ROOTED (Respecting Ourselves & Others Through Empathy & Dialogue) is a group of trained facilitators dedicated to creating student-led spaces of solidarity, empathy and learning for members of the Columbia community to explore identity, power and privilege and how these forces impact experiences on campus and beyond.
Our trained student facilitators have prepared several interactive workshops to lead for interested clubs, teams, FSL chapters and other organizations. Students of all identities and experiences are invited to participate in these powerful peer-facilitated conversations. Each conversation’s goal is to explore how power and privilege intersect with the topic; what participants can learn from hearing one another's experiences and what can be collectively gained through recognizing our own power and social responsibility.
Questions? Email rooted@columbia.edu.
Available Workshops (Look for new offering in Fall 2023)
Metrics of Merit: Meritocracy and Exclusivity on Campus
What does it mean to be part of a community that takes pride in its exclusivity? What metrics and values shape our campus community? In this workshop, we dive into the idea of "meritocracy," and examine how the qualities we measure ourselves and others by can have tangible consequences rooted in bias.
Dating GU4001: Attractions and Biases
This dialogue will explore how social norms and systems of oppression may impact who we are attracted to. In what ways do our implicit biases and internalized prejudices influence who we want to date? This workshop will touch on racism, fetishization, religion, and queerness in dating.
Food for Thought: Deconstructing Fatphobia
In this dialogue, we want to take a close look at how fatphobia exists in a broad cultural context and within our own campus community. We’ll get up-to-date together on popular terms and movements related to fatphobia, like “thin privilege” and “Health at Every Size.” We’ll examine how fatphobia enforces and is informed by racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and more, and examine how assumptions we make about one another based on perceived weight can be unconsciously influenced by these oppressive ideologies. Finally, we’ll check in on how we see fatphobia on campus every day, and how we can hold our community accountable.