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Edited and Designed by Isabell Gioia and Jesse Hatch

Edited and Designed by Isabell Gioia and Jesse Hatch · for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, OISE/UT, in collaboration with Equity Studies. The pre-conference began with performances

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Page 1: Edited and Designed by Isabell Gioia and Jesse Hatch · for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, OISE/UT, in collaboration with Equity Studies. The pre-conference began with performances

Edited and Designed by Isabell Gioia and Jesse Hatch

Page 2: Edited and Designed by Isabell Gioia and Jesse Hatch · for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, OISE/UT, in collaboration with Equity Studies. The pre-conference began with performances

ESSU WELCOMES YOU!

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The Equity Studies Student Union (ESSU) is a student-run organization at the University of Toronto meant to represent students in the Equity Studies Program. We create events and provide academic help for students within the program as well as for those who are interested in equity-related activities. Through our events such as “Linked Oppression”, we strive to apply social justice theories into our everyday lives by creating spaces where students can learn from new perspectives and knowledge. ESSU works with the Equity Studies program, the University of Toronto, equity-oriented groups on campus, and organizations outside of the university to create events that will teach and further enrich the lives of students. ESSU seeks to dismantle and deconstruct sexist, racist, transphobic, homophobic, and ableist ideologies and practices that are a part of our everyday lives. Furthermore, we aim to create a more inclusive and safer space, not only for students within the university, but also for the community-at-large.This year ESSU seeks to work with grassroots organizations and movements outside of the University of Toronto, in order to challenge the colonial institutions we are living and working within, as well as to create spaces where solidarity and resistance is possible. We are also excited to bring back our annual “Decolonizing our Minds” conference, a space where students, professors, and members of communities outside of the university can be critical of various institutions and deconstruct oppressive, dominant narratives. Between September and April, ESSU will be holding weekly meetings and office hours at the New College Student Centre, in office 500-A. Please feel free to drop by anytime if you have questions or ideas for the upcoming school year!Email: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/uoftessu

Table of Contents2 Knots2 Trials of Muhammed Ali 3 Learning to Mother Ourselves4 Undergraduate Pre-conference 5 The Power of Memoir 5 Weaving a Tapestry of Hope6 Itʼs All in the Family6 Marking Space 7 Zines, Bookmaking & Found Poetry

7 Sieciechowicz Memorial Lecture8 Letʼs Talk Disability 9 Pow Wow & Indigenous Festival 9 We Are the Land11 NEW469 Research Symposium11 Senior Doctoral Fellow Speaker Series13 Seminar Intervention Series

14 Youth, Activism, Community15 Doyali Islam: CBC 16 Student Experiental Program17 Christopher Smith17 David Clandfield Scholarship18 Mary Jean Hande18 Janet Lambert Book Prize18 Final Notes

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On October 6th, the Multifaith Centre presented a screening of the documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali. The documentary explores the extraordinary life of the legendary athlete outside of the boxing ring – his conversion to Islam, his subsequent refusal to participate in the Vietnam War, his protest against global racism and US imperialism, and the social and political consequences of his decisions. The film address subjects such as Black liberation, Islam, conscientious objection, imperialism, colonialism and spiritual transformation. This event was co-sponsored by Media Commons and the Equity Studies program.

“TRIALS OF MUHAMMED ALI”: FILM SCREENING

knots is a peer-reviewed journal that highlights high-calibre work by under gradu-ate students and undergraduate alumni with aims to move beyond normative biomedical conceptions of disability and contribute to the development and growth of Disability Studies as a field. It is edited and compiled by a team of senior students and faculty advisors in the Disability Studies stream of the Equity Studies program. On September 29th, contributors for the second issue presented their various works, which included a wide range of themes including; eugenics, sexuality, disability history, disability right, representations, interpretations of disability in everyday life arts, athletics, and performance.

knots Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies: Volume 2

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LEARNING TO MOTHER OURSELVES

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Hawa Y. Mire

Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Dr. Karyn Recollect

Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer Black feminists of the 1970s and ʼ80s, Learning to Mother Ourselves was an interactivestorytelling session focusing on “moth-ering” ourselves and communities. The event, held on October 26th, explored the various ways we can foster and develop this revolutionary, radical, and decolonial love.

