Abstracts (by session)

Day 1

Panel 1

  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion OR Anti-racism?: Reflections on Tensions, Flows and Synergies. As the inaugural Vice-Provost in Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Excellence and whose primary work is in anti-racism, I am seeing a tension between these two concepts, not to say fields. I would like to take this opportunity to pose a question to myself: is there a tension between EDI and anti-racism? Second, once I have an answer, I will reflect on what that tension is and why it exists. | am working with a hypothesis that there is tension, which stems from -- again -- sidelining the question of race.

  • Towards a more Socially-Just University: Empowering and Enabling Equitable Teaching Practices. The role of universities as sites of emancipation has come into question. Universities have traditionally been seen as being elitist and out of touch with the daily experiences of the average people and been sites of exclusion and injustice towards racialized and Indigenous people. Social movements like Idle No More, #FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall and Black Lives Matter have, in part, sought to challenge exclusionary practices of universities, shining a light on how particular knowledges and teaching practices can reinforce structural barriers. This presentation will offer a cross institutional and cultural reflection on how different universities and higher education sectors have sought to address exclusionary practices and make the institutional environment more inclusive. Particular attention will be paid to teaching and learning practices and the possibilities that exist within these spaces.

  • Black Canadians are under-represented in most professional fields, and in STEM, this presents substantial challenges to change. A dearth of Black exemplars, mentors, and leaders affects pathways into STEM fields, the success of those already in those fields (decoding unwritten rules, supporting success) and the development of efficacious programs and policies to reverse institutionalized anti-Blackness (‘nothing about us without us’). So how do we effect change when visibility and representation are so important, but there are so few who have ‘made it’? How do we maximize the impact of those who are established in their fields, when many are working in environments rife with bias and racism, and anti-racism work is not compensated or rewarded? How do we ensure that successful policies and programs are available across the country, when progress is often made in institutional or regional silos? We discuss our approach of organizing across regions and disciplines to create a high-visibility coalition of Black Canadians in STEM. This national organization can drive national adoption of innovative programming more effectively than any regional or single-discipline entity. This is an effective, if virtual, solution to the ‘lonely only’ problem. We discuss engagement in responsible data collection, program vetting, mentorship, outreach and increased visibility. We also discuss barriers to success, including a dearth of operational funding and the time pressures inherent in creating and stabilizing such a structure.

Panel 2

  • Through a personal narrative, I share stories of my failure and unlearning related to my own efforts to disrupt the impact of my Whiteness on my teaching and research. For decades now I have tried to engage in anti-racist and decolonializing work within my classroom, my institution, and my discipline. I’ve sought to be an ally to my BIPOC colleagues and students. And yet, it’s the moments of failure that seem to stand out – the things I didn’t see and feel I should have seen - those moments when it’s clear that my Whiteness undermines my allyship in both my scholarship and my teaching. But in the failure, comes some unlearning of deeply colonial practices and an ongoing interrogation of the way my Whiteness shapes how I teach and the research I write. There are no quick fixes but there are possible moments of transformation.

  • Recently, several Canadian university administrations have issued statements condeming anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. It is in this context that I offer an autobiographical argument for the establishment of and support for Black Studies at Canadian institutions of higher education. I point to politics of difference within Blackness, approaches to conceptualizing Black Studies and to the need for and characteristics of a critical Black Canadian Studies. Ally politics I stress is important not only in addressing anti-Black racism but in working for equity for all IBPOC in society. My conclusion is that the robust presence of Blackness (people, bodies of knowledge, ways of knowing, culture/s) in Canadian academia, including critical Black Canadian Studies, is the more comprehensive goal in and of itself which will in turn contribute to addressing anti-Black racism and the evolution of what is being called inclusive excellence at Canadian institutions of higher learning.

  • .The decolonization agenda that has found itself in the realm of higher education is often intertwined with ideas of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). In line with this agenda, there have been several approaches to understanding coloniality in higher education, such as the lack of diversity in syllabi (Andrews, 2020; Evans, 2021; Fuentes, 2021; Mitchell, 2018). While addressing these elements in higher education is a significant part of a decolonial agenda, there is a need to go beyond the syllabi to examine the deeper issue of how this marginalization of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) scholars in academia occurs in the first place, by looking at how coloniality occurs in knowledge production and dissemination.

    The purpose of this research is to go beyond the syllabus and look at knowledge production itself, to further understand how the production of scientific knowledge is situated within cultural and political contexts (Stephen and Lewis, 2017) and to explore how the process of its production can also lend itself to the perpetuation of colonial power dynamics, such as the exclusion of BIPOC scientists from contributing and disseminating knowledge across the sciences in Canada. This project conducts in-depth, semi-structured interviews with BIPOC social and natural scientists from the political science, neuroscience and geoscience disciplines. Several concepts are considered in the analysis of the interview data, including the ‘Western gaze’ and ‘knowledge hegemonies’, in order to examine the colonial power dynamics that are embedded in the processes of knowledge production and dissemination. This presentation will share the preliminary findings of the interview data analysis, which will highlight the everyday experiences of BIPOC scientists in the Canadian academy, specifically the power dynamics within which they strive to contribute and disseminate knowledge, and how these dynamics can underwrite their marginalization in and exclusion from these processes.

