AWP has a longstanding history of commitment to diversity, cultural humility, social justice, and feminist values of accountability, inclusion, empathy, care, and mutuality. To ensure that these values are central to the AWP experience for everyone, we:
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Use gender-inclusive, diversity-respectful language and behaviors (e.g., using words that affirm and respect how people describe, express, and experience themselves; substituting “feminists” for “women” when addressing the room; always using provided microphones).
Invite conference attendees to add pronouns to name badges/attendee profiles during the conference, and use the pronouns identified by each person (e.g., they/them, ze/zir, she/her, he/him). If we do not know someone’s pronouns, the best practice is to use a person’s name rather than assume which pronouns to use.
Actively seek the participation of diverse presenters and conference attendees, including researchers, practitioners, and activists in our programming.
Ensure students and individuals at every stage of their career are included as presenters and intentionally omit titles or degrees from name badges and from the conference program.
The Implementation Collective affirms that feminism is an integration of both “Doing” (engaging in community activism, mentoring, building alliances, and influencing policy, teaching, clinical practice, and research) and “Being” (maintaining a feminist consciousness and intentionality regarding issues of privilege and oppression). This ongoing intersection of Doing and Being is the lifeblood of AWP; it is how we collectively nourish ourselves at our conferences and in community with each other. AWP is a dynamic organization.
Although we strive to create a safe and empowering environment, we are not immune to the interpersonal, organizational, structural, and cultural forces of oppression. As feminists, we are responsible to address racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, cissexism, ageism and all other forms of injustice in and beyond this conference. We strive to be thoughtful, reflective, and intentional, owning our mistakes, and being open to feedback and respectful of others’ lived experience that differs from our own. We aim to engage in interpersonal repair when ruptures occur within our community. This is the essence of feminist, inclusive, multicultural practice.
Guidelines for Community Engagement:
Thus, in order to participate in this community we use the following guidelines while interacting with others at the AWP Conference:
Treat each participant attending the conference with attention, care, and respect, making every effort to understand one’s own power and privilege and the intersecting marginalizations and different perspectives of others. Debating the validity of someone’s lived experience of marginalization is not acceptable.
Attend with the intention of welcoming new and returning colleagues. For returning attendees, embrace the roles of mentor and guide when possible, while also learning from newer colleagues.
Be committed to learning from the questions and challenges of participants, particularly when they are different from your own perspective.
Show awareness of those who are potentially being silenced by reaching out to them when you notice this and stepping back to make space.
Share the floor, recognizing time constraints. Be mindful of your own participation – how often you speak and for how long.
Strive to be an advocate. If you witness a microaggression, productively engage with attendees or presenters who behave in an unsupportive or disrespectful manner to another attendee.
Microaggressions can be experienced as a threat to personal safety. If you inadvertently commit a microaggression, extend an ethic of care by taking responsibility for your actions and respond by centering the needs of the person or community harmed. Engage in ongoing reflection with others to continue learning how to best represent our community’s ethic of care. When processing your experience after causing harm, it is best to do that with someone not directly affected.
As you interact with others at the conference, we invite you to be mindful of how you can help foster a culture of accountability, inclusion, empathy, care, and mutuality. The Implementation Collective of AWP welcomes your feedback on these guidelines.