The panellists for this event included Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist; Hawa Y. Mire, a Somali Diasporic Storyteller, Writer, and Strategist; and Dr. Karyn Recollet, Assistant Professor at the Women and Gender Studies Insti-tute at UofT. The panellists encouraged questions and participation from the audience as well as interactions between audience members.

The event closed with a group poem inspired by Eve Tuck in which audience members each listed how we can create change for the future through love, hope, and social justice. This event was co-sponsored by the Equity Studies program.

Learning To Mother Ourselves

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Professor George J. Sefa Dei

On November 2nd, the “Decolonizing Conference” Undergraduate Research Symposium Pre-Conference provided a space forundergraduate students, recent graduates, and artists to showcase their work and ideas in critical equity, anti-racism, and decolonizing practice. This symposium was a pre-conference event to Race, Anti-Racism and Indigeneity: Anti-Colonial Resurgence Decolonial Resistance, a conference hosted by the Centrefor Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, OISE/UT, in collaboration with Equity Studies.

The pre-conference began with performances by ProjectFREEDOM featuring Jo’el Douglas, Alvaro Muanza, and Gene One. This youth-led, arts- based organization engages youth in critical learning and self-expression for the purpose of building social and political consciousness and agency.

Keynote speaker Professor George J. Sefa Dei (Department of Social Justice Education, OISE) gave an engaging lecture on the importance of decolonizationin social justice work and social change, stressing theimportance of theory in action. Students presented their own work in five panels, which focused on subjects such as activism, identity, Indigenous resurgence and state violence. The eventconcluded with dynamic and moving performances by poets Adjoa Osei-Yeboah, Laura Kooji, Nana Frimpong, and Nasib Abokar.

“Decolonizing Conference” UndergraduateResearch Symposium Pre-Conference

Gene One and Alvaro Muanza

Dr. George J. Sefa Dei

Nasib Abokar

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As a part of Holocaust Education Week, the Azrieli Foundation presented The Power of Memoir and Storytelling.

This event, held November 3rd, explored two distinct narratives thatsimilarly examined loss and the use of memoir in the

journey towards healing. Former Chief and residential school survivor Theodore Fontaine of the Sagkeeng Ojibway First Nation, and Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger spoke about how they came to write and publish their personal memoirs. The speakers emphasized that storytelling is used to remember these stories in order to ensure history does not repeat itself. While the trauma experienced by Indigenous and Jewish communities, respectively, are very different, the two speakers shared the commonality of their experiences and the healing power of story-telling.

Following their conversation, the two authors met with audience members for a book signing. The event was co-presented by Facing History and Ourselves, Veʼahavta, and the Equity Studies program.

The Power of Memoir and Storytelling: How Do We Teach Each Other About the Pain of the Past?

As part of the 36th annual Holocaust Education Week, ALPHA Education addressed the theme “The Future of Memory” during their November 8th presentation Weaving a Tapestry of Hope. Featuring video interviews by Toronto youth with survivors of war, readings from Tamakiʼs Memories of Nanking, a research presentation on Unit 731, and an introduction to Comfort, a play in honour of comfort women, this event explored how the untold stories of WWII can be put at the forefront of historical consciousness and conversation. This event was co-sponsored by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the Equity Studies program.

Weaving a Tapestry of Hope: Unheard Voices from the Asia-Pacific War

Nate Leipciger

Theodore Fontaine

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Marking Space: Art Based Responses to Madness and Historical Trauma

Dr. Katie Aubrecht

IT’S ALL IN THE FAMILY: DISABILITY STUDIES SPEAKER SERIES

On November 17th, the Equity Studies program and Students for Barrier-Free Access presented It’s All in the Family: University Responses to Intra/Intergenerational Trauma and Resilience with guest speaker Dr. Katie Aubrecht, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University. Dr. Aubrecht also works as Research Coordinator at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging and teaches in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology. In her talk, Dr. Aubrecht shared her findings and analysis of how universities care for students who experience intra/intergenerational trauma. She examined national and international university programs and practices related to this form of trauma to understand how the Western cultural mythology of ‘normal family biographyʼ organizes race, gender, and disability-based oppressions. The presentation closed with a reflection on the need for a Disability Studies scholarship approach that engages with multiple interpretations of the family.