Panel 3

  • What do you mean your job never stops? Talking about Translation Exhaustion Indigenous Experiences Colonization imported normative patriarchy while displacing Indigenous Peoples on their land both legally and socially. Most recently Pope Francis of the Catholic Church repudiated the 'Doctrine of Discovery,’ however; the ramifications of this change in position is yet to be determined. Medically proven, racial stress impacts health outcomes, and there is known burdens of extra work for racialized people engaged in equity work. Indigenous Peoples face translation exhaustion as an extra facet because why Indigenous Peoples have different rights and accommodations often requires an explanation of colonization and its' specific impacts on Indigenous communities. The following discussion explores some of the known labour burdens specific to Indigenous Peoples working in Indigenization with institutions.

  • The earth’s ecosystems are declining to a new contemporary baseline wherein the loss of biodiversity is a daily silent reality, yet we as Indigenous Peoples are fighting to uphold our diversity- our identity. An ecolological approach to uplifting our identity as we strive as First Nations, Metis and Inuit Peoples for self-determinantion and to be the counterpoint to oppression is presented. Blackstock will share her research on the role of structural empowerment in nursing practice environments to curtail the effects of incivlity and racialized incivility experiences.

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  • In 2015, after documenting testimonies from Indigenous survivors of the residential school system in Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released 94 Calls to Action to enable reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Without personal connections to Indigenous communities, many Canadians fail to grasp the depth of intergenerational impacts of residential schools and associated systemic racism. Consequently, reconciliation remains an elusive concept. Here we outline 10 Calls to Action to natural scientists to enable reconciliation in their work. We focus on natural scientists because a common connection to the land should tie the social license of natural scientists more closely to Indigenous communities than currently exists. We also focus on natural sciences because of the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in this field. We draw on existing guidelines and our experiences in northern Canada. Our 10 Calls to Action are triggered by frustration.

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Day 2

Panel 1

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  • Racialized and Women Faculty: Disparities in Tenure and Promotion Outcome- While racialized faculty exceed non-racialized faculty in attaining research grants and publishing journal articles, they are less likely to achieve tenure or promotion at the same rate as non-racialized faculty. In terms of gender, female faculty publish less articles, books, book chapters and edited books in comparison to male faculty. Female faculty were also less likely to receive tenure and promotion.

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Panel 2

  • 1. Brief Introduction of Epistemic Violence - First theorized by Spivak (1994), epistemic violence names the phenomenon whereby one epistemology or knowledge dominates and thus quiets another. Through epistemic violence, dominant knowledge decenters knowledge held by marginalized groups, those with less access to social power, reflecting power imbalances and reinforcing and normalizing Eurocentric and patriarchal ways of knowing (Fricker, 2007).

    2. Why is epistemic violence the silent promoter of racism and whiteness? The violence is political as well as epistemic. Ideas regarding whose knowledge counts are socially constructed: They reflect and reinforce power imbalances.

    3. Practices of silencing include testimonial quieting and testimonial smothering – Epistemic violence does result in direct, physical consequences such as racism, violence, surveillance, and intervention.

    4. Examples of Epistemic Violence a. Canadian school boards where Black History is not promoted or taught,

    b. Canadian Psychological Association when there has been no collection of race based data to know who is represented in psychology and how best to meet the needs of racially diverse Canadians.

    c. The gatekeepers of University Psychology programs are mostly White and there is a lack of Black and Indigenous faculty staff in the educational department. 5. What can you do to promote equity in knowledge? Group discussion.

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  • The idea of #RepresentationMatters is not merely a social media trend because it underscores the need to ensure that practices that contribute to the exclusion of people are eradicated. This is the core rationale for the pilot project that informs this paper, which sought to explore the nature and scope of disciplinary or pedagogical diversity in three social science disciplines by examining the contents of course syllabi. In doing so, we retrieved and analysed a total of 220 undergraduate and graduate syllabi from leading universities in five regions of the world (i.e. Africa, Asia-Pacific and Oceania, Europe, North America, South/Latin America). The three disciplines of interest to this paper are political science (mainly international political economy and international relations), development studies, and sociology. We focused on three main categories of diversity, including gender, geography/institutional affiliation, and ethnicity or race. The evidence indicates a white man’s social science with a few key women figures across all three disciplines examined. Majority of the widely cited scholars across all syllabi are also affiliated with academic institutions in North America and Europe, pointing to the persistent dominance of Anglo-American authors as ‘key thinkers’ or even ‘founding fathers’. Overall, this paper contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions around academic dependency, epistemic imperialism, hermeneutical injustice, and epistemicide by showing that the exclusion of alternative perspectives and voices in what we teach about our disciplines is a deeply endemic issue that requires committed efforts/action by course instructors and other higher education stakeholders to address.

  • "Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) have become a hallmark of Canadian academic institutions “doing the work” of multiculturalism. However, this work often seeks to maintain the status quo, produces a culture of silence, and, in effect, attempts to gesture to more diversity than actually exists.

    This presentation will focus on the history and prevailing practices within academic medicine and health sciences that stem from colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, which clearly gesture that Black people – especially Black queer and trans individuals – are not welcome. This includes discussion of the prevailing schools of thought of the 1800s (i.e. monogyny and polygeny) that constructed “the races” to benefit white people; how policies and practices have systematically excluded Black communities from education; and how EDI re-routes conversations to address anti-Black racism to commitments to the tolerance of neoliberal narratives of multiculturalism. As a solution, I offer inter- and transdisciplinary scholarship in Black feminist disability studies to reframe academic medicine and health sciences and disrupt notions of scientific objectivity."