We begin with the question “what do we want to keep that the pandemic has given us?” Largely co-written in 2021, this reflexive essay serves as a snapshot in time, at one stage of the pandemic, reflecting upon earlier, shared experiences at one institution of higher education. We locate each of our identities and positionalities in that space and beyond. Our essay uses Moya Bailey’s 2021 discussion of an ethics of pace to frame our thinking and collective memory work and to counter what we identified as the distinct efforts of institutions of higher education to not have places for institutional memory. We articulate that without memory places, it is impossible to build both a history of justice work in institutions of higher education and accountability that this justice work is seen through. And we ask, how are we to build justice and healing in higher education when the place is designed so that we can’t remember things, and when there seems to be a goal to not have institutional memory that remembers how, why, and by whom justice work is done? We answer the question: “what do we want to keep that the pandemic has given us?” with this: “the pace and place to remember.”
Articles by Ria (Ariana) DasGupta
Ria (Ariana) DasGupta is the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Initiatives at The Juilliard School. She has over a decade of teaching and administrative experience in higher education. Prior to her current role, she served as the inaugural Chief Diversity Officer for Academic Affairs and Community Outreach at Georgian Court University. Ria was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership Studies at the University of San Francisco where she also served in the institutional equity office. As Interim Assistant Dean for First and Second Year Programs at Douglass Residential College (Rutgers University), she oversaw the college’s first year mission course and a globally-focused living-learning community. Ria earned her doctorate in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. Her research focuses on the role of neoliberalism in shaping higher education DEI efforts. A kathak dancer, Ria brings more than thirty years of ballet, modern, capoeira, bharatanatyam, and Rabindrik training to her role as a faculty member for the Leela Academy and an ensemble dancer with the Leela Dance Collective.