Stories of madness and mental illness have been historically sanitized, appropriated, hidden, and suppressed. On November 18th, in the creative workshop Marking Space, facilitator Anne Zbitnew collaborated with the ESSU to carve a space with students where these silenced stories of trauma and madness could be remembered through art. Zbitnew is an arts-based researcher who looks to art as a way to tell stories. She is the creator of the highly celebrated exhibition Visualizing Absence:Memorializing the Histories of the Former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.

Anne Zbitnew

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Sieciechowicz Memorial Lecture: Dian Million

benjamin lee hicks

Dian Million

On November 25th, the Equity Studies Student Union presented the Zines, Book Making, and Found Poetry workshop hosted by benjamin lee hicks, which explored book-making as a creative practice. In the workshop, hicks invited us to let go of the idea that a “book” is a pre-made, static object. Through bookmaking, hicks argues, we are able to disrupt the idea that knowledge is handed to us. Instead, we can explore various ways to express ourselves and our own knowledges and truths. During the workshop each participant had the opportunity to make individual decisions about content and form to begin creating their own hand-bound books or zines. From there, the focus was on participants telling their story the way they wanted it to be told. hicks is a practicing visual artist, elementary school teacher and graduate student at OISE, UT. They have been teaching art and creative practices in one form or another to both children and adults for more than eighteen years. hicks also writes and designs curriculum materials for elementary schools on topics of sustainable community building, queer and trans inclusion, and arts-based activism.

As part of the biannual Sieciechowicz Memorial Lecture in Anthropology, Professor Dian Million pre-sented the lecture “We are the Land and the Land is Us”: Indigenous Land, Lives and Embodied Ecologies in the 21st Century. Professor Million is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington whose research explores Native American gender, health, race and ethnicity. Her most recent book, Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights (Univer-sity of Arizona Press, Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies Series, 2013) tracks the genealogy of trauma theory within the context of Western neoliberalism and Indigenous self-determination.

Zines, Book Making, and Found Poetry

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Million’s most recent publication, “Therapeutic Nations”

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On February 15th, the Department of Social Justice Education and the Equity Studies Program pre-sented an informal evening seminar with disability studies scholar, Alison Kafer. Kafer is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Feminist Studies at Southwestern University. She is the author of Feminist, Queer, Crip (Indiana University Press, 2013). Juxtaposing theories, movements, and identities such as environmental justice, reproductive justice, cyborg theory, transgender politics, and disability, Professor Kaferʼs research and writings work to envision new possibilities for crip futures and feminist/queer/crip alliances.

Let’s Talk Disability with Alison Kafer

Alison Kafer

During this lecture, presented on February 9th, Million discussed the ways Canada and the United States have portrayed their own economic and social growth in an upward linear trajectory; This portrayal relies, primarily, upon the forced spatial segregation of Indigenous communities in order to frame modernity as urbanization. Neocolonial narratives portray rural communities as “wild and pristine” environments, contrasted against available opportunity in the bustlingcenters of urban capitalism. This is far from the reality of todayʼs Indigenous peoples, who the U.S. and Canada tout as 70% urbanized. Building on Krystyna Sieciechowiczʼs elemental work on kinship and land stewardship in the north, Million focused on the contemporary moment where American Indian, Alaska Native, and Canadian Indigenous peoples recognize complex relations rather than stark separation in this figure.

Million demonstrated how enduring relations with place and land, along with mobile kinships provide a continuing resistance to settler colonialism. This event was co-sponsored by the Equity Studies program.

