Staff as Students of Social Justice

Staff as Students of Social Justice: Professional Development Program

Staff as Students of Social Justice

Program for Campus Staff to Engage in Anti-Racist Pedagogies

Background image: Collage of communities of color organizing for housing for all; mutual aid; people's free food program and land repatriation

Application Process

The application period for the Spring 2026 Cohort is now closed. Please contact us at sssj@berkeley.edu if you have any questions.

The best thing about the program was that I was able to gain a more firm and nuanced understanding of the harms and inequities of the tech industry while having really thoughtful conversations with our professors, my classmates, and folks from the VCUE Division around existing and imagined interventions into so many different facets of tech in a lot of other spaces from art to journalism to activism.
Sara Assadi-Nik, Program Coordinator, Division of Summer Sessions, Study Abroad & Lifelong Learning

"Aspirations of Material Anti-Racism: What’s Next?"

Explore recordings, resources, and keytakeaways from this public lecture series that features experts from academia and beyond, focusing on Black freedom movements, decolonial theory and practice, mutual aid, and housing rights, and other topics

Presentations and Projects

Participants have been asked to create projects focused on a specific topic of their choosing to illustrate their understanding of the course materials. These projects showcase their intellectual development around topics related to diversity, equity, belonging, inclusion, and justice. Please take a few moments to explore some of the previous cohorts' presentations and projects.

Program Overview

  • Participate in 10 weekly discussion sections with seminar course instructor SSSJ Director of Pedagogy, David Maldonado, Ph.D., facilitated over Zoom beginning on February 9th, 2026 ending on April 27th, 2026. [excluding holidays]

  • Anticipate 3-4 hours of class/discussion/lecture viewing per week, plus additional time to complete readings

  • No exams, grades, or academic credit

  • Must attend at least 80% of meetings, partipate fully, and complete a final reflection to complete the course

  • Upon completion, you will receive a certificate signed by Acting Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Fabrizio Mejia, Vice Provost Oliver O’Reilly, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Chief People & Culture Officer Eugene Whitlock, and your achievement will be added to your HR personnel file

Through this course, we learned how the devastating fires we experience in California today are a product of climate change and pervasive policies of suppression deeply connected to settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dispossession of Native peoples from their ancestral lands. We also learned from guest speakers about several tribal groups' ongoing efforts to preserve, sustain, revitalize, and share their cultural practices and scientific knowledge.
Jean Cheng, Sarah Pickett, and Alex Tan