Shawn Savage participated in the GW Fellowship & Summer Institute on Antisemitism and Jewish Inclusion. Dr. Savage is an assistant professor in the Watson College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership, co-coordinator of WCE’s master’s and add-on licensure programs in Curriculum Studies for Equity, and area lead for the Curriculum & Instruction doctoral concentration of the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership.
The inaugural fellowship program focused on how to recognize, study, and teach antisemitism and foster Jewish inclusion within university-based schools/colleges/departments of education and other educational settings.
The centerpiece of the fellowship was a four-day summer institute held in June at the George Washington University campus. The institute brought teacher education faculty at university schools of education, campus administrators and DEI officers together with experts in the Jewish experience, antisemitism, DEI efforts, and educational inclusion for an open dialogue on complex and difficult issues. Two online convenings will be held in Fall 2023 to discuss updates to the institute themes and progress on program deliverables.
“Like anti-Blackness and other forms of oppression, antisemitism has historically been reified,” Dr. Savage said. “Today, we see those reifications throughout society. Schools and universities have an imperative to address them. This fellowship has allowed me space, time, and resources to engage deeply with this topic, and consider ways my praxis (and those of my colleagues at UNCW) may play a part in this dimension of the freedom and justice projects.”
Dr. Savage said the institute was extremely enlightening.
“Not only did it provide new knowledge and experiences, but it also enabled budding new partnerships, and renewed commitments to justice work,” he said. “I have already begun embedding some of what I learned into my work for the new academic year, and look forward to continuing the fellowship this semester, and sustaining the work beyond.”
Dr. Savage joined the faculty at UNCW in 2021. A diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice scholar-practitioner, his research investigates issues of access, equity, and justice in K-12, teacher education and higher education. He especially studies the experiences of racially minoritized males across their educational and professional lives—with a specific focus on Black males—using justice-centered qualitative research approaches. Importantly, his work is undergirded by Afrocentricity and explores the experiences of, and supports the well-being of Black and other people who are minoritized.
The GW Fellowship & Summer Institute was offered by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) at the George Washington University.
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