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Dr. Stan Doyle-Wood (center right) dances with community Elders

TEITHINONHWERÁ:TON NE RONTEWEIÉNSTHA’Pow Wow & Indigenous Festival

During the UofT Honouring Our Students Pow Wow and Indigenous Festival, Equity Studies faculty member Dr. Stan Doyle-Wood received an Eagle Feather as part of a public ceremony honouring his anti-colonial work and pedagogy and his ongoing involvement and support of Indigenous communities. The Pow Wow and Festival, held on March 11th, and organized by the Indigenous Studies Student Union, was the first to be held at UofT in several decades. The event celebrated Indigenous culture, academic journeys, and community. The full day event featured dancing by several groups, drum circles, Elder talks, and singing. After receiving the highest of all Indigenous honours during this meaningful day, Dr. Doyle-Wood was invited to dance with elders and students.

We Are The Land: Jaime Black Artist Residency

We Are The Land Toronto, in collaboration with the Women and Gender Studies Institute and co-sponsored by the Equity Studies Program, presented a series of events to celebrate the March 16-22 artist residency of Jaime Black. Black is an emerging, Métis multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg. She studied English Literature at the University of Manitoba and has an Education degree from OISE/UT. In her work, Black attempts to create a dialogue around social and political events and issues, through provocation or creating space for reflection. She is particularly interested in feminism and Aboriginal social justice, and the possibilities for articulating linkages between and around these movements. (Contʼd p.10)

Artist Jaime Black

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Lorem ipsumTEITHINONHWERÁ:TON NE RONTEWEIÉNSTHAʼPow Wow & Indigenous Festival TEITHINONHWERÁ:TON NE RONTEWEIÉNSTHAʼPow Wow & Indigenous Festival

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Jaime Black gives an artist talk, March 20

Red dresses hang from trees near Whitney Hall

Her current work, The REDress Project was installed across the UofT campus for the duration of her artist residency. The REDress Project is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to the crisis of missing and murdered Aboriginal women across Canada.

Through the installation, Black hopes to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimesagainst Aboriginal women and to evoke presencing through the mark of absence.

More information about The REDress Project, ongoing exhibitions and donations can be found at www.theredressproject.org

The project seeks to collect 600 red dresses by community donation that will later be installed in public spaces throughout Winnipeg and across Canada as a visual reminder of the stag-gering number of women who are no longer with us.

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11Mary Jean Hande

NEW 469Y: Senior Research Project Public Symposium

On March 28, students from the senior Equity Studies course NEW469Y presented the research they had conducted as part of their participation in a year long research course. The students presented on a variety of topics to demonstrate their works in progress. Questions and comments from the audience were encouraged in order to help students think of different ways to wrap up their research projects and their findings.

•Rhodri Wiseman –“The INTERpersonal Is Political too: Everyday Interactions as Sites for Activism and Social Change”

•Ese Makolomi – “Becoming Autonomous”

•Tshweu Moleme – “Fallists at Work: Todayʼs Youth Activism in South African Universities”

•Margaret Ebifegha – “Speaking Out: International Students at the University of Toronto”

•Arielle Vetro – “Cuts, Criminals and ‘Common Senseʼ: Exploring the Consequences of Social Assistance Policy Reform for Single Mothers in Ontario”

New College Senior Doctoral Fellows

Mary Jean Hande is a doctoral candidate in the Adult Education and Community Development program at OISE/UT. She is the recipient of three Ontario Graduate Scholarships and a Fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. Her research brings together theorizing in the areas of Social Movement learningf Disability, Labour, and Socialist Studies. Recently, she has turned her attention to the contradictions of disability identity and care labour in the context of gentrification and harm reduction work. In addition to her 2015 journal publication in Disability and Society, Mary-Jean has a forthcoming co-authored popular review Canadian Dimension, and two forthcoming book chapters. (Contʼd p. 12)

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This is Mary Jeanʼs third and final year working as a Teaching Assistant in Equity Studies and she is honoured to have the opportunity to make further academic and teaching contributions to this program as a New College Senior Doctoral Fellow. As part of the 2017 Senior Doctoral Fellows Speaker Series at New College, Senior Doctoral Fellow Mary Jean presented a lecture on her research, entitled “‘Radical Alternativesʼ and Revolutionary Futurity: Disability Care Praxis and Class Consciousness in Toronto.” on March 24. Mary Jean stays committed to community-based anti-poverty and anti-imperialist organizing. She leads workshops and guest lectures on topics related to disability justice, care work and organizing in the context of austerity and neoliberalismin. Congratulations Mary Jean!

