By Auz Momin
Providing the opportunity to celebrate several months of student research, the Grebel Peace Incubator facilitated the University of Waterloo campus finals of the Map the System research competition on Wednesday, April 10th. This year’s event was held at the GreenHouse space at United College.
Out of 35 entries, 5 student teams were chosen to present their research into complex social and environmental challenges to judges for a chance to win cash prizes and to represent UWaterloo at a national level.
The judges, Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed, Trevor Charles, and Ilona Dougherty analyzed the teams’ presentations, asked insightful questions, and chose three winning teams to receive the prizes from our generous sponsors.
The third-place prize of $500, sponsored by the Waterloo Institue for Complexity and Innovation (WICI), was presented by WICI Director, Sean Geobey to a team of graduate students who focused on “Food Deserts in Detroit.” Yacine, Nettie, Tim, Anshikha, and Ridwana explored how inner-city Detroit residents do not have access to affordable, nutritious food and how these food deserts cause a range of health, social, and equity issues. Some levers for change they identified include shifting mental models and policies to facilitate change. This team participated as part of their INDEV 607 course led by Professor Simron Singh.
The second-place prize of $1,000, sponsored by Sarona Asset Management, was awarded by Impact Associate Kristina Kuznetsova to a group of students in the Masters of Digital Experience Innovation program at the Stratford School of Interactive Design and Business who focused on “Mapping accessibility in education for invisible disabilities.” Amrit, Nader, Rachel, Mikayla and Karla looked at the challenges that students with invisible disabilities face in Canadian post-secondary education and were supported by Assistant Professor Will Zhao. Key barriers to accessibility they identified include access to diagnosis and lack of standardization of accommodations across Canadian universities. Their primary recommendation for systems change is to design all courses to be inclusive. This would shift mindsets around disability across the system and allow all students to thrive without needing to disclose their disability, have a diagnosis, or fight for formal accommodations if they prefer not to.
The first-place prize of $2,000 sponsored by Kindred Credit Union was presented by Social Impact Manager, Kate Pearce and VP of Engagement and Values, Rebecca Smith to congratulate student Fiona Li. Fiona’s research focused on why Indigenous women are over-represented in Canadian prisons. She showed clearly a series of systemic injustices that disproportionately disadvantage indigenous women along the prison ‘pipeline’. Fiona identified opportunities to break these cycles, such as self-determination, restorative justice and community healing, and challenged the audience to rethink the pipeline. She will be continuing to refine her research in collaboration with Mennonite Central Committee Ontario in preparation for the Map the System Canadian finals, which will be held in Calgary from May 24-27, 2024. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to represent UWaterloo at the Canada Finals,” she said. Keep an eye out on the Centre for Peace Advancement social media to see how Fiona progresses at the Canadian finals.
If you are interested in being a part of the Map the System competition in a future year as a student researcher, faculty member, or community partner, look around the website and feel free to contact the Centre for Peace Advancenent team. Congratulations again to Fiona and all the teams which submitted and presented their compelling research!