected to The 1619 Project, Scholar Rafael Ocasio shares his important research on the slave...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
Please note that this recording presently features auto-captions that may not always be accurate. While we are working to professionally caption this recording, we wanted to make this resource...
Virtual Event
Free
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. We welcome Clint Smith , gifted spoken word poet and academician, as the keynote speaker for our 5th annual Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!) 2021...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. This important dialogue on challenging anti-Blackness and anti-Semitism between Rabbi Sandra Lawson and Rabbi Josh Lesser focused on building solidarity...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. We are witnessing increases in acts of violence, discrimination, harassment, and hate speech that have harkened us back to a time when vitriolic language...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. A family of sugar-cane farmers in Louisiana worked the same land for generations and ultimately they began to realize that racism was looming over their hard...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
Here in this Train Car: Holocaust Family Memory, Art-Making, and Struggles for Justice Mark Auslander considers interwoven journeys in his family and personal histories in the shadow of the...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. In the United States, between 1882 and 1927 - there were 4,951 documented lynchings. About a third of those killed were white often on the West Coast, the...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. We are honored to welcome Dean Spade in conversation with activist Taylor Alxndr of Southern Fried, Queer Pride and Smith College Professor, Jina Kim for our...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. We will welcome two dynamic speakers for a special conversation, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. 2020 has been a significant year in...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
On October 27, 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on a Sabbath morning and killed half the people inside — there were 22 people inside, and only 11 came out alive. The...
Virtual Event
free
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. This public lecture with FRONTLINE correspondent and New Yorker staff writer Dr. Jelani Cobb took place to the commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther...
Virtual Event
Mon, Apr 28, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Scholar Martha S. Jones shares her incredible research on women's suffrage and the role Black women played in actualizing gaining the right to vote. Her...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Mount Holyoke's 2023-2024 Common Read is “Disability Visibility,” an anthology of essays, stories, poems and more that centers around disability justice —...
Virtual Event
free
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Please watch at your convenience. The College continues our ongoing educational sessions as part of the Fifth Annual Fighting Antisemitism Teach-In with a...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. For Latinx Heritage Month, we are excited to welcome a keynote lecture with Storyteller, Public Theologian and Feminist, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez for a...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Sybrina Fulton lost her seventeen-year old son, Trayvon Martin and was instantly thrust into the spotlight as a grieving mother whose son's tragic murder...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
Gender 101: Beyond the Gender Binary System This session was previously recorded. Speaker: Gabe Hall As part of our ongoing educational offerings, the DEI Office has created a training that is...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
Let Trans Kids Play - Protecting Trans Lives On and Off the Field with Chris Mosier This session was previously recorded for BOOM 2022. Speaker: Chris Mosier BOOM: Community Day 2022 at Mount...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
Creating Inclusive Community: Pronouns 101 This session was previously recorded. Speaker: Gabe Hall As part of our ongoing educational offerings, the DEI Office has created a training that is...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Please watch at your convenience. Please join an important dialogue focused on the essential anthology edited by Dr. Frank Abe and Dr. Floyd Cheung, The...
Virtual Event
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Join the DEI Office in an evening with Dr. Perry Zurn as he shares insights and critical reflections into the tremendous archive of trans stories of...
Virtual Event
free
Tue, Apr 29, 2025
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. Panelists: Dr. Laura Leibman Dr. Paola Tartakoff Moderated by Dr. Mara Benjamin Mount Holyoke has been the site of hateful acts of antisemitism yet we...
Virtual Event
Free
Thu, Jun 26, 2025 12pm
This is a past event.
This session was previously recorded. In partnership with the National Women’s Studies Association and the Weissman Center for Leadership, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Mount...
Virtual Event
