Progress: Effecting social impact

Current areas of focus:

Social justice and decolonization 

  • Gender and Social Justice program (Philosophy) led Urgency of Social Justice event in Fall 2023, which was very successful with campus-wide engagement; note, the 2024 event was cancelled due to heighted concerns related to encampment
  • Longhouse Labs project led by Prof. Logan MacDonald (Fine Arts; CRC) is decolonizing and indigenizing fine arts education and leadership and has received close to $3M in funding from federal and provincial agencies as well as donors to support innovative infrastructure, LLabs Fellows, and HQP
  • Ongoing Indigenous Speakers Series collaboration between Arts, Indigenous Relations (and formerly WISC); three events in 2024-25
  • Published Indigenous Initiatives in Arts microsite to consolidate Arts-based learning, scholarship, creation, events, past initiatives, etc., related to indigenization and decolonization
  • Symposium on gangs and violence in Waterloo Region organized by Adam Ellis (Sociology & Legal Studies) in collaboration Waterloo Regional Police, Child Witness Centre, University of Waterloo, Dec. 2024
  • Shana MacDonald (Communication Arts) and Bianna Wiens (English) run Feminist Think Tank events, reading groups, symposia for faculty, staff, and students to share knowledge as feminist community of practice
  • SAF's Women in Finance activities held 2xyear provide a platform for students to interact with professionals who can offer guidance, insight and support
  • Nicole Nolette (French) co-founder/co-director in Staging Better Futures/Mettre en scène de meilleurs avenirs, leading Waterloo Region cluster with Sorouja Moll (Communication Arts) to improve learning and working conditions for minoritized students, educators and practitioners
  • Jay Dolmage (English) gave keynotes at Accessible Education Day and Royal Roads University, and is involved in the Universal Design in Learning campus initiative
  • Released Building Trust with Indigenous Employees: The Indigenous Workways toolkit for employee training (Jan. 2025); culmination of co-PI Wendi Adair’s (Psychology) 6-year ORF-RE & SSHRC project
  • Arts communication staff are continuously improving web and other digital accessibility across our sites and lead, coach and share knowledge campus-wide to promote equity in online user experience
  • Canada Research Chairs in Arts focused on social impact and social justice:
    • Talena Atfield (History), CRC Tentewatenikonhra'khánion (We Will Put Our Minds Together)
    • Alana Cattapan (Political Science), CRC Politics of Reproduction
    • Lai-Tze Fan (Sociology), CRC Technology and Social Change
    • Naila Keleta-Mae (Communication Arts), CRC Race, Gender and Performance
    • Logan MacDonald (Fine Arts), CRC in Indigenous Art
    • Ashley Mehlenbacher (English), CRC in Science, Health, and Technology Communication
    • Nicole Nolette (French Studies), CRC Minority Studies
    • Kate Ratcliff new CRC Tier 1 (Psychology) on role of public and institutional policy in shaping how people think and feel about social groups
       
Greg Staats at the podium in the Theatre of the Arts

Last fall, photographer and Longhouse Labs fellow Greg Staats shared his work as part of the Indigenous Speakers Series.

Past event poster featuring cartoos of a mouth screaming and a hand holding a megaphone

Weekly drop-in sessions were part of the programming offered by the Feminist Think Tank.

Laura Mae Lindo speaks at an event in the Arts Quad,

Dr. Laura Mae Lindo was one of the speakers at Urgency for Social Justice, an event to raise awareness and strengthen support for activities, programs, community services, and advocacy groups.

 Policy/societal impacts

Researchers in various Arts disciplines often advise on public policy and government regulation. Here are just a few examples:

  • Roy Brouwer (Economics) testified before Commons’ Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development as part of witness panel called to share their views on the state of freshwater in Canada, April 2024
  • Mikal Skuterud (Economics) featured expert at the Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit 2024; presented the opening statement to the Commons Standing Committee on Citizen and Citizenship, Nov 2024 
  • Joel Blit (Economics) co-founded and leads the Canadian AI Adoption Initiative (CAIAI) bringing experts on technology adoption and government together to address lagging productivity in Canada
  • Alana Cattapan (Political Science; CRC) advises policymakers in federal and provincial government and U.S. science/medical organization on reproductive technologies as they rapidly evolve
  • Bessma Momani (Political Science) presented expert testimony to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Turkey and Canada’s role in advancing a two-state solution, Oct. 2024
  • Robert Danisch (Communication Arts) invited by RCMP to give keynote to the heads of international agencies (NYPD, Toronto Police Dept, Interpol, Australian Federal Police, and the French National Police) on building trust in law enforcement.
Roy Brouwer testifying at the House of Commons

Dr. Roy Brouwer testifies at the House of Commons

Lifelong learning

  • Faculty members from Arts, Math, Engineering, and Health developed online course Artificial Intelligence and Society available to students, faculty and staff through LEARN
  • Top-performing 2024 Arts LinkedIn posts focused on social impact, research/ knowledge mobilization, and learning across departments/schools and Global Engagement Seminar
  • SAF working on new professional development programming that offers new methods of expanding learning opportunities leveraging SAF/WatSPEED strengths
a computer screen showing the AI course homepage