Guidance for Administrators
Why Liberate Your Research?
The Liberate Your Research workshop provides college and university administrators a path towards supporting and retaining BIPOC faculty and graduate students. It equips BIPOC scholars with tools for navigating the parts of the academic experience that feel oppressive and deflating while courageously transforming the pressure and uncertainty created by the academic ecosystem into an abundant capacity to boldly articulate one’s scholarly theories, methods and contributions. The beauty of Liberate Your Research is that it allows colleges and universities to support BIPOC faculty’s well being and their highest and most genuine academic research and writing while expanding your DEI commitment with tangible action.
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Guidance for Administrators
How We Liberate Your Research
We take this journey together, in community.
Who is LYR For?
Liberate Your Research workshops serve faculty and graduate students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color in any discipline or interdiscipline.
When And Where We Work Together
We can work nearly anywhere! For in person, we typically meet at faculty retreat venues or campus meeting rooms where confidentiality can be preserved. For virtual workshops, zoom or any other technology is typically available. Safety and comfort during our workshops is always one of our goals. (Note: Dr. Naber is also available to present LYR at colleges and universities outside of the United States.)
When and Where We Work Together
We can work nearly anywhere! For in person, we typically meet at faculty retreat venues or campus meeting rooms where confidentiality can be preserved. For virtual workshops, zoom or any other technology is typically available. Safety and comfort during our workshops is always one of our goals. (Note: Dr. Naber is also available to present LYR at colleges and universities outside of the United States.)
How We Work Together
Once campus administrators (i.e. Deans, Provosts, or otherwise) choose to move forward, we streamline the process to make it as simple as possible.
- Reach out to Dr. Naber’s team here (e.g. Melibee speaker page).
- Once we confirm the anticipated number of participants and program needs, we move to a simple contract and complete the paperwork required by your campus.
- The main campus contact will receive materials to invite participants to register for the workshop.
- We send the campus contact a welcome letter with links for participants to complete (such as a needs assessment and brief pre-workshop assignments) so that Dr. Naber is able to address, as specifically as possible, the concerns of the participants and the group at large. The campus contact takes responsibility for the technical needs.
- The 3.5 hour workshop takes place!
LYR Universities
These prestigious universities brought Dr. Naber to campus to liberate their
research and support BIPOC faculty, researchers, and graduate students.
About Dr. Nadine Naber
Dr. Nadine Naber is a public scholar, author, and teacher from Al-Salt, Jordan and the Bay Area of California. Dr. Naber has co-created connections, research, and activism among scholars of color and social movements for the past 25 years. She is author/co-author of five books, an expert author for the United Nations; co-founder of the organization Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS); co-author of the forthcoming book, *Pedagogies of the Radical Mother* (Haymarket Press); and founder of programs such as the Arab and Muslim American Studies Program at the University of Michigan and the Arab American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois. Her work has been recognized through awards such as the Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Studies Association (2022), the Y-Women’s Leadership Award, and awards from foundations such as Macarthur, Ford, Russell Sage, Open Societies, and Andrew W. Mellon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of Tools are used in LIberate Your Research?
Dr. Naber provides participants with three key tools. The first helps participants persevere through various forms of academic anxiety, oppression, gatekeeping, and overwhelm. The second trains participants in affirming their ideas boldly and unapologetically. The third provides strategies for clearly naming and articulating one’s analytical frameworks and research contributions.
Why is Dr. Naber THE person to lead LYR?
Trained in both the social sciences and humanities, Dr. Naber is the recipient of the American Studies Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). She is a leading scholar on key themes underlying many BIPOC scholars’ research, including the study of race, class, gender, sexuality, transnationalism, social justice, and social change. Evidenced by many teaching and leadership awards, she also has extensive expertise training scholars of color how to thrive in academia. You can find her CV here.
How do I know that my campus needs LYR?
If you have BIPOC faculty and graduate students on your campus, you need LYR. Established research shows that BIPOC scholars tend to face structural realities on college and university campuses that constrain their capacity to write and publish. Compared to their white colleagues, faculty of color often conduct disproportionate levels of service; remain stuck at the associate professor rank; and face extra scrutiny of their theories and methods.
How far in advance do I have to book a LYR?
Depending on Dr. Naber’s availability, you can book LYR in as little as 6 weeks or as far ahead as 12 months. We prefer at least two months lead time when possible, but do our best to accommodate tighter timeframes.
How much is a LYR workshop?
While we don’t publicly list the cost, we can assure you that it is much more affordable than sending individual scholars to conferences. When you inquire about LYR, we will discuss the fee structure.
How can LYR best be communicated to campus stakeholders?
