ABOUT TEARING DOWN THE WALLS
Southwestern Conference on Race and Leadership
in Independent Schools.
June 26-28, 2020
Fort Worth Country Day School
https://www.fwcd.org
Fort Worth, TX
Tearing Down the Walls 2020 has been canceled due to COVID-19. We look forward to seeing you in the
summer of 2021!
“Tearing Down the Walls” is a multi-day race and leadership conference for independent school students, faculty, and staff. The purpose of the conference is to afford students from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to become leaders and bridge builders in the arena of race relations. Our vision is for students to return home emboldened to lead.
After two successful years of hosting Tearing Down the Walls in the Southeast, we are expanding and offering a conference this summer in the Southwest, hosted by Fort Worth Country Day.
The Tearing Down the Walls conference is organized in association with the National Center for Race Amity.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Frederick W. Gooding
Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. (PhD, Georgetown University) is an Assistant Professor within the Honors College at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. Gooding critically analyzes race within mainstream media, effectively contextualizing problematic patterns based upon their historical roots. As such, Gooding’s best-known work thus far is “You Mean, There’s RACE in My Movie? The Complete Guide to Understanding Race in Mainstream Hollywood,” which has been utilized in high schools and universities nationwide. Also the co-editor of “Stories from the Front of the Room: How Higher Education Faculty Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy,” Gooding has stayed focused on the practical applications of equity with his recent work, “American Dream Deferred” (December 2018) carefully detailing the growth and struggles of black federal workers in the postwar era. His latest effort, “Black Oscar” (May 2020), will expand his reach into cultural studies by analyzing African American Academy Award winners and how their narratives reflect and reinforce larger American history. As budding public historian, Gooding through his dynamic and demonstrative presentations seeks to underscore that history is very much alive, especially since we share the power to create new histories together.
Debby Irving
Debby Irving brings to racial justice the perspective of working as a community organizer and classroom teacher for 25 years without understanding racism as a systematic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to grappling with it.
As general manager of Boston's Dance Umbrella and First Night, and later as a classroom teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she struggled to make sense of tensions she could feel but not explain in racially mixed settings. In 2009, a graduate school course, Racial and Cultural Identities, gave her the answers she'd been looking for and launched her on a journey of self-discovery.
Debby now devotes herself to working with white people exploring the impact white skin can have on perception, problem-solving, and engaging in racial justice work. A graduate of the Winsor School in Boston, she holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MBA from Simmons College. Her first book, Waking up White, tells the story of how she went from well-meaning to well-doing and how she unpacked her own long-held beliefs about colorblindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color. She reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race.
Aram Jazab Ferdowsi
By the age of five, Aram Jazab Ferdowsi lived on three continents. She immigrated to America in 1963, soon to learn about the Civil Rights movement and what it meant to be an immigrant kid at Nashville elementary schools. The experience had a lasting effect. She completed her high school in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and she attended Vanderbilt University, where she became a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Her heart drew her to the subject of one human family, and in 1992, she was part of a team that helped develop and offer a two-year diversity training program to the Nashville Metropolitan Police Force. She has served on the Interfaith Alliance of Nashville, the Institute for the Healing of Racism, and Clergy and Laity Concerned.
Presently, Aram offers grassroots programs that enable pre-teens and teenagers to explore the commonality of their human experience and how to be of service to each other and their communities. She lectures on Iran and the DRC at civic organizations, schools, universities, and clubs. She serves on the Regional Baha'i Council of the Appalachian states, and these words capture her life's goal: "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."
Dr. Linda Meccouri
With over 30 years of teaching and leadership experience at the community college, undergraduate, and graduate level, Dr. Meccouri is the recipient of two Endowed Chairs for Teaching Excellence and is highly respected for her creative approaches to leadership and positive change.
Linda's inspiring keynotes, Nationally and Internationally, are consistently praised as “motivational”, “engaging”, “entertaining” and “transforming”. A dynamic, energetic approach connects with her audiences and appreciatively speaks to the heart of what helps people transform. Dr. Meccouri is a scholar, a storyteller, and an entertainer with extensive experience in face to face, accelerated, online, and hybrid formats.
Her ongoing research “Making It: Resilience Against the Odds” examines the factors involved in resilience and success for low-income, first-generation college students with the social indicators associated with failure. Linda continues this work facilitating leadership workshops, and courses. Dr. Meccouri is passionate about her work with healthcare organizations to improve patient and staff experience, leading retreats, workshops and coaching professionals to improve experience, leadership and career satisfaction.
As a facilitator, her watchword is “Presume Goodwill” working with diverse professionals to design and deliver programs that transform organizations.
2020 SCHEDULE
Projected Schedule of Events
Friday, June 26, 2020
The goal for Friday is to gather, meet one another, and be introduced to the ideas and goals of the conference. You'll see performances, hear a speaker, and have some social time.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
On Saturday, students and adults have a full day of programming; students rotate through discussion-based workshops, and adults gather together for their own professional-development workshops. Students and adults come back together periodically for whole-group plenary sessions and social time.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
In Sunday's sessions, participants will continue their discussions and then get together to talk through "what we do from here."
REGISTRATION
Each school bringing students and adults pays a flat registration fee of $1500.00; this fee covers registration, lodging, and food costs for all students and chaperones.
A $500.00 deposit is due before April 1, 2020 in order to reserve
your school's spot at the conference.
The entire $1,500.00 must be paid by June 1, 2020.
Register Your School and Pay for the Conference
Chaperones: Registration Form
Student Participants: Registration Form
Packing List (Coming Soon)
MEDIA