Have you ever witnessed bullying, harassment, or an uncomfortable encounter in a professional context and wished you knew how to intervene? It can be challenging to know what to say or do on the spot. The DLF Code of Conduct invites participants to be Active Bystanders, but what does that really mean?
Please join the DLF Committee for Equity and Inclusion for an Active Bystander Orientation on Tuesday, October 24 at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific, ahead of this year’s DLF Forum and affiliated events. After an introduction to bystander intervention and an overview of strategies, we will open up discussion to explore how to apply active bystander strategies to situations that might happen in professional or social contexts. The presentation (but not discussion) will be recorded.
Please register in advance here.
To prepare for the orientation session, you can read the DLF Code of Conduct and one or more of the three short articles about bystander interventions linked below, and reflect on the following scenarios:
- Someone repeatedly misgenders another person.
- In a lively discussion, someone is continually interrupting someone else.
- You overhear someone make a comment about someone else’s appearance or body size.
- Someone makes a remark that is commonly used in rhetoric against a marginalized group.
- A question from the audience in a session seems intended to embarrass the presenter; when the presenter tries to answer, the audience member interrupts to ask it in a different way.
Suggested Readings:
- Bystander Resources from Right to Be: https://righttobe.org/guides/bystander-intervention-training/
- “What Is Your Responsibility as a Bystander to a Colleague Having Problems?” from the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-Is-Your-Responsibility-as/244287
- Bystander Intervention Do’s and Don’ts from American Friends Service Committee: https://www.afsc.org/bystanderintervention
Resources from Past Active Bystander Orientations by DLF’s CEI:
- 2019 Active Bystander Orientation: https://forum2019.diglib.org/active-bystander-orientation/
- 2020 Active Bystanders in Online Spaces: https://forum2020.diglib.org/index.html%3Fp=1441.html