2025 Series on Racial Justice and Reconciliation

Overview of Events

For more information or to ask questions and register for events that require it, please head to the MHC Events Calendar page. Below, you can find basic information about what's going to be happening on campus and virtually in January. 

National Public Recognition of the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, January 20, 2025

We should all consider this to be a day on, not a day off. Consider volunteering in your local community in ways that are healthy and safe for you. 

National Day of Racial Healing Livestream, hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

This annual observance is hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and was created with and builds on the work and learnings of the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) community partners. Fundamental to this day is a clear understanding that racial healing is at the core of racial equity. This day is observed every year on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Visit the National Day of Racial Healing site, scroll to the Featured Events section, and use the toggle to select Virtual for a list of virtual events you can register to view. Scroll to the Watch section for videos documenting stories from communities across the country where people are working together to create lasting change (available anytime).

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has also collected action kits for all types of participants to support and engage with racial healing in their communities:

• Youth & Community
• Arts & Media
• Professional Settings
• Policymaker

Healing Justice: A Black Affinity Space

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 10am to 11am

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In honor of the National Day of Racial Healing, we will gather together as people of African descent to cultivate a space for dialogue, healing and reflection focused on community care. The session will be a curated experience co-facilitated by Dr. Kristie Ford and Dr. Kijua Sanders-McMurtry with a special focus on building stronger connections between Black alums, students, faculty and staff.

Sponsored by:  Intergroup Dialogue Center, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students, faculty, alums, and staff.

The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 3pm to 4:30pm

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Please join an important dialogue focused on the essential anthology edited by Dr. Frank Abe and Dr. Floyd Cheung, The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration. This work is focused on truth telling - sharing nearly seventy selections of fiction, poetry, essays, memories, and letters of Japanese Americans incarcerated in internment camps. We will welcome Dr. Floyd Cheung for this conversation as part of our commemoration of the National Day of Racial Healing.

This event is being conducted over Zoom. As the host, Mount Holyoke College reserves the right to record this session and the event sponsors will give prior notification to event participants of any intention to do so. The recording feature for others is disabled so that no one else will be able to record this session through Zoom. At all times, no recording by any other means is permitted without prior written permission from the event sponsor or as an approved accommodation.

Sponsored by:  Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students, faculty, alums, general public, and staff.

Indigenous Storytelling: Truth Telling as Racial Justice

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 5pm

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Intergenerational storytelling is a powerful tool for racial justice.

This important dialogue will feature Dr. Leilani Sabzalian whose work on Indigenous student survivance within school systems is grounded in the practice of truth telling as a means of disrupting colonialist narratives.

Sponsored by:  Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students, faculty, alums, and staff.

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) Workshop

Thursday, January 23 - Friday, January 24 from 8:30am to 4:30pm at the Willits-Hallowell Center

What is IGD?
Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a nationally recognized academic, credit-bearing program that originated at the University of Michigan (UM) in 1988 as a means of addressing racial tension on campus; its primary goal is to support faculty/staff/student learning and competencies around inter- and intra-group relations, conflict, and social justice across a range of social identities.

The Workshop: An Introduction to IGD Pedagogy
The workshop is designed for Mount Holyoke staff and faculty invested in building their fluency for addressing race and other diversity-related issues in the classroom and in co-curricular programming. Dr. Kristie Ford (Director of the Intergroup Dialogue Center and Professor of CRPE & Sociology) and Dr. Molly Keehn (Intergroup Dialogue Center Consultant) will facilitate the two-days, which will be both theoretical and experiential – emphasizing learning by doing. Participants will learn about foundational work related to IGD theory and pedagogy and engage in personal self-reflective exercises that illustrate dialogic pedagogy. Please note that due to the cumulative nature of this work, participants are required to commit to the entire two days.

Sponsored by: Intergroup Dialogue

Open to faculty and staff.

Build the New World With Us: A Transformative Justice Study Group

Thursday, January 23, 2025 6:30pm to 8pm

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It is important and necessary to center and acknowledge systems and practices that have already been created and catalyzed by Black and Indigenous communities to address harm. It is up to us to inform and organize our communities, this is meant to empower and spread knowledge on what it means to care for one another. Our group will discuss life saving tools that can be supportive to our marginalized communities for harm reduction and in times of crisis.

Students must apply to be a part of the cohort.

Sponsored by: Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students.

Give Solace, Take Solace: Collectivity Examining Racial Healing in our Present Moment

Friday, January 24, 2025 7:30pm

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Tomiko Jenkins, LCSW will lead a series of healing circles for alum, students, faculty or staff that would like to gather for deep reflection and restorative practices. This particular session is open to all alum, students, faculty and staff of Mount Holyoke.

Tomiko Jenkins (she/her/hers) is a licensed clinical social worker and currently serves as Dean of Student Life at Bryn Mawr College. She has a BA in Sociology from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an MSW from The University of Georgia. With over 15 years of experience in the mental health field, has been in private practice, worked on a trauma unit in a military hospital, and served as a family therapist for families involved in the foster care system. Tomiko is a trauma-informed practitioner that centers the mind/body/spirit healing journey.

Sponsored by: Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students, faculty, alums, and staff.

Her Story, Our Future: Honoring Coretta Scott King’s Commitment to Justice featuring Codi Charles and Mercedes Loving-Manley

Friday, January 31, 2025 12pm

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Please join the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) as we welcome Codi Charles and Mercedes Loving-Manley in deep conversation honoring and celebrating the profound legacy of Civil Rights Movement leader, and life-long champion for cross-movement justice, Coretta Scott King.

Charles and Loving-Manley will reflect within one another on their community and movement organizing, their commitment to justice and equity that center Black LGBTQ+ folks, art-making and more!

Sponsored by: Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Open to students, faculty, general public, staff, and graduate students.

"Just King": A Christian Service Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sunday, February 2, 2025 12pm to 1pm at the Abbey Memorial Chapel

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “Love is one of the pinnacle parts of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice, and justice is really love in calculation."

Guided by his Christian faith, Dr. King led a movement engaged in direct action through non-violent civil protest. Dr. King worked alongside individuals who were of a variety of faiths, races, ethnicities, genders and sexualities in his quest for freedom and justice for all people.

Each year at Mount Holyoke, the Daughters of Zion, the Religious and Spiritual Life team of the Office of Community and Belonging and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion collaborate to celebrate Dr. King’s faith and its impact.

We are delighted to welcome Mary Inge back to campus to lead our 2025 Christian Service Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a liturgy celebrating Christianity as a liberation-seeking tradition.

Sponsored by: Daughters of Zion (DOZ), Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Religious and Spiritual Life

Open to students, faculty, alums, general public, staff, graduate students.