How Systems Lead to the Provision of Power, Privilege, and Oppression in the Interpreting Profession

0.2 PS PPO CEU credits

This webinar is available to Diversity Academy members and can be viewed anytime online via  Diversity Academy. PPO CEUs are processed at the following month that the webinar is completed. Join as a member here: Diversity Academy Membership

Power, privilege, and oppression are important topics in the field of interpreting. You may already have an understanding of individual power and privilege. This workshop takes a step back from the individual perspective and looks at these issues from a historical system perspective and how they impact interpreters and the field as a whole. Interpreters will learn how systems and system design can lead to oppression. This workshop will be examine systems on a micro level (individual) to macro level (government and society). Participants will identify and examine systems within the interpreting field and learn how to ask reflective questions that can bring about system disruption. This is an interactive workshop in which participants will apply and discuss the theories and application in their everyday work.

Educational Objectives:

1. Participants will identify and understand how human systems (macro, meso, and micro) can be discriminatory and exclusive.
2. Participants will identify and define systemic oppression as it relates to marginalized communities and intersectional identities.

3. Participants will develop one act of system disruption that they can implement in the interpreting profession.

Purple Communications is an Approved RID CMP Sponsor for continuing education activities. This PPO Professional Studies program, How Systems Lead to the Provision of Power, Privilege, and Oppression in the Interpreting Profession, is offered for 0.2 CEUs at the little/None Content Knowledge Level.

Purple Communications and Diversity Academy promotes and supports policies of non-discrimination and an environment that is mutually respectful and free from bias. 

Requests for accommodations must be submitted to [email protected]. 

Cancellation Policy: 

In the event that this webinar has to be canceled, we will notify you within 48 hours. We  will provide an alternative presentation. 

Dr. Alesia Allen

Dr. Alesia Allen is the assistant Vice President for NTID Diversity and Inclusion. She holds a BS from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MA and PhD from Gallaudet University. Dr. Allen has more than 15 years of professional, clinical, and teaching experience. She most recently served as a visiting assistant professor in NTID’s Department of Liberal Studies where she taught a variety of courses in psychology as well as engaging in scholarship, mentoring students, and serving on several committees.

Prior to coming to RIT, Allen worked as an intergroup diversity dialogue facilitator at Gallaudet University, helping undergraduate students explore divisions among people on the basis of racial and ethnic identity and helping them examine racial and ethnic dynamics within and across deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing communities. She also was project manager for Gallaudet’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training. In that role, she provided multicultural workshops and mentored students of color, providing resources for them to succeed in their studies and in their careers following graduation. In addition, she served on Gallaudet’s Diversity Team, which advised the president on issues related to diversity and inclusion and monitored progress of the university’s diversity action plan.