Dean's Message - June 14, 2021

Dear GSBS Community,

June is LGBTQ+ Pride month, and I invite you all to join our LGBTQ+ community in celebration. Pride commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point in the ongoing fight for equality by the LGBTQ+ community. We are in a new time of reckoning and it is vital to honor those from earlier generations who had the courage to stand up for their rights and the rights of their communities. As Tufts and GSBS work toward becoming an antiracist institution, we should keep in mind that any discrimination against those who are different than the majority is unacceptable.

This week will also see Tufts celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday marking the last day of slavery in the United States. Classes and work will be cancelled on Friday, June 18th. Instead, Tufts will offer a Juneteenth conference, featuring a keynote by Dr. David Harris, Managing Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. The event will also include school-specific panels, one of which, “Oppression Then & Oppression Now – The Impact of Racism on Research, Public Health and Medical Practice,” is organized by the GSBS, in partnership with the School of Medicine.

Dan Jay