In our 18 years of sustained, focused, and collaborative work, the Race & Pedagogy Institute has staged a range of more than 20 summits and conferences, spawned an assortment of collaborations across academia and communities, provided a variety of educational resources for transformative pedagogy on the Puget Sound campus and beyond, brought together disparate communities to generate vigorous thinking about race equity and education, inspired a plethora of initiatives focused on the work of education and equity in both K-12 and higher education, and been one of the voices of change seeking to transform the landscape of education on our campus and beyond. All of this has been undertaken as part of our mission of educating teachers and students at all levels to think critically about race and to act to eliminate racism.

Vision

We envision a society where the systemic causes of racism have been uprooted and in which we are energized to re-imagine a world oriented toward the shared experience of liberation.

Mission

To educate students and teachers at all levels to think critically about race, cultivate terms and practices for societal transformation, and eliminate racism.

Guiding Principles

  1. Responsiveness: the imperative to act dialogically in concert with our partner communities in the face of dynamic changes and emergent crises at the nexus of race.
  2. Reciprocity: the practice of mutually respectful and reflexive give and take.
  3. Coherence: a focused commitment to reflect the integrity of purpose in all the multiple facets of our work.
  4. Synergy: garnering the cumulative benefits from our strongest connected selves.
  5. Sustainability: generative practices and relationships that heal, support, and re-energize.
  6. Flexibility: the agility to carry and engage the full arch of our learning in ways that enable us to adjust productively to the changing needs of campus and community.

RPI Strategic Priorities for the University of Puget Sound

Priority One: Curriculum Practice

To transform the curriculum practice culture to foreground sustainability and responsiveness as central to the enactment of Puget Sound’s educational mission.

Priority Two: Community Engagement

To build community engagement to confront redress and enact relationships of reciprocity and flexibility.

Priority Three: Diversity Initiatives

Reconfigure Puget Sound’s disparate collection of diversity efforts into a coherent, synergistic constellation.