Dean’s Notes is a periodic feature of LMU This Week where the university’s academic leaders share their perspectives with the community. The deans of LMU’s seven schools and colleges will provide updates on priorities, policies, events, challenges, and areas of interest.
Bryant Keith Alexander, Ph.D, dean of the LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts, writes:
“My scheduled presentation to the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) in May was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. I had planned to talk on a panel titled, “Higher Education in the Time of Trump: Resistance and Critique.” Then I was also invited to deliver the keynote to the incoming 17th cohort of the doctoral program in Educational Leadership for Social Justice in our LMU School of Education. This presentation was delivered via ZOOM on June 18, 2020, and served at a confluence of the same concerns of the planned panel at ICQI – now particularized in an address to the future doctorate in educational leadership for social justice.
I took advantage of the moment to seek a broader confluence of our current political climate under the “leadership” of Donald J. Trump, the COVID-19 crisis, and national social justice activism linked with the Black Lives Matter Movement, that we are living protest and recovery in repressive times with a connectivity between the three. I offer my presentation as part of this deeply transformative moment and hope some of you will be moved to practice your own voice and take your own action.
