The University of Waterloo’s recently released its annual publication, Global Futures: Innovation Update, featuring members of the Waterloo community whose work seeks to find solutions to some of the challenges we're facing as our world goes through massive change.
Dean Alexie Tcheuyap often says "Arts is everywhere" – and he's not wrong. It isn't just a reflection of the breadth of our disciplines, it's the impacts Arts researchers have on global challenges.
This year, the report includes four Arts faculty and their work, including:
Lai-Tze Fan
Digital technologies play an integral role in our everyday lives, but these invisible components can have negative social and environmental impacts. Dr. Lai-Tze Fan cautions about the many invisible aspects to the technologies we use, including whose interests they serve versus who they might exclude.
“I approach this work by asking questions of invisibility,” says Fan. “Why are these technologies made, for whom are they made, and for whom are they not made?”
Talena Atfield
Dr. Talena Atfield’s work to restore and regenerate Hodinohso:ni cultural knowledges starts with the title of her Canada Research Chair: Tentewatenikonhra’khánion, which translates to “We Will Put Our Minds Together.” Atfield’s project works to indigenize research methodologies through community inclusion, focusing on the strengths of each participant and how they work together.
“My work acknowledges that there are no ‘experts,’ rather we all have knowledge we can share, and in this way, we are decentring colonial interpretation,” she says.
Mikal Skuterud
For more than two decades, Dr. Mikal Skuterud’s research has focused on the economics of Canadian immigration. In recent studies, Skuterud and his collaborators demonstrated the value that international students bring to the Canadian economy. The study forms the bedrock of a list of recommendations for policymakers to help refine admittance requirements.
“Waterloo’s international students exceed not only Canadian-born graduates of the University of Waterloo but also Canadian-born university graduates nationally,” he says. "They are also more likely to stay in Canada and become permanent residents as well as earn more than their Canadian counterparts.”
Kristina Llewellyn
Few people know about the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, despite decades of activism from its former residents. Now their stories are being heard in a new way, thanks to the the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project spearheaded by Dr. Kristina Llewellyn. This interdisciplinary team out of the Games Institute is using virtual reality to help students engage with history.
“The DOHR project supports former residents of the Home with what they call their Journey to Light,” she says. “It brings the silenced histories of institutional harm out of the shadows and into public light, in a way that can collectively transform racist and unjust relations.”