This section presents personal stories and experiences of some of our community members. In this issue we highlight Ariana Sawyer, Rebecca Picard, Bob Cole and William Arrocha.
Ariana Sawyer
MA IPD
2017-2019
Which one of your identity/ identities would you add in the blank space?
white, working-class, queer woman at MIIS
How did you experience your identity, both positively and negatively at MIIS?
I remember asking at orientation if there was any sort of queer student organization. I was told something like, “No, MIIS is such an open and accepting campus that queer people seem comfortable being everywhere and don’t gather in one particular place or time.” As if the desire for an explicitly queer space were an unwanted indictment of the institute’s commitment to intercultural competence. Though it wasn’t until my last and busiest semester on campus, I’m very thankful for my heroic colleague Dionne Hart who dreamed up and founded Queer Allies at MIIS, if only for the sake of future students.
Less conspicuous I think are issues of class. I found I’d had — and continue to have — a very different experience of the world than most students I met. Our financial aid packages do not take into account the clothes or cocktails or plane tickets one might need to network successfully, a “skill” that is critical to getting a job in many of our fields. This classism bled into the classroom, where professors avoid (if not denounce) alternative economic theories or failed to incorporate a classist analysis of a problem where it would have been very helpful.
Tell us about one memorable concept/ lesson that you learned in connection with your identity or diversity and inclusion broadly from a MIIS community member/s?
I learned about the importance of making an intersectional analysis of issues of inequality in my work in Professor Iyer’s class on dismantling white patriarchal capitalism for racial justice. As a journalist, I am among those writers being pressured to water down or simplify content for impatient readers. But I think failing to address complex and overlapping identities and the spectrum of privilege on which they place us does a disservice to everyone. People can get better at making critical, more nuanced analyses of inequality if we help give them the tools to do so.
How has your time at MIIS prepared you to deal with power and privilege in the world outside of the Institute?
My time at MIIS has made me more confident speaking to others in my field, but it has also made me more determined to undermine the system of whiteness that perpetuates tone policing. Where I come from, people shout when they’re excited about something, and cursing is commonplace. Our accent — a nasal mix of Wisconsin and Ontario — our bad grammar, and our colloquialisms are used in media to portray simpletons.
Most of academia teaches that if we want to be taken seriously, if we want to be heard, there’s one right way to talk. Both MIIS and, to a lesser degree, undergrad taught me that because I’m working class, I must be constantly mindful of my vocabulary. They taught me that, as a woman, I must be careful not to cry or become too animated. But I also learned that because I’m white, small slip-ups will simply be seen as endearing.
What is one suggestion you have for the MIIS community?
I have heard that student organizations at MIIS can be difficult to maintain since students are often on campus for only two years at a time. Yet some clubs are critical to intercultural competence, providing students with a sense of inclusion and representation. I am thinking specifically about QAAAM and how much less isolated I would have felt at the start of grad school had the club existed then. I’ve heard the same from several other queer classmates. Professors or staff at MIIS should take on leadership or facilitative role for some of the more vital clubs so they aren’t lost when club leaders graduate. Not everyone wants to be a leader, but everyone deserves to feel safe, included and represented.
Rebecca Picard
MA IPD & Allies at MIIS Alumna
2016-2017
Which one of your identity/ identities would you add in the blank space?
American
How did you experience your identity both positively and negatively at MIIS?
I experienced being American at MIIS positively. Though MIIS is an internationally focused institution and seems to pride itself on having a large international student population, it is still a very Western/American-centric institution where the entire population (students, staff, faculty, etc.) are encouraged to think and do things in a Western style no matter their background. Being American was an advantage in many ways, such as understanding how to find housing, my first language being English, knowing what a professor is looking for in an assignment, etc.
I did not experience being American negatively in a direct way however, I have the advantage of hindsight now that I’m an alumna and I see negativity in the way MIIS culture values American-style education and culture so highly. For example, I found that I was often designated to edit my international colleague’s papers, communicate with professors to understand what was expected from the group, moderate discussions, encouraged to use American cultural examples in discussions, etc. If the idea of being in a culturally diverse environment is to learn from each other, I believe it is negative that there was an implicit pressure to think and speak the way Americans do. This inadvertently affects Americans negatively in that it upholds the exceptionalist culture.
Tell us about one memorable concept/lesson that you learned in connection with your identity or diversity and inclusion broadly from a MIIS community member/s?
