Amid National Backlash on Ethnic Studies, School for Liberating Education Launches Certification Program
This virtual and land-based summer school invites learners into a liberatory educational space grounded in healing, resistance, and applied Ethnic Studies
Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, founder of Remagination Lab and School for Liberating Education
Unceded Eastern Pomo and Lake Miwok Territory / Lake County, CA - June 19, 2025 — As attacks on Critical Race Theory (CRT), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and ethnic studies intensify across the United States, the School for Liberating Education (SLE) announces the launch of its Applied Ethnic Studies Certification Program — an alternative curriculum for transformative learning rooted in care, healing, justice, and liberation — in July 2025. A course titled “Asian American Activism” will kick off the certification.
The School for Liberating Education (SLE) is an autonomous, social justice-centered educational platform established in 2021 under the Remagination Lab by Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez — a scholar, educator, and organizer who left higher education to make Ethnic Studies available to all. SLE offers rigorous, university-level courses in applied ethnic studies, while also creating space for decolonial, reindigenized knowledge shared by educators who have worked both inside and outside traditional education systems.
“We are not just offering courses—we are co-creating a liberatory vision for how we learn, heal, and build power together. This summer school is an invitation to invest in a different kind of educational future.”
Workshop at the Remagination Farm
Asian American Activism: A Foundation
Grounded in healing justice, mentorship, and land-based learning, the pedagogy at the School for Liberating Education (SLE) is intentionally designed to nurture deep care, intellectual rigor, and collective liberation. Launching virtually in early July 2025, with some in-person opportunities at the School’s sibling entity, Remagination Farm, SLE will kick off a four-course Certificate Program in Applied Ethnic Studies — designed especially for those working in nonprofit, community-based, and social justice spaces. The first course "Asian American Activism" begins this summer and provides an overview of Asian American activism historically and in the contemporary moment. This course is open to all with a high school degree or higher, regardless of whether they choose to pursue certification.
In addition to the history of Asian American movements, the certification program will cover student activism, internationalism, and economic justice.
Why Now?
At a time when public institutions are being pressured to silence conversations about white supremacy, settler colonialism, imperialism, and heteropatriarchy, the School for Liberating Education is building new, autonomous structures to protect and grow the very knowledge systems under attack.
Applied Ethnic Studies Certification Program Details
First Class Begins: July 17, 2025
Format: Virtual (with select land-based opportunities)
Length: 5-week summer session
Open to all who have completed high school
Rates
$125 per month for four months, after an initial deposit of $75
Discount rate: $500
Deadlines
Enroll by June 23, 2025 for discount rate
Final enrollment by June 30th, 2025
Final Enrollment Deadline: June 30, 2025
Certification by: Fall 2026
The School for Liberating Education is part of the Remagination Lab family of entities, which is committed to divesting from systems of exploitation and building transformative institutions rooted in justice, autonomy, and radical imagination. To learn more about specific coursework, scheduling, and to enroll, visit liberatingeducation.thinkific.com.
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The School for Liberating Education (SLE) is a virtual and autonomous educational space that was established in 2021 by Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, a long-time Ethnic Studies university professor and advocate, who left higher education to make Ethnic Studies available to all. SLE offers many of her courses which were once available only to those who could gain admission and/or pay tuition to the universities where she worked. SLE courses are for anyone who wants to take them. More than that, Dr. Rodriguez ensures that her Ethnic Studies courses stay true to the mission of the activists who fought for it; what she offers isn't knowledge for knowledge's sake but knowledge to advance justice and liberation.