Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles addresses the crowd at the opening of ASHE's 47th Annual Conference.
Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles opened the 47th annual conference for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in Las Vegas with a call to disrupt the systemic oppression keeping marginalized populations from accessing higher education and burning out academics working toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“If we want to disrupt systemic oppression, we need a model that prioritizes care, empathy, love, authenticity, healing, hope, collectivity, solidarity, and community,” said Gaston Gayles, president of ASHE and distinguished graduate professor and senior advisor for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at North Carolina State University. “These values run contrary to systemic oppression. In order to enact human values, we have to start with ourselves. Critical self-reflection is a radical form of resistance.”
The conference theme this year is humanizing higher education, and hundreds of scholars from across the country gathered here to share their research, resources, and make connections.
On the opening day, academics shared findings on student success at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), while others tackled issues of pay inequity in internships. The conference underscored the mission of postsecondary institutions and academics to work against dehumanizing atmospheres and support the best policies and practices that improve student belonging, community connection, and create thriving faculty.
“We first have to understand where we’ve been to think about what humanizing higher education can mean, a path forward in uncertain times,” said Gaston Gayles. “What happens in global society trickles down to all the microcosms of society, including higher education. After the past two and a half years in the COVID-19 era, heightened social and political unrest and violence, I think about where we’re headed as a society, association, and people.”
Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles, president of ASHE and distinguished graduate professor and senior advisor for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at North Carolina State University.