I learned that my own concept of American exceptionalism is far deeper ingrained in me than I realized. Like many MIIS students, I have lived outside of my home country which has forced me to examine myself and my culture in different ways. I felt that I had done a lot of reflection on my cultural upbringing and that because I was able to think critically of most things American, I was free of much of that exceptionalism concept. But learning from my colleagues and friends from all over the world, I found that that was simply not true and I have a lot more work to do.
How has your time at MIIS prepared you to deal with power and privilege in the world outside of the Institute?
I am so grateful to have been a member of Allies at MIIS which encouraged me to explore so many different facets of racial equity. I became a more critical thinker, a better listener, and learned to examine things with many different lenses. I moved to Washington DC directly after MIIS, which is a much more diverse place, but also a very staunchly institutionalized place. I am now working full-time for the first time in a classically, American “professional” setting and my eyes are wide every day at the overwhelming influence of power and privilege in the nonprofit and think tank sector. Without Allies, I almost certainly would not push back at the institutionalized racism in my environment, the implicit biases of my colleagues, or the power and privilege of the patriarchy among those around me. Often, I feel helpless at how deep power and privilege go however, I was prepared by my time at MIIS to recognize problems, push back where I can, and plan ways to push further in the long term. On a more positive note, my time at MIIS encouraged me to seek new communities and surround myself with people who share my values and with whom I can nurture my growth as a person in the face of power and privilege and support others to do the same.
What is one suggestion you have for the MIIS community?
My suggestion for Americans in the MIIS community is to do more self-reflection, read more non-Western texts (don’t forget fiction!), engage in more open discussions, ask more questions and listen more; try and dismantle the exceptionalist worldview you may not know you are even upholding.
Bob Cole
Exploratory Initiatives & Partnerships Director, Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry
2001-Now
Which one of your identity/ identities would you add in the blank space?
man, father, facilitator, technologist
How many years have you been at MIIS?
2001 – Present
What is/was your role at MIIS during the time period noted above?
Exploratory Initiatives & Partnerships Director in the Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry, Digital Learning Commons Director, Intensive English Programs Director, ESL Teacher
How did you experience your identity, both positively and negatively at MIIS?
My experience at the Institute has been positive relative to the identities that I’ve listed. As a white man, my heritage doesn’t come up for discussion – I’m one of two adopted brothers from different families, born and raised here in central California in rural area that lacked diversity. When I think about how I experience my identity at MIIS, nationality, race and religion feel less salient than the quality of my familial relationships and work roles. I draw from my background teaching and working in ESL as I approach participating in and supporting the Institute’s intercultural community. I suppose this is because I’ve always imagined inclusivity as a core principle of second language pedagogy and learning spaces. Perhaps where I’ve felt challenged is in workplace encounters where my pedagogical knowledge and interests become overshadowed by others’ perceptions of my technical knowledge of curricular technologies and tools. So, as a technologist with an interest in the intersections of pedagogy and technology, it’s an on-going battle of perceptions to foreground the why’s of teaching and learning that might support any number of uses of digital tools and practices. Ultimately, for me getting beyond such perceptions are ‘yes and’ opportunities. Helping to fix and troubleshoot is part of the work, but even more I deeply value the practice of intentional listening, working with people to surface needs, and cooperatively work through challenges. Over the years, this interest has manifested through faculty development projects exploring reflection in cooperative peer development, exploring inclusive facilitation practices like liberating structures, and intercultural digital storytelling.
Tell us about one memorable concept/ lesson that you learned in connection with your identity or diversity and inclusion broadly from a MIIS community member/s?
One of the great benefits of working at the Institute is being immersed in a learning community. While I haven’t taken a course on intercultural communication, through projects with Dr. Netta Avineri, my connection with the concepts of empathy, partnership and interculturality has deepened in ways that I am able to reflect on regularly. I remember reading somewhere that a healthy partnership might be thought of as one of the highest forms of empathy. There’s a quality of commitment and trust that runs through such working and mentoring relationships that I find really generative and meaningful. For me a partnership disposition provides a helpful starting point for constructing a shared space of agreements that can also allow for and welcomes disagreement in pursuit of common goals. I often return to the metaphor of a playground seesaw that Netta has used to visualize the relational patterns in a partnership. There’s a mutual negotiation of roles, communication, balance, trust and persistence at play in creative and mutually beneficial partnerships that I find compelling. I strive to develop this mindset in my work with colleagues and students here at MIIS and those I collaborate with remotely.
How has your time at MIIS prepared you to deal with power and privilege in the world outside of the Institute?
