News

Big congrats to four Arts graduate students whose short research videos made the 2021 GRADFlix finals. That's not all. During last week's livestreamed Showcase of the top 25 video submissions from across the University, the top three winners include two of our students: Anna Murynka (MA candidate, Psychology) took first place for her video “Mediums for self-help" and Ben Szoller (PhD candidate, Religious Studies) placed third for his video “Catholic social and ecological teaching in Canadian farming communities.”

The Faculty of Arts is very pleased to launch a new postdoctoral program that is made possible by the generous support of the Lupina Foundation — a Canadian charitable organization committed to research and innovation in health and societal issues.

The Department of Economics is proud to introduce a new graduate option, the Graduate Diploma (GDip) in Computational Analytics for the Social Sciences and Humanities (CDASH)

The Government of Canada has just announced the newest group of Canada Research Chairs (CRC), including two from Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts. Alana Cattapan, a professor in Political Science, is a tier two CRC in The Politics of Reproduction. Logan MacDonald, a professor in Fine Arts, is a tier two CRC in Indigenous Art. Congratulations to both outstanding scholars on their distinguished career achievement!

Organized by the Master of Public Service Policy & Data Lab and GEDI and sponsored by the Waterloo Cybersecurity & Privacy Institute, last week's Data and Privacy During a Global Pandemic conference brought together experts from the social and physical sciences, computer science, engineering, and statistics, including president-designate for the University of Waterloo, Dr. Vivek Goel.

Christopher Taylor (Department of History) was appointed Black Equity Strategist and Anti-Racism Advisor in the Faculty of Arts by Dean Sheila Ager this fall. The position was established in response to urgent calls for the University and the Faculty to take action against racism, and particularly in this context, anti-Black racism. Dr. Taylor participated in this Q and A to speak about his new role.

Part of Waterloo’s Thrive Week, the inaugural Virtual Conference on Student Mental Health Research includes discussion and research presentations by students, staff and faculty. Not surprisingly, many presenters are from the Department of Psychology and the Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment (CMHRT).

While this year has been full of unprecedented challenges, 2020 also marks a happy milestone: the Faculty of Arts just turned 60 years old. It was the fall of 1960 when Arts became the University of Waterloo’s third faculty. Happy birthday, Arts!

It's a long and often winding road to take doctoral studies to the finish line. From seminars, to exams, to TAs, RAs or course teaching, to research, research, research, and to the final thesis defense -- many of which were remotely conducted in this time of COVID. It's a huge accomplishment and the Faculty of Arts is so proud of our newest cohort of Doctors of Philosophy.

Maybe it’s as subtle as not wearing pink to work, or as drastic as downplaying certain traits to in order to stay safe. Maybe it’s the difference between how “tomboys” and “sissy boys” are treated. Either way, there’s no escaping it: society still equates “feminine” with “less than”. But where do these assumptions come from? And, more importantly, how can we change them?