The Thrive Mosaic: A Tool for Activism for Scholars Across All Areas of Higher Education

Date: April 12, 2018 • 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Presenter: Robbin Chapman, Ph.D.
Location: Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, Wellesley College, Room 413

This talk presents a developmental framework for equitable development, access, and opportunity for scholars across higher education. Few issues in academia are more complex than ensuring all talent can thrive without obstacles, whether due to intentional disruption or benign indifference. The Thrive Mosaic developmental framework coalesces the elements of supportive sub-networks, focusing them on scholar development, advocacy, and self-care, and actively forestalling systemic marginalization and obstructionist practices. The Thrive Mosaic uses systems thinking methodologies to identify the actors and artifacts that comprise the “ecology of academia” and to address causal deficiencies that impede scholar success. During this presentation, Robbin, Chapman, Ph.D., will discuss the framework and how scholars—students, faculty, and administrators—can utilize the Thrive Mosaic to better support overall achievement and success.

Robbin Chapman, Ph.D., is associate provost and academic director of Diversity & Inclusion, and Lecturer of Education at Wellesley College. She provides strategic leadership and vision for the College’s diversity and inclusion, and academic and faculty excellence initiatives, and is a lecturer in the Education Department She also teaches a design-focused course, Learning and Teaching in a Digital World, that challenges students to re-imagine how learning flourishes in partnership with digital technologies. Chapman earned her S.M. and her Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she conducted research at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the MIT Media Laboratory. Her research interests include design and use of computational tools for learning in public spaces and examining equity issues as they relate to learning technologies and culturally-responsive pedagogy.

For those who are unable to attend in person, many programs are streamed live on Facebook and the videos are archived on our website.

The Lunchtime Seminar Series at the Wellesley Centers for Women is free and open to the public. Most programs are held Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. at the Centers’ Cheever House location, though this program will be held at the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center of Wellesley College. Guests are invited to bring their lunches, and WCW will provide tea and coffee. For accessibility questions, contact Disability Services at Wellesley College.