My time at the Institute has helped me to understand the power of humility and the importance of showing up. I’ve marched for women with my family, voiced opinions and advocated against federal policies that impact vulnerable populations, and attended a number of Allies meetings and workshops at the Institute, but I have to be honest and admit that I am hardly fluent in the languages of diversity, equity and inclusion. My lack of fluency is emblematic of the privilege and power associated with my white, cis male identities. Thinking about how these identities are privileged and writing about intersectionality feels foreign. In small ways through my work facilitating face-to-face or online workshops, I strive to incorporate practices that shift power and interaction dynamics so that more diverse voices can be heard. My time at MIIS reminds me to model humility, create space for perspective taking, listen radically, give and accept adjusting feedback, and recognize when I or others may have fallen short so that we can be better.
What is one suggestion you have for the MIIS community?
I have really appreciated participating in events that the Center for Conflict Studies and Allies have sponsored in recent years. Allies discussions have been excellent opportunities to safely engage with others on critical DEI topics. One suggestion would be to partner with offices that support staff and faculty development to offer unconscious bias trainings and perhaps to convene sessions where we have opportunities to learn and share effective practices that support DEI in the classroom and in work settings.
William Arrocha
Associate Professor
2000-Now
Which one of your identity/ identities would you add in the blank space?
Multicultural/internationalist democratic socialist
How did you experience your identity, both positively and negatively at MIIS?
Being an individual who is wrapped in multiple cultures, who believes in internationalism and who embraces a political philosophy that advocates democracy alongside the collective ownership of the means of production and self-management can be riveting but also challenging. It is no secret that in the U.S. the noun “socialism” is automatically labeled as authoritarianism or in the best case, utopianism. What I can say with absolute uncertainty is that my professional journey at MIIS has been very rewarding in that I have learned to negotiate my identities within the diverse and complex channels of institutional power. Some colleagues and students have labeled me a “Marxist” while others have just embraced me as a cosmopolitan humanist. Some consider me a specialist in Latin America because of one of my citizenships being Mexican and one of my languages Spanish, even though I have only traveled to a few Latin American countries and have never written an academic paper on “Latin America”. Others know me as an Italian-American/Canadian whom they do not understand why I am no longer a US citizen, and others associate me with my French Cartesian identity as all my formative studies were done in the French system. And of course, others see me as a peculiar Mexican as in their eyes I do not look like the Mexican or Latino stereotypes. Et oui, my identities are in a constant state of cross-cultural/ideological fluid negotiations. It is often an exciting dynamic yet sometimes exhausting ordeal.
Tell us about one memorable concept/ lesson that you learned in connection with your identity or diversity and inclusion broadly from a MIIS community member/s?
The never-ending lesson that one has to endure in a place like MIIS is to resist labeling others for their nationality(ies), looks, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ideology or even a job position, as this hinders inclusiveness and therefore individual and collective growth. On the other hand, not embracing the other’s chosen identities in the name of class-blind, color-blind and gender-blind equality, among other ‘blind spots’, marginalizes others and stresses existing dominant discourses and practices of power.
Perhaps the most memorable irony I experienced during my first decade at MIIS was to be labeled a “NAFTA citizen” knowing that such an idea is not warranted by most Mexican citizens, and one can also presume by most Canadians and Americans. But most importantly, it was a label that went against my open disagreement with the dangerous illusion of “free” trade. I do have to say that it is pleasant after being almost twenty years at MIIS to just be called “William” with no more labels attached, at least in public.
How has your time at MIIS prepared you to deal with power and privilege in the world outside of the Institute?
Working in what I presume could be considered an American liberal school has prepared me to further understand the deep and complex ideological underpinnings of American Exceptionalism. There is an undeniable heartfelt kindness towards the other yet such kindness is also accompanied by a certain level of naïveté. However, if confronted with a deep sense of empathy and understanding, such naïveté can be transformed into an urgent call for deep social and political change. My experience at MIIS has given me a unique platform to grasp the intricate nature of the boundaries of power and privilege in the American academic environment, boundaries which do not artificially stop at the ‘gates’ of the Institute. As we witness in many institutions of higher education where education has been commoditized, massive cuts in faculty and staff to reduce deficits and launch new capital campaigns are a recurrent practice. The former validates the very unjust and unequal structures of power and privilege that prevail in today’s American neoliberal capitalism, where there are clearly no boundaries between the academic and non-academic realities. As an intellectual wage-worker I am very conscious of my position in such structures. Have I learned to master them? Not really, I guess we learn to survive them as we attempt to strive professionally and keep our mission alive while doing our best to keep our moral and ethical principles strong.
What is one suggestion you have for the MIIS community?
Open your eyes wide and don’t be afraid of being blinded by the truth.