Christopher Smith

Christopher Smith is a doctoral candidate in the Deptartmet of Social Justice Education – OISE/UT, and recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2015-16 and 2016-17). His current research interests are situated in the fields of Black Dias-pora studies, Social & Cultural Geography, Queer, Feminist, and decolonial theories, with an emphasis on black expressive cultures and politics. Christopher has contributed to FUSE magazine, the Encyclopedia of Ethnic American Literature, among other publications. He is the author of “How (not) to do Queer Studies in the classroom: Teaching to think beyond tolerance,” in Beyond the Queer Alphabet: Conversations on Gender, Sexuality & Intersectionality, ed. Malinda Smith, which was commissioned by the Canadian Federation of Social Sciences and Humanities in 2012. “Gettinʼ ‘Downʼ with the ‘Belowʼ: Visual AIDS 2016 and the Politics of ‘Archival Activismʼ” was recently published in DRAIN: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture. Forthcoming publications include a co-authored chapter on trans- inclusion in sports curriculum and practice with Dr. Heather Sykes (OISE/UofT) in Social Justice in Physical Education: Critical Reflections and Pedagogies for Change (Canadian Scholarʼs Press, 2016). For the 2017 Senior Doctoral Fellows Speaker Series at New College, Chris presented a lecture on the topic “Black Pride! Queer diasporas, dissident spatial emplacements and bodily reverberations” on March 29.

Congratulations Christopher!

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On March 31, CIARS and the Equity Studies program jointly presented the first Seminar Intervention Series. The goal of the series is to engage in critical conversations around equity, race, Indigeneity, and decolonization as they relate to education and community broadly defined. These conversations aim to problematize and challenge dominant political structures and ideologies that shape schools communities, as well as emphasize intervention strategies. This seminar discussed the impact that the Africentric school and Indigenous philosophies have had for Black and Indigenous education and the lessons regarding challenges, possibilities and future directions of counter-visions schooling.

Seminar Intervention Series: Africentric and Indigenous Schooling Philosophies

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On March 31, the Equity Studies program and the Adult Education and Community Development Program launched the inaugural Youth, Activism and Community (YAC) initiative. YAC takes an interdisciplinary approach to study youth experience and modes of learning, struggle, and resistance in diverse communities across local, diasporic, and transnational sites. The overall goal of YAC is to promote and support youth activism and the activist strategies young people use for social justice purposes. This will involve research projects, research symposia, event courses, student training, publications, and researchers outside of the UofT community. Through this initiative we can document and highlight many of the activist activities in which Equity Studies students are engaged. This event included four very exciting speakers (names) who prepared presentations on their work researching or working with youth, activism, and the community.

Youth, Activism and Community

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On April 16, former Equity Studies student and poet, Doyali Islam was featured on the CBC’s Sunday Edition with Michael Enright. Doyali has won several awards for her poetry in the past few years, including the Chalmers Arts Fellowship and CV2's Young Buck Poetry Prize. In 2016, she won Arc's Poem of the Year. Her work has also appeared in KROnline, Grain, and The Fiddlehead. Doyali joined Michael to discuss her childhood, the fostering of stillness in her youth and the role of poetry in political resistance. Her poem "cat and door", which is from her current poetry manuscript, "heft and sing", just won the League of Canadian Poets' Inaugural National Broadsheet Contest. In addition, five of her poems are nominated for National Magazine awards this year. Congratulations, Doyali!

