Intercultural Yoga is provocative conversation, hosted by Raymond Reyes (2020-21). Yoga means “union” and is a practice to sustain mental and physical harmony with one’s cultural context. In these conversations, our host and guests provide an opportunity to breathe into new spaces of knowing, related to the intercultural encounter of “the other.”
“In listening to these conversations, we are invited to challenge our assumptions and shift our interpretative lens to inform more innovative strategies on how to dismantle structural racism and other systems of exclusion and oppression.”
Season 1 Episodes
This inaugural episode took place following death of George Floyd (May 2020). Gomez, who served at Gonzaga in an interim role, has 38 years of experience in higher education. He is also a prolific poet, and in this podcast, he offers a poem honoring Floyd.
New life is born where cultures meet. Culture is a fluid, living process, changing with encounters and make us stronger. So why is learning about intercultural experiences so difficult? We have to face our denial.
Dr. Charlita Shelton, special consultant to the president at Gonzaga, shares about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), originally created for freed slaves. How is education the great equalizer?
Historically, offices of diversity opened at American universities as a result of Affirmative Action. Today, predominantly white institutions (PWIs) like Gonzaga endeavor to explore systemic racism and greater understanding of equity and inclusion. How can this work be effective, progressive and proactive?
The editor of Gonzaga Magazine shares about having grown up in a Midwestern “sundown” town, and visiting the site of Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, among other incidents that call white people to consider their place in the racial justice movement.
Haley Wilson graduates in 2021 with a degree in business. Israel (“Izzy”) Carranza is an L3 law student at Gonzaga Law. Wilson talks of an awakening to the reality that people of color deal with the manifestation of microaggressions in daily life; Carranza brings up the distinct approaches of past leaders like Dr. King and Malcom X, who either worked within our current systems of justice or pushed against those systems that are inherently racist.
Following the Zoom “bombing” of the Black Student Union (Nov. 2020), Wilson and Carranza discuss the tensions between students’ demands for action over discussion, and the challenge of raising the consciousness of the whole campus community.
An educator and trainer, Jones has a powerful testimony of lived racism. She has provided counsel to faculty at Gonzaga and other institutions, and is a sought-after speaker across Washington and beyond.