GSC Pre-Conference Agenda:
Social Justice and Your Professional World

Tina Lee, Teachers College, Columbia University
Isabelle Clough, University of Texas at El Paso
Ana Ureña Rosario, California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University
Chelsie Burchett, Stony Brook University
Chelsea Queen, University of Texas at El Paso

Career Panel: Navigating Positionality as a Professional

In this career panel, Tina R. Lee (Chair), Isabelle Clough (Chair-Elect), and Chelsie Burchett (Diversity Officer) of the Graduate Student Committee will interview previous GSC officers on their professional journeys and what role SPSSI has played in their development from graduate school to their current professions. Discussion will center on positionality, navigating academia, obtaining opportunities centered on policy, and negotiating academic, cultural, and political capital. There will be a Q&A portion in which the audience will be able to participate. Panelists will include: Jaboa Lake, Ph.D. (2019-2020 GSC Chair); Kevin R. Carriere, Ph.D. (VSI Editor); Carlie D. Trott, Ph.D. (2015-2016 GSC Chair).

Roundtable Discussion: Dismantling The Fairy Tales of Academia

Chelsie Burchett (Diversity Officer) and Tina R. Lee (Chair) will host a roundtable discussion examining the experiences of underrepresented graduate students and their plans for transitioning from graduate school to the workforce, mentorship for BIPOC and first-generation students, navigating positionality at predominantly white institutions, navigating intersectionality in academic, industry, and teaching spaces as well as dealing with cultures of microaggressions. Questions will be posed about the privilege or marginalization of different groups and their impact on both graduate students and the broader academic institution to generate thoughtful discussion around these topics.

Disrupting Wellness: Decolonizing Self-Care Workshops

Ana Ureña Rosario (Communications Officer) and Rebecca Hill (Membership Officer) will host a series of workshops aimed to dismantle conversations and ideas about self-care, hegemonic notions of health (body image, satisfaction/dissatisfaction, beauty standards, athleticism), sexual (self and partnered) and how these issues were crafted from dominant frameworks. Discussions will center on general ideas around how these terminologies and ideas perpetuate oppression and exclude marginalized voices; how structural oppression results in internalization of dominant-group messages; its impact on perceptions of the self; and how the individual reconstructs the meaning of wellness for themselves. This workshop will also allow participants to actively engage in small-group discussions based on interest.

Policy Workshops: Working with Vulnerable Populations

Chelsea Queen (Policy Officer) and Isabelle Clough (Chair-Elect) will lead this workshop, which aims to increase education for graduate students and research professionals on ethical practices while working with vulnerable populations. Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes can be complicated, especially when the studied populations of interest are considered vulnerable (e.g., justice-involved persons). As research with vulnerable populations is often used in tandem with policy/legislation efforts and across applied settings (e.g., youth correctional services, social and mental health services), it is critical to understand ethical research practices under the IRB review process. To that end, this workshop will facilitate a mock IRB process with vulnerable populations as research participants. Multiple research questions will be posed to help develop appropriate methodologies that will be viewed as ethical by IRB standards of any research institution.

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