Doyali Islam Featured on the CBC’s Sunday Edition

Doyali Islam

Doyali’s award winning poem “cat and door”

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From May 13- 21, students from Caribbean Studies, Aboriginal Studies, Human Biology, First Nations House, and Equity Studies participated in an experiential learning program with the Centre for Engaged Learning Abroad (CELA) in Belize.

Guided by Mayan scholar Dr. Filiberto Penados, students studied issues related to food sustainability, Indigeneity, and health. Through engagement with knowledge bearers, community members and activists from Indigenous groups, including the Garifuna, Yucatec Maya, and Q’eqchi’ Maya, they gained tremendous insight on the struggles and accomplishments of Indigenous communities in Belize. In group discussion sessions, students connected the program activities to their own lives and academic learning.

Upon returning to UofT, they will share their Belize experience with students and faculty in their programs. New College, the Deanʼs International Initiative Fund, the E. Anthony Fund for Community Engagement in Belize and the five participating programs funded the program.

Dr. Filiberto Penados

Students attend Maya Farm tour

UofT student and faculty participants

Student Experiental Learning Program: Belize

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This yearʼs prizewinner is Aysha Natsheh. Aysha is an academic and interdisciplinary artist who graduated from the University of Toronto with High Distinction in Women & Gender Studies and Equity Studies. The Janet Lambert Book Prize is named in honour of a long serving member of the New College administrative staff and is awarded to a graduating student, who has excelled, and made a contribution to the Equity Studies Program. Aysha is co-editor and cover artist of the Knots Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies where her writing is also featured. Aysha was also the Disability Studies Research Assistant from 2015 to 2017 where she organized and participated in panels, events, and workshops, including the Disability Studies Speaker Series at the University of Toronto.

Congratulations Aysha!

Aysha Natsheh

The Janet Lambert Book Prize in Equity Studies

The winner of the inaugural David Clandfield Scholarship is Caleigh Inman. Caleigh has focused on disability studies and is interested in researching the intersections of disability justice and decolonization. The David Clanfield Scholarship is named in honour of the New College Principal (1996-2006) who established Equity Studies. The scholarship is awarded, based on academic achievement, to a student entering the fourth year of the Equity Studies major who also demonstrates the potential to contribute to social justice issues. Caleigh is a co-editor of Knots Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies, and in her free time she volunteers at Tangled Art + Disability.

Congratulations Caleigh!

Caleigh Inman

The David Clandfield Scholarship in Scholarly Activism

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In July 2016, Equity Studies students Sania Khan, Jessica Scifo and Cailyn Stewart participated in a four-week international research excursion course in Ghana organized by Professor George Dei. The course, NEW399Y: Social Justice, Equity and Inclusive Education in African Contexts, included classroom activities and field trips designed to address the question of Indigeneity from cross national and international borders. Students had the opportunity to learn first-hand the local cultural resource base of Ghanaians as revealed by traditional Elders and cultural custodians who use proverbs, stories, folktales and cultural songs and songs. They also studied folkloric productions and cultural artifacts attesting to African Indigenous Knowledges. Through the course students gained a grounding in Indigenous knowledge rooted in African epistemes and philosophies. This knowledge provides the basis for the conceptualization and operationalization of new visions of schooling and education. Many thanks to Professor Dei for providing such a wonderful learning experience for Equity Studies students.

International Research Excursion: Ghana

Equity Studies is an undergraduate program that focuses on social justice theory and practice in a variety of local and global contexts. The program cuts across a spectrum of academic disciplines by uniquely combining classroom based learning with community and activist work. Equity Studies strives to provide students with tools they can use to build equitable social change within and beyond the University walls. The program offers courses focused on disability, social advocacy and global food equity, in addition to requiring completion of equity related courses across the university in the subjects of race, creed, ethnicity, sexual diversities, and gender. With a vibrant student body, diverse range of community partners, and a strong curriculum, Equity Studies at New College is a leading center for social justice education in Canada.

Professor June Larkin, Director, Equity Studies ProgramNew College, 40 Willcocks Street Toronto, ON M5S 1C6 CanadaEmail: [email protected]: 416.978.8282http://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/

Closing Notes: Equity Studies

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