1. Ian James Kidd ian.kidd@nottingham.ac.uk
School of Politics, University of Nottingham, 2/11/16 How we create “chilly climates” in our classrooms, and what to do about them
Ian James Kidd

2. ‘Chilly climates’
Any social group has a background ‘climate’, experienced by some as hospitable, by others as hostile.
“…a range of informal practices and implicit policies which, despite their relative subtlety and the fact that they may not be intended as harmful, do systematically disadvantage women relative to men”
Prof Alison Wylie
“…myriad unconscious diminishing behaviours…”
Jennifer Oullette

3. ‘Chilly climates’
Chilly climates result from many, small, subtle, unconscious, (usually) unintended behaviours, as well as starker incidents.
Hard to describe, explain, ‘put your finger on’.
Easy for others to ignore, dismiss, ‘pass off’.
Easy for people to suppose they are not guilty of acting in ‘chilling ways’

4. Microaggression
A small, subtle, individually incidental, but cumulatively destructive type of discriminative social behaviour.
Avoidant body language
Discussions
Interruption patterns
Domination
‘Corrections’
Questions
First- and second-order questions
‘Speaking for your race’
Waiting times for answers
Speech-content
Examples
Jokes

5. Changing climates Chilly climates pose special problems:
The capacity of academics belonging to privileged groups to detect a chilly climate is limited.
The Nice Bloke Trap, naively presupposing a warm climate, and resisting evidence to the contrary.
Credit: Prof Shannon Dea

6. The Nice Bloke Trap “Things seem fine here to me …”
“Other places might have these problems, but not us, not here…”
“I don’t think our climate is a chilly one for women…”
I’m not sexist or racist and I don’t discriminate against my students!”
“If we did have a ‘climate problem’, we’d know about it…”
“I’m a nice bloke, and so are my colleagues…”
“It’s suspicious that these students can’t ever be specific in these claims…”

7. Advice
The ideal is a hospitable climate for all, achieved by identifying and avoiding microaggressive, chilling behaviours.
Inform staff and students about chilly climates
Run a climate survey
Build chilly climate training into PG and teacher training

8. Useful sources
Bernice Sandler, ‘The Chilly Climate’,
Bernice Sandler, ‘Eight Ways to Warm up the Chilly Climate: Recommendations for Faculty Members’,
Bernice Sandler, ‘The Chilly Climate: Subtle Ways in which Women are Often Treated Differentily at Work and in Classrooms’,
‘Tool: Recognising Microaggressions and the Messages They Send’,
Heben Nigatu, ‘21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis’, Buzzfeed.com, microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.huXkkyGOEd#.etoyyG5bmA
Hatch Discussion Guides, ‘Microaggression Workshop’,

9. Videos “If Microaggressions Happened to White People”, MTV News
“What Kind of Asian Are You?”
But NOT this video or its comments thread:

10. Disciplinary blogs and websites
Philosophy blogs
Websites
– click on ‘Teaching’ for definitions, podcasts, video clips, resources
– click on ‘About’ and ‘Discussion’

11. Academic studies
Boysen, Guy (2012) ‘Teacher and student perceptions of microaggressions in college classrooms’, College Teaching 60.3:
Chilly Collective (ed.), Breaking Anonymity: The Chilly Climate for Women Faculty (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press) [the classic study]
Nadals, Kevin et al (2014) ‘The adverse impact of racial microaggressions on college students’ self-esteem’, Journal of College Student Development 55.5:
Sue, D.W. (2010) Microaggressions in Everyday life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation (New York: John Wiley)
Saul, Jennifer (2014) ‘Stop thinking so much about sexual harassment’, Journal of Applied Philosophy 31.3:
Williams, Lena (2000). It's the Little Things (New York: Harcourt).