AFFINITY GROUPS: BUILDING HIGHLY POLITICAL

COMMUNITIESJanine Silvis | Self Authorship Committee | Janurary 3, 2014

The politics of community building Common knowledge and epistemologies Space is political Privileges and gate keeping Socialization and valuing diversity and

inclusion

What words come to mind when you hear the word “COALITION”?

Coalition

What does coalition mean to you? What is the purpose of coalition? How do you build coalition?

Coalition

What words come to mind when you hear the word “HOME”?

Home

Think about the people in your life who you find yourself most safe with. What qualities do these people have? What experiences? What identities

Home

Reagon-Johnson (1983)

Build connections regardless of identity

Sympathy Action Martyrdom

Folks of similar identities

Shared narrative Empathy Healing

Coalition Spaces Home Spaces

Theory of Identity Development: Chickering (1993)

Vector: “developing mature interpersonal relationships”

Vector: “establishing identity high interpersonal relationships

students are learning to find value and appreciation in others by the creation of long term and healthy relationships with each other.

leads to the establishment of one’s identity—where students find a sense of self in social, historical, and culture contexts

Providing home spaces based on the demographics of the

student body, critical gender and sexuality theory, and personal anecdote, marginalized students at the University of Oregon do not have a sufficient amount of opportunities to build interpersonal relationships with others in their identity groups

Affinity Groups These are intentionally created “Home Spaces” “Theory in the flesh” (Moraga 1993) Only open to those who self identify as the

correlating identity is highly political Uncomfortable for those who hold dominant group

identities A lack of intersectionality in practice

Affinity Groups Self identified individuals will engage with

proactive circle practice Participant driven conversation

Led by fellow pro staff as follows: Self-identified women: Brittany and Lenora LGBTQIA students: Csea and Megan Students of color: ned and Janine

Future of affinity groups The Self Authorship Committee will use these

groups to access the possibility of providing affinity groups open to all residents

The Self Authorship Committee, with the input of Pro-Staff will consider developing more groups Identifying and training additional facilitators Identifying other needs in the campus community