
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander is on a mission to raise critical consciousness in students to help them explore their racial and social identities, build anti-racist communities, and create social change.
TOPICS
- Diversity & Inclusion
- Fraternity & Sorority Life
- Social Justice
- Leadership
- Orientation
- Residence Life
KEYNOTES
Getting to know
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander is a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion practitioner whose passions are rooted in anti-racist pedagogy, critical consciousness building, and experiences of Black students in predominately white institutions. The aim of her work is to challenge the myths regarding the historical and present-day distributions of power, investigate the role of racism and anti-racism in social, professional, and educational spaces, and empower people to analyze their own social identities and positions within systems of power.
Victoria Alexander is currently a PhD student at the University of Maryland College of Education, studying Higher Education.
The Anti-Racist Resource Guide was created for anyone looking to broaden their understanding of anti-racism and get involved to combat racism, specifically as it relates to anti-Blackness and police violence. Within this guide, please find a variety of resources to explore practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity, white supremacy, police violence, & systemic injustice.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
To help you promote your event with Victoria, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials
LOGISTICAL MATERIALS
Below you will find logistical resources for the day of your event with Victoria.
SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY About Victoria Alexander!
KEYNOTES
Anti-Blackness | Beyond the Hashtag
On a systematic level, many US institutions and organizations continue to perpetuate anti-Blackness. This program focuses on personal reflection and growth opportunities to combat internalized anti-Blackness and its manifestations on various levels of the college experience. Some manifestations of anti-Blackness include: white favoritism in socialization, risk-management practices, and Black representation in leadership.
Victoria uses research, data, and narrative to guide folks to recognize, challenge and change anti-Black attitudes and behaviors in the world around them and even deep within themselves. Even if uncomfortable, we can’t solve a problem we won’t admit exists. Here, it’s not about perfection. It’s about progress.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will:
- Increase their levels of awareness of deeply internalized anti-Black bias and its manifestations within colleges and universities
- Be empowered to identify, challenge, and change implicit and explicit cultures of anti-Black bias within the selves, their organization, and their community
- Be equipped with a toolkit of knowledge, background, vocabulary, and strategies to combat bias and support marginalized members and communities as active allies.
What We Don’t Think… We Think
We all have implicit biases, you, me, everyone. Implicit bias is part of how our brains are wired BUT that does not mean we can’t change them for the better! Victoria uses research, data, and narrative to guide folks to recognize, challenge and change bias in the world around them and even deep within themselves. Even if it can be uncomfortable to admit we are people with biases, we can’t solve a problem we won’t admit exists. Recognition is just the first step as Victoria leads participants through creating powerful and sustainable change in our organizations, communities, and ourselves.
The topics explored include race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, and intersectionality. Historically and/or predominately white organizations and universities may be ill-equipped to support the growing diversity of college student populations, and the increasing demand to speak out against bias. It is more important than ever to support students, institutions, and organizations with knowledge and resources to be active and intentional allies to marginalized communities and in the broader communities in which they move.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will:
- Be empowered with the knowledge and strategies necessary to know when and how to recognize and intervene in against bias and marginalization
- Learn how to identify the differences between passive allyship, performative allyship, saviorship, and active allyship
- Learn how to operate out of a growth mindset and embrace the many ways to identify how to consistently practice self-introspection; to leverage one’s own power and privilege toward active allyship.
When I Liberate Myself, I Liberate Others.
This program focuses on personal reflection and growth opportunities for people of color to combat internalized bias and its manifestations on various levels of their personal and/or experience. The title of this program borrows from Miss Fannie Lou Hammer, a Civil Rights activist who said, “When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.” We will work together to recognize, challenge, and change our biases be they against other communities or internalized against our own. Biases we will unpack and explore include racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, islamophobia, antisemitism, colorism, and body shape and size. We center on intersectionality to understand the unique marginalizations experienced by those with multiple marginalized identities. Here, it’s not about perfection, it’s about progress.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will:
- Increase their levels of awareness of deeply internalized social bias and its manifestations within their organization, community, and themselves,
- Be equipped with a toolkit of knowledge, background, vocabulary, and strategies to combat bias and support marginalized people and communities,
- Be empowered to rest and feel joy as that is a tool of resistance, and
- Build coalition within and between groups because we are stronger together.
What do we mean, “Values Based Organizations”? Race, class, gender, and sexuality in Fraternity and Sorority Life
Fraternities and sororities have a long and storied history. Some aspects are positive and worth accolades. Others are marked by exclusion, hate, and vitriol. We can’t tell the stories of our organizations, or fully understand our groups without a full picture of the history of race, class, gender, and sexuality in fraternity and sorority life. Let’s move past the information on the website and in the new member education pamphlet.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will:
- Gain a greater understanding of the historical relationships between privilege, identity, bias, discrimination, and fraternity/sorority life specifically as it relates to race, class, gender, and sexuality
- Become more familiar with each National Council/Umbrella organization
- Understand and honor the culturally based fraternal experience
- Acknowledge the discriminatory history of many fraternal organizations
- Recognize the impact of stereotype threat phenomenon
- Locate ways privilege, bias, and discrimination continue to permeate the fraternity/sorority experience
- Identify means to generate welcoming and affirmative spaces for all students who seek membership in fraternities and sororities
VICTORIA’S BLOGS
The following are past entries Victoria has written for the CAMPUSPEAK Speaker’s Voice Blog