Brandon Zau

Maria Hantzopoulos speaks as the morning keynote for Harker’s Social Justice Conference in the Zhang Gym on Nov. 10. Hantzopoulos spoke about her personal upbringings in Queens, New York and her experiences with students with New York City public schools to address how the community can support social justice.

275 students, faculty and staff from all Harker campuses attended Harker’s inaugural Social Justice Conference at the upper school from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 10. 

The conference featured a series of workshops on social justice, human rights and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) topics. Students and faculty from all campuses, as well as attendees from schools across the Bay Area, heard from six workshop speakers as well as the morning and afternoon keynotes. 

“My favorite thing that I saw today was a lot of laughter, a lot of smiles,” Director of DEI Brian Davis said. “Your own story, your own experiences [are] enough for you to have the power and influence to make change — not only here Harker, but beyond Harker as well.”

Vassar College professor and morning keynote speaker Maria Hantzopoulos asked everyone to take a moment to reflect on the core tenets of social justice in the Athletic Center. Hantzopoulos incorporated her personal experiences as a public school teacher and advocate for education in New York City to help define key terms like equity, equality and social justice. Throughout the keynote, Hantzopoulos encouraged discussion between attendees through question prompts that participants could write about or discuss.

“I really wanted to set the tone for the day as the keynote because the workshops will be meatier to look deeply into things,” Hantzopoulos said. “I wanted to look at what social justice is and how it might manifest in our lives.”

Following the keynote, attendees moved on to the first workshop session. Subjects ranged from institutional and systemic takes on social justice, like in Darius White’s “Pushin’ P: Power, Privilege, Positionality” and Hantzopoulos’s “Rooting our Futures in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights,” to interpersonal relationships in Melissa Canlas’s  “Revolutionary Love: Practices for social justice, collective care, wellness, and joy.” The workshops took place from 9:35 to 10:40 a.m. in the Nichols Auditorium, Dobbins Hall and Main classrooms.

In the second round of workshops, attendees continued learning and exploring through workshops, including the earlier series and others with a scientific angle, such as a “Genealogy Workshop” and “Towards an Understanding of the Earth’s Voice.” “Genealogy Workshop” co-host and Berkeley Gender and Women’s Studies Associate Professor Courtney Desiree Morris emphasized the importance of making present decisions to improve the future. 

“Remember that you are a subject of history,” Morris said. “You are a product of history, and you’re also shaping history. If you can remember that, then I hope it will make people more conscientious about the choices that they’re making right now and that they really take seriously their ability to shape the kind of future world that they want to see.”

A third round of workshops preceded University of San Francisco International and Multicultural Education Professor Monisha Bajaj’s afternoon keynote. Bajaj, who attended Harker Academy from 1985 to 1987, closed the conference with her presentation on human rights. She highlighted the concepts of accompaniment, amplification and action, encouraging attendees to consider the action that they could take in the face of inequality and injustice.

“It gave me some new perspectives that I never thought of and basically opened up the world of social justice,” Social Justice Conference attendee Amy Tong (9) said. “My main takeaway is that if you want to invest in social justice, you don’t have to do anything big. You can start from something small and still make an impact.”