Equity Matters

Apr 29

Welcoming 'visible minorities': Paradoxes of equity hiring in Canadian universities

Carl E. James, York University
Guest Contributor

If we were to scan the academic job ads of Canadian universities today, we would notice the following:  After the description of the job, the required qualifications, and the application’s deadline, at the end there is usually a short statement that goes something like this:

“University X is strongly committed to employment equity within its community and supports diversity in its teaching, learning and work environments. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates, including women, Aboriginal people, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities, and members of...

Read more »

Apr 18

The arts, community service learning and social justice

Sara Dorow, University of Alberta
Guest Contributor

“You know, [in class] you learn a lot of definitions, you learn about a perspective, you read a lot of texts . . . [CSL] was a great way to see what IS ethnocentrism, what IS social inequality. You only kind of know what it is until you are working with people and then it comes to light . . . [CSL] is just a different kind of learning,” was how one student put the link between Community Service Learning and social justice in...

Read more »

Apr 8

Maternal health and Canada's global gender equality ranking

Kathleen A. Lahey, Queen’s University
Guest Contributor

This blog post is part of the Federation Equity Issues Portfolio’s series marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

In 2010, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) adopted a new gender equality measure that dropped Canada from number 8 on sex equality issues to number 16. The new Gender Inequality Index (GII) places more emphasis on how well resources, opportunities, and incomes are shared by women and men in each country, and less emphasis on Canada’s wealth.

Upon receiving the World Health Organisation’s (...

Read more »

Apr 7

On tolerance, the ethos of intolerance, and intellectual courage

Frank Furedi, Kent University-Canterbury
Guest Contributor

This blog entry is part of the Equity Issues Portfolio’s series on ‘interculturalism and pluralism’.

What do John Beddington, Britain’s chief scientific adviser, and Ryszard Legutko, leader of Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party, have in common? Both believe that intolerance is a virtue, and that it should be celebrated.

Legutko, a vociferous critic of the gay rights movement, has written a book called Why I Am Not Tolerant...

Read more »

Apr 5

Locating my Indian self in the academy's tenure process

Shanne McCaffrey, University of Victoria
Guest Contributor

This blog post is part of the Federation Equity Issues Portfolio’s ‘Transforming the Academy: Indigenous Education’ series, which will be the focus of the Portfolio’s programming at Congress 2011.

When I began to prepare my portfolio for the tenure process, little did I realize how incredibly difficult this was going to be, from a location that is, for many Indigenous scholars, devoid of spirit, identity, culture and Indigenous traditions. When I prepared my portfolio I inserted many pieces, gifts that...

Read more »

Mar 30

Social power, inequality and the 'tone of voice' argument

Gloria Filax, Athabasca University
Guest Contributor

One of my first realizations that in some situations what I had to say was less important than how I was perceived to have said it occurred in grade two. I had asked my teacher to let us practice our numbers at our desk instead of at the board because, I offered, we could practice without being watched by our friends.  She gave me a withering look and said, “I don’t like your tone of voice, young lady.”

I knew not to say, “But what does my tone of voice have to do with wanting to practice at my desk instead in front of my friends?”

As a young adult when I...

Read more »

Mar 26

'Inclusive excellence': new approaches on equity and diversity in a plural society

Good afternoon from the Annual Conference of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. We’ll have live commentary here on our blog, as well as an audio feed of the day available online here.

Read more »

Mar 25

Multiculturalism, citizenship and human freedom

Cecil Foster, University of Guelph
Guest Contributor

This blog entry is part of the Equity Issues Portfolio’s series on ‘interculturalism, multiculturalism and pluralism’.

Multiculturalism is the modern name for an ideal that people can live freely in raceless societies. It is for this reason the ‘death of multiculturalism’ as proclaimed in some European circles might be much exaggerated. If multiculturalism were to die what would be its replacement, how can different ethnicities be integrated fully into societies without forcing those who are very...

Read more »

Pages