He stuck his neck out: CHASS honors civil rights pilgrimage leader
Jason Gilmore seems like your classic global communication professor. He has salt-and-pepper hair and a beard to match. But he is much more than that: He is dedicated to building a revolution of inclusion at Utah State University.
Gilmore said it is extremely important to be in an environment like Utah State University, to create an inclusive space where people can feel like they can be their whole selves.
“The complexity of intersectionality is really important,” he said. “Those complexities that make humans are so fascinating. What if we created a culture of inclusion where we said we want people to come here and we want people to come here and express their complexity?”
Gilmore, an assistant professor of communication studies, was awarded The College of Humanities and Social Sciences 2016 Giraffe Award on April 7. He was given the award, not because he is tall nor does he have an extremely long neck, but because he goes above and beyond the call of duty of being a professor, said Jarlin Juan De Leon, one of Gilmore’s apprentices and a junior studying global communication.
“I deeply, from the bottom of my heart, think he deserves the award,” DeLeon said.
Gilmore was given the award for his dedication to an annual Civil Rights Pilgrimage. He and two students each year and travel with an intercollegiate group to prevalent locations in the South. The participants are from from a conglomerate of backgrounds, which is the point of the pilgrimage: To interact with and learn from a dark part of U.S. history. The trip was anything but a tour of the South, Gilmore said.
“We go into those difficult spaces with diverse groups of people so that we learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives,” he said. “That’s the best part of the experience. The group doesn’t just learn history, they have active conversations about issues of difference throughout the experience.”
Part of Gilmore’s philosophy on life is to view each and every life situation from a perspective of grace and wonder. He tries to teach that on his Civil Rights pilgrimage. Instead of treating hateful rhetoric with hate, he challenged his students to turn to negativity with wonder. It’s a concept that creates within students a desire to understand what makes particular individuals act in hateful ways, he said.
“Turning to wonder takes more work,” he said.
Gilmore said the second element of his philosophy is to extend grace to everyone around them. People often forget to extend forgiveness, he said. Instead of extending judgement to people, he said he wants to extend grace to those individuals.
“How can I hold someone accountable for just trying to get by in life?” he asked. “That extension of grace forgives people instead of focusing on what we could have done.”
De Leon and Lauren Mata, two of the students who traveled to the South with Gilmore, said they grew a lot while they were on the pilgrimage, in particular because Gilmore constantly challenged them. He set a personal goal with each of them at the beginning of the journey. Mata said her goal was to be more comfortable with public speaking. Last week, she faced that fear and gave a speech in the TSC auditorium in front of 350 people.
“I thought might throw up and run off the stage and cry and I am going to make a disaster out of things,” she said. “When you have someone like Jason, they help you change the narrative of that.”
Because of Gilmore’s guidance and support, Mata said, she was able to conquer that fear.
“It was empowering instead of terrifying,” she said.“He encouraged me to rise to this level.”
De Leon said Gilmore pushed him to overcome his fears and push his limits.
“I got to a point where I could not go any further,” he said. “This was my limit. But once I got there, that is where Jason knows where to do his work.”
Gilmore’s teaching philosophy is to push students to new levels.
“We would hope that we do that in the classroom setting, but that gives us more one-on-one with the students,” he said. “What it is that they develop them as individuals and challenge themselves to to express themselves in certain ways and to engage in certain ways.”
Mata said Gilmore is the most inspiring mentor she’s ever had.
“Gilmore is one of those professors that you hope you are lucky enough to get at some point in your education,” she said.
—morgan.pratt.robinson@gmail.com