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When he was an undergraduate in Winnipeg, Harrison Oakes (MA ’16, PhD '20) witnessed the difficulty of promoting change for marginalized groups when he sat in on hearings for Manitoba’s proposed Bill 18. People argued that they couldn’t see how the legislation for anti-bullying to protect LGBTQ+ youth applied to all kids. Seven years later, Oakes’ doctoral research helps to answer that question.

The Faculty of Arts proudly celebrates all graduates (more than 1,400 of them!) who would have been walking across the stage to receive their diploma's this week. As part of our virtual spring 2020 convocation celebrations, we warmly congratulate the distinguished undergraduates receiving top performance awards. 

In our work and interactions, we need to be conscious of and proactively challenge white privilege and colonial structures. We need to continuously strive to create an equal, fair and welcoming learning environment for everyone.

Since the COVID-19 lockdown, the University of Waterloo has released a steady stream of media advisories with Waterloo experts on all aspects of the pandemic -- and many of these feature experts in the Faculty of Arts. Last week included a Q and A with Joel Blit on re-starting the economy, and this week includes a Q and A with Mikal Skuterud on labour data, CERB, and jobs.

As Italy plans to slowly ease the country’s seven-week lockdown, Arts alum Esmeralda da Conceicaoshares her experiences of living in the northern city of Bologna before and during the pandemic. "I would like Canadians reading this story to feel solidarity by uniting as a community." 

During this extraordinary time of physical distancing in our community, new measures have been established to shift academia to online delivery. One of the most important milestones for PhD students is their in-person dissertation defence, which represents the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to their research.

Graduate students from English, Fine Arts, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Theological Studies and Sociology convened Friday, March 6th for the annual Arts Three Minute Thesis (3MT) heat. Audience members learned about the engaging and illuminating graduate research happening in the Faculty of Arts firsthand from many of our impressive graduate students. 

The Master of Public Service (MPS) program hosted the second annual Policy Datafest last week with more than 70 graduate students digging into public datasets to extract meaningful narratives and recommend policies for positive change.

Deforestation is changing the way monkeys communicate in their natural habitat, according to a new study led by Laura Bolt, an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology. The research offers the first evidence in animal communication scholarship of differences in vocal behaviours in response to different types of forest edge areas, particularly areas changed by human activity.

The research of Professor Geoffrey Fong affects populations and helps save lives worldwide. In recognition of his research leadership over 17 years, Professor Fong has been awarded the 2019 Medal of Honour by the Health Research Foundation (HRF) of Innovative Medicines Canada – the foremost Canadian health research award celebrating the best and brightest minds and discoveries in the Canadian life sciences sector