One of the nation’s top schools for public health puts “antiracist” instruction at the center of its curriculum.
In December 2020, the Department of Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health hosted an ideologically charged faculty retreat. According to a slideshow, the event’s goals included “learn[ing] strategies for fostering antiracism in the classroom” and “reflect[ing] on how instructor positionality can impact teaching.” Other slides revealed what this means. One read simply, “Critical Race Theory and Teaching.” Another prompted faculty to consider “What questions about CRT do you have?” and, most tellingly, “What ideas do you have for how to integrate CRT in your teaching practice?”
The Health Behavior retreat was not a one-off event. It reflects the policies of the Gillings School—the nation’s top “public school of public health” and second-ranked nationally, its website reminds us. In July 2021, the school released its Inclusive Excellence Action Plan (IEAP), which aims to put “social justice” at the center of its curriculum and practice.
Mandatory training and curricular reforms figure prominently in the plan. One goal is to “develop, implement, and evaluate trainings, including strong antiracist and equity-driven components, for faculty, staff, TAs, and other members of the Gillings community.” The plan seeks to ensure that “all students graduate with the ability to apply social justice in their public health work.” In case there’s any ambiguity about what that means, the plan reiterates that the aim is “to require social justice and racial equity training at orientation, as part of the curriculum, and in the classroom.” The plan also includes one amusingly miswritten goal: “Racism, social justice and health equity are integrated throughout and across curricula.” One assumes that the plan’s creators meant anti-racism, though the error might be closer to the truth.
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