Videos - Recorded Events

A collection of events recorded by the American Cultures Center is available for your streaming convenience.

The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading

Event Description

Building on the groundwork of the Antiracism Winter Institute, the CDF Program co-sponsored and co-facilitated a follow-up seminar in late April centered on contract grading. The two-day workshop, The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading, invited participants to explore two models of contract grading, Specifications Grading and Labor-based Contract Grading. On the first day, participants engaged in current research that explores how traditional grading methods structure...

Antiracism Pedagogy & Equity-Based Learning Winter Institute

Event Description

Since 2018, the CDF program has supported instructors in developing creative design assignments, assignments that are intentionally built to support faculty and students in ways that are adaptive, equity-oriented, and foster antiracism. In the CDF Winter Institute participants developed actionable strategies that build antiracist and equity-based education.

In conversation with CDF faculty, staff, and students, the Winter Institute discussed how within the current condition of remote instruction and the devastating effects of the...

The University, Abolition, and Decolonial Theory and Praxis

Event Description

On March 13, 2023, the American Cultures Center and the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley hosted this discussion focusing on the University as a site of contestation and contradiction. Starting from its settler colonial origins and logics, the speakers engage what it means to participate in decolonial and abolitionist work at the site of the university. What are its repressive logics and histories? How might we find cracks in its structure to organize?

The event was part of the Staff as Students of Social...

Aspirations of Antiracist Pedagogy: Community-Based Learning

Resource Page Summary

On April 10, 2024, the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program held a Spring institute, titled “Aspirations of Antiracist Pedagogy: Community-Based Learning.” This page specifically discusses the lunch portion of the event where guest speaker Dr. Brandi Thompson Summers, from the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, shared her expertise on community-based learning. Dr. Summers shared valuable insights on the opportunities this style of learning presents and the challenges it poses. She also discussed how to implement antiracist pedagogy...

ACES Events & Resources

The American Cultures Engaged Scholarship program hosts various events for faculty and graduate students that focus on how to integrate community-engaged learning.

Third World Liberation Front Intergenerational Panel

About

On June 24, 2025, UC Berkeley's annual High School Ethnic Studies Initiative (HSESI) Institute held this panel about the Third World/third world Liberation Front (TWLF/twLF)* for an audience of high school ethnic studies educators. This panel built upon ones that took place the last two years, which featured organizers from the 1969 TWLF student strike, the movement started at San Francisco state and continued here at UC Berkeley, eventually leading to the creation of the academic field of Ethnic Studies. This panel brought back original student strikers from 1969 alongside...

Events & Resource Pages

About

The High School Ethnic Studies Initiative hosts various events for students and instructors that focus on approaches to teaching Ethnic Studies high school courses.

Bringing Critical Filipinx Studies into the High School Ethnic Studies Classroom

About

On October 3, 2024, the High School Ethnic Studies Initiative hosted the event “Bringing Critical Filipinx* Studies into the High School Ethnic Studies Classroom.” In this discussion, Filipinx scholars discussed how educators can incorporate Filipinx and Filipinx-American studies into the Ethnic Studies classroom. They offered reflections on the Filipinx-American diaspora’s history of forced migration, organizing against labor exploitation, and resisting co-optation. The event...

Teaching in Summer 2025

Summary On May 12, 2025, the American Cultures Center partnered with Berkeley Summer Sessions and the Center for Teaching and Learning to host our annual teaching in summer workshop. Covered topics included:

Inclusive, supportive and effective summer teaching strategies from the Center for Teaching and Learning staff

An overview of student demographics, key academic policies, and the range of resources available to support all students, including visiting and...

Spring 2023 Cohort

About

The 'Staff as Students of Social Justice' (SSSJ) Program(link is external)(link is external) is an important expression of the campus’s commitment to staff’s intellectual and professional development, especially around issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice. This program is a keystone effort of the university’s work towards...