The Navigationalist with Dr. Alex Iantaffi and Dr. Michael Benitez

Join us with Dr. Michael Benitez, Vice President at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and author, educator, and host of Gender Studies, Dr. Alex Iantaffi. This episode will discuss if allies are counterproductive, mitigating faculty fatigue, and combating types of microaggressions.The Navigational questions include: 

1. My name is Michelle. I just started working at a rural college with few non-white faculty. My friends told me that every minority faculty needs an ally. What is she talking about? What if I have no allies? How do I find allies
2. My name is Lisa and I am a lesbian, but I am not vocal about it. But lately, people around me, who do not know I am lesbian, say derogatory things about students who are in the LGBT groups. How do combat such microaggressions against any underrepresented student in my classroom?
3. My name is Michelle. Faculty in department learned quickly that I am not afraid to voice my views. However, my chair recommended that I take a conflict resolution course as a result. Overjoyed, my colleagues say, “Someone finally put a muzzle on her.” Professor WTF.

Guest Navigationalists include:Dr. Alex Iantaffi is the author of "Gender Trauma: healing cultural, social, and historical gendered trauma" and co-author of "How To Understand Your Gender", "Life Isn't Binary", and "Hell Yeah Self-Care! A trauma informed workbook". They are also a scholar who has researched and published extensively on gender, disability, sexuality, and relationship issues. 

Alex  works as a family therapist, sex therapist, and supervisor at their own clinical group practice, Edges Wellness Center LLC, on Dakota and Anishinaabe territories, currently known as Minneapolis, MN (US). They are passionate about healing justice and writing as a form of personal and collective healing. Alex also hosts the podcast Gender Stories. You can find out more about them at www.alexiantaffi.com or follow them on Twitter and Instagram @xtaffi and @genderstories.Michael Benitez, Ph.D., is a nationally-acclaimed activist-scholar, practitioner, and educator, with extensive experience with diversity issues in higher education. He is known for his down-to-earth, insightful commentary and critical perspectives on social and cultural issues including social justice education, diversity leadership, intersectionality and identity development, race and ethnic relations, knowledge representation and production, student success, and critical pedagogy and praxis.Dr. Benitez is co-editor of the anthology, Crash Course: Reflections on the Film “Crash” for Critical  Dialogues About Race, Power and Privilege (2007), and has contributed to Being Latino On-Line Magazine, the American Mosaic Online Database, Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice (2010), and Rebel Music: Resistance through Hip Hop and Punk (2015). His most recent work on supporting faculty of color can be found in AACU’s Liberal Education (2017) , and his work on creating campus community participatory frameworks for difficult conversations and institutional action, in New Directions in Institutional Research (2017). Benitez has been featured in educational documentaries, such as "Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity" (2012), and hasappeared on talk shows such as Worlds Apart and Hard Knock Radio.