LYR addresses several areas that are highly important to 99% of campus stakeholders:
– Academic Divisions: LYR supports more consistent and confident academic writers who more fully express their contributions and theories.
– Human Resources/Multicultural Affairs: LYR offers tangible support of diverse scholars while also supporting faculty retention rates.
– Finance: While complimentary to a wide range of academic conferences, LYR is a much more affordable professional development offering as Dr. Naber comes to your campus (or presents virtually to your group), saving thousands of dollars in T&E. LYR increases skills needed for successful grant writing, bringing increased funds to the university.
– Graduate Programs Admissions – LYR supports more timely/higher completion rates and job market success for graduate students, supporting retention in the academic programs.
I have some faculty who are in need of individualized support? Does LYR provide this?
LYR participants are welcome to email Dr. Naber after the workshop. Appropriate follow up support is available on a fee basis beyond that.
Can faculty who do not identify as BIPOC participate?
In our experience, BIPOC participants who are in groups with white scholars are less likely to fully express what limits them in their research and writing. Ideally, we prefer to have BIPOC scholars in their own LYR workshops to provide a safe and healthy space for them to fully experience the shift that occurs in this program. With that said, Dr. Naber considers participation of white scholars on a case by case basis.
Testimonials
I cannot recommend this workshop highly enough. Nadine inspired participants in this workshop to approach our research with joy and confidence. She gave us the tools to quell the oppressive criticism many of us have internalized that undermines our writing; she gave us a space to emotionally process, analyze, and refuse in good company the violence of an academy and she provided us with concrete strategies and suggestions that enabled us to articulate and claim our theories and methodologies.
The students loved her workshop, and I heard one say, “I wasn’t excited about doing research until now!” I am looking forward even more to teaching art therapy graduate projects this semester now that students are coming in with newly invigorated motivation to do research that matters.
Liberate Your Research was exceptional–from beginning to end. Nadine truly helped all of us understand that we have powerful and unique voices to contribute to our disciplines and fields, and how to use those voices to speak to those issues that matter to us the most.
Nadine led a workshop for members of our Black Studies graduate student cluster. Participants described the workshop as very meaningful and transformative. This workshop would be an excellent supplement to any graduate program serving historically-excluded students or students committed to linking theory and research to praxis and engagement.
A most valuable professional development experience for faculty at all ranks and for doctoral students.
Nadine empowered my students to affirm their own creative thoughts about their research interests in the very first semester of their graduate program. She gave them invaluable inner tools to commence and advance their journeys toward liberating their research.
A most valuable professional development experience for faculty at all ranks and for doctoral students.
Nadine’s understanding and enactment of feminist pedagogy, while focused on the content, are truly inspirational. The encouragement and insightful feedback for reconceptualizing the frameworks/lenses through which we think and write was freeing. It would be wonderful to refashion the academy to reflect such values. If only…!
As the Director of the Social Justice major, I was interested in this workshop as our program is committed to de-imperializing the academy, following liberatory structures, and supporting new faculty of color. But it is hard to describe what it is like to attend a workshop led by one of your academic heroes. This liberating writing workshop helped me to more clearly name in my teaching and mentoring how these imperializing structures of the academic world have been creating ensuant anxieties for those of us working in the margins with radical methodologies. Nadine Naber’s workshop should be required in all universities, for this is exactly the work we need to do.
The hunger for this kind of gathering was immediately apparent in the number of enthusiastic applications we received. Participants across different career stages connected through Nadine’s thoughtful activities, and I was thrilled to hear the group share how much they had gained. We look forward to hosting Nadine again!
Nadine visited my graduate research methods seminar and her workshop knocked down walls and opened up doors for my students. They entered the workshop feeling stuck and inadequate. They left feeling empowered to be true to themselves and their communities through their research. I now have so much confidence in their futures as researchers.
Insights & Strategies
Dr. Naber shares her insights and strategies for healing from academic oppression and fostering writing prosperity.
VIEW ALL
The Uncharted Path: Navigating the Clandestine Gatekeeping of BIPOC Scholarship
Established research shows that colleges and universities maintain historical legacies that undervalue BIPOC scholarship and their contributions through the explicit clandestine gatekeeping of BIPOC scholarship practices such as racial discrimination in evaluations,...
Silencing the Noise: Writing Clear and Uncompromised Research as Scholars of Color
It’s no surprise that so many scholars of color share a sense of disconnection and non-belonging in U.S. academia. There is a violence at play that harms both faculty and graduate students of color, one that obstructs the capacity to grow and write clear,...
From Pain to Power
A central writing challenge that many scholars of color face is not merely that our voices, core ideas, and creative contributions are disproportionately scrutinized compared to our white counterparts, but that the gatekeeping is so well established that scholars of...