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Faculty Inclusion and Equity Grant Reports: Resource Grant

In 2019, the Associate Provost for Faculty Inclusion and Equity awarded three grants to encourage faculty engagement and research in inclusion and equity. The awards were given in two categories: Enrichment Grants, and Resource Grant. Due to COVID-19, the planned travel was not possible; however, one report was submitted on what was learned and accomplished with the award.

Resource Grant

Dr. Brad Strawn used his grant to purchase the following texts:

Akhtar, Salman, (2014). The African American experience: Psychoanalytic perspectives. New York, NY: Rowan & Littlefield.
Eng, D. L, & Han, S. (2019). Racial melancholia, racial dissociation: On the social and psychic lives of Asian Americans. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Fors, M. (2018). A grammar of power in psychotherapy: Exploring the dynamics of privilege. Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.
Muran, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). Dialogues on difference: Diversity in the therapeutic relationship. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Tummala-Narra, P. (2016). Psychoanalytic theory and cultural competence in psychotherapy. Washington D.C.: APA.

Dr. Strawn assigned and used the Muran text, Dialogues on Difference: Diversity in the Therapeutic Relationship in his Advanced Integration course this spring. It spawned excellent discussion and for the most part students appreciated it.

While not all of the texts are solely psychoanalytic in nature, it is their major bent. Dr. Strawn appreciated this because psychoanalysis has been working to catch up in the diversity conversation. Furthermore, as Tummala-Narra argues, contemporary relational psychoanalysis may be particularly suited to working with issues of diversity.

Dr. Strawn writes, “I can truly say that the reading I have done so far, thanks to the grant, has further sensitized and educated me to issues of race, culture and power. It has also helped me recognize that this is an ongoing journey in which one never fully arrives. While these texts are primarily aimed at clinicians and clinical work, I have found them to be helpful in my teaching as I train new clinicians. And while I have personally been on a cultural awareness reading journey in the last two years (e.g., Howard Thurman, Daniel Hill, Robin DiAngelo, Michelle Alexander, Patrick Reyes, James Coyne, and others), the grant enabled me to reach a bit beyond my normal “book budget” to obtain texts more specifically focused on clinical work. For this I am very grateful.”