Archive: 2021 Tilford Conference

We were accepting workshop and presentation proposals for the 2021 Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity and Multiculturalism. This year's theme is "Better Together: The Power of Coalition Building in DEI Work," so we look forward to your submissions that relate to that topic. Proposals are due Friday August 13, 2021 at 11:49pm (CST). Please review additional details below.

Each proposal will be evaluated based on clarity, relevance, applicability, effectiveness, evidence based, and originality of content. Presenters will be notified on the status of their proposal in mid-September.

We invite faculty, staff, and students to submit workshop and/or presentation proposals focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion that fall into one or more of the following areas of focus: 

• Coalition Building
  • Best practices
  • Challenges
  • Innovation and new strategies
  • Policies, policy proposals, and norms to help to cultivate and support coalition building on our campuses and beyond 
  • Coalition building experience with students, faculty, staff, community members, across groups/constituencies
• Recruitment/retention: how strategies of building connection, cooperation, and coalition engages potential undergraduate and graduate populations, with the goals of increasing recruitment and support of students, particularly historically marginalized students. 
• COVID-19’s Impact on Coalition Building
• Coalition building in academic spaces (among faculty, in curriculum, etc.)

The Kansas Board of Regents Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity and Multiculturalism Program Committee is seeking submissions for the Annual Tilford Conference, October 18, 2021, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. This year, the Conference is celebrating coalition building, particularly its power and necessity within diversity, equity, and inclusion work, to create lasting change within higher education. 

Without strong partnerships and coalitions, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) work is often inconsistent and exhausting. Creating academic and workspaces where inclusion and diversity are championed cannot be the work of the few—it takes connection and mutual investment from multiple factions to secure transformation. We hope that this year’s conference serves as a recognition and a celebration of the collation building faculty, administration, staff, and students have done, particularly in the challenging 2020-2021 academic year due to COVID outbreaks.  

The goal of the Tilford Conference this year is to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion work and develop resilience in educational settings by building and maintaining coalitions. Additional emphasis is on DEI work in post-COVID educational settings. The current pandemic has impacted everyone. The growing disparity in the availability of and/or accessibility to support, services, and resources in the community may have direct bearings on people’s lives and educational activities. Developing and maintaining community and campus partnerships, promoting human connections, and strengthening ecological variables to build resilience in educational settings are exigencies of the time.  

Conference sessions aim to enhance participants’ abilities to gain adequate knowledge of differences, inequality, and problems in the post-COVID time and develop knowledge and skills to create resilience in educational settings by facilitating the diversity and inclusion work in our campuses. The Conference will have strong research and professional development components and provide participants with tools that can be immediately applied to their educational living, learning, and workspaces. 

The Tilford Conference is a regional conference soliciting submissions and expertise across state boundaries. The core of our collective ability to accomplish all of the above must 1) be founded on the willingness of faculty, staff, and students to reflect upon and understand their roles and responsibilities of agents of improvement and change, and 2) rests upon a collaborative vision of justice, one wherein the diversity of populations has access to, and are served well by higher education. At the same time, higher education produces graduates that meet the demands of employers that are increasingly seeking workers, leaders, and researchers prepared for 21st century global citizenry.