by Gabby Sumney
At an informal gathering of faculty and staff of color, a staff member whose focus is Inclusion and Equity asked the faculty present how we handle the first day of classes in regards to the roster.
At Emerson College, we are known for a substantial number of queer, trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming students and that often means our rosters don’t actually reflect who is in the room. Additionally, we have a fair number of international students who go by names they hope will be easier for Americans to pronounce.
A number of my colleagues expressed their anxiety about making a mistake that could hurt or alienate a student or group of students. Many of the faculty and staff also expressed their frustration that the system as it exists leaves students vulnerable to being deadnamed (“Deadnaming occurs when someone, intentionally or not, refers to a person who’s transgender by the name they used before they transitioned.” – Healthline) by someone not intending to cause harm.In thinking about this issue as we approach the start of the Spring/Winter Term, I wanted to share my own start of the semester strategy. This is by no means an original approach; in fact, I have to thank Kathryn Ramey, Shannon Silva, and Ken Feil just to name a few people from whom I’ve cobbled this together. Ultimately, it boils down to this: have the students introduce themselves rather than doing your best Ben Stein impression (Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?).
In order to facilitate these introductions, I have the students fill out index cards with some basic information:
- Name (and if there’s some other way I can find them on the roster)
- Pronouns
- 3 Goals for semester (not just this class, but in general)
- Anything else they want me to know
- Is it okay if I share this card on our Canvas page?
The first time I encountered the card method, I was a graduate student with some very serious health problems, and just having the opportunity to share additional information with my professor put my mind at ease. When we invite students to bring their humanity to class, we show them that we see them and that we recognize that they have complete lives outside of our classrooms. I find this kind of openness leads to deeper discussions, better work, and more engaged interactions.
While students are filling our their cards, I put my own answers up on the board. We then move into the sharing portion of class where everyone shares their name, pronouns, and one goal. After we’ve all introduced ourselves, I tell students that I’d like to take a photo of their card before they leave class for the day. I remind them that if they don’t want me to upload this photo onto Canvas, they just need to write “DO NOT SHARE” somewhere on the card.
As an example, here is a sample card that I filled out while writing this post. It is likely to be very similar to what I write on the board once classes start. Good luck, everyone!
Gabby Sumney is a media artist and educator based in the United States. They were born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Arizona, Florida, and (mostly) North Carolina. They graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2011 with a B.A. in Film Studies and from Emerson College with an MFA in Media Art in 2016. They are currently an Artist-in-Residence at Emerson College, where they teach Experimental Media Production and Media History.
