Thursday, January 8, 2026

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• Four Waterloo leaders appointed to the Order of Canada

• Apply by January 30 to participate in the Mentorship Collective 

• UWAG presents i look to the skies
• Thursday's notes

Four Waterloo leaders appointed to the Order of Canada

This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Apply by January 30 to participate in the Mentorship Collective

A message from the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism (EDI-R).

The next chapter of Cultivating Talent: A Mentorship Collective is almost here!

Following the success of the first two iterations of the mentorship pilot program, the University of Waterloo will be launching the next offering from Wednesday, May 27, 2026 to Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

Designed in response to PART recommendation 56 and 57 geared towards embedding anti-Racism into mentorship and employee advancement, this five-day, cohort-based experience is created specifically for employees who identify as Black, Indigenous, Racialized, or any combination of these identities. Rooted in a collaborative, peer-based mentorship, the program creates space for community members to learn from another, share lived experiences and grow together through a mutual mentorship model. This program is designed to support collective sharing, learning, and growing as a collective of individuals coming together for mentorship.

Upcoming information session

To learn more about this exciting opportunity, we invite you to  join us for an in-person information session in East Campus 5 (EC5) on Thursday, January 15 from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m.

During the session, we’ll dive into the program details, feature participant experiences from the first two pilot offerings, and answer any questions you may have.

Can’t join us on January 15? Watch the recording from the December 16 information session using your WatIAM credentials.

Apply today!

Applications for the 2026 mentorship program are open! Don’t miss your chance to be part of this transformative experience in spring 2026. The deadline to apply is Friday, January 30, 2026.

Notes: Due to the length of this program, we are requesting the completion of a manager/supervisor approval form. Also, participation in this program does not require the use of vacation days.

UWAG presents i look to the skies

The University of Waterloo Art Gallery will be exhibiting the work of Jude Abu Zaineh from January 8 to March 7.

“In i look to the skies, Jude Abu Zaineh creates a sanctuary rooted in the specificity of Palestinian cultural traditions and open to the infinite expanses above,” says a statement from the UWAG. “At its centre is Maqlouba, a traditional dish that is always shared, an emblem of hospitality and community of great cultural and historical significance. Maqlouba anchors the work as a layered metaphor for diasporic life, where food becomes ritual, soft power, and cultural preservation, its ceremonial nature binding intimacy to sovereignty. Here, Maqlouba becomes an archive, a vessel for memory, and a catalyst for transformation. Abu Zaineh works across disciplines including bioart, video, sculpture, and textiles, layering methods and materials into an evolving constellation of meaning.” 

“The gallery unfolds like a contemplative space, where patterns repeat across engraved architectural forms, textiles, glass, and wallpaper, enveloping the visitor in a language of visual rhythm and embrace. Archival videos thread through the installation, carrying gestures, voices, and memories forward as acts of preservation within a landscape of erasure. Some of these patterns are cultivated in petri dishes from the remnants of Maqlouba, from foraged plants, soil, and other fragments of everyday life. In these contained microcosms, transformation, migration, and decay occur in parallel, creating a living metaphor for the shifting nature of culture and identity. The petri dish becomes both container and containment, a quiet stage for cycles of preservation and loss.” 

“To look to the skies is to enact a gesture both intimate and universal: in prayer, in grief, screaming, in disbelief, in wonder. This pseudo-sanctuary invites contemplation while also confronting the realities of exile, migration, and displacement, holding space for both refuge and unravelling. The works here are steeped in the tensions between comfort and disquiet, belonging and estrangement, sanctity and the secular. They carry the emotional weight of Palestinian life under colonial violence while offering a horizon, reminding us that wherever we are, we stand beneath the same celestial canopy. Abu Zaineh invites an encounter where the culturally personal and the planetary, the grounded and the infinite, exist in fragile contradictions.” 

“i look to the skies is presented in partnership with Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery and was developed through an artist residency with Jude Abu Zaineh, organized by MSVU Art Gallery and curated by Melanie Colosimo. MSVU Art Gallery acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia, and Halifax Regional Municipality.”

Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist-curator working across art, food, science, and technology studies. Her work develops counter-archive practices and investigates themes of culture, displacement, storytelling, diaspora and belonging, through de-colonial and feminist perspectives. She examines ideals of home and community influenced by her childhood and upbringing in Southwest Asia. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 2020 William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists. Abu Zaineh’s works can be found in the permanent collections of The Museum of Glass, Art Windsor-Essex, as well as private collections internationally. She received a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she was an RPI Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences Fellow and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow, and an MFA from the University of Windsor. She maintains an active studio practice between upstate New York and southern Ontario.

The opening reception takes place tonight from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the University of Waterloo Art Gallery at East Campus Hall.

Thursday's notes

The Student Experience and Housing’s Learning Skills Team at Renison University College is inviting all students, staff, and faculty to an open house on Thursday, January 8. Attendees will learn about workshops, meetups, and drop-in services provided from the Lusi Wong Library that help students thrive in their studies.

The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. today. Refreshments and treats will be available. Visit the Learning Skills Support website to learn more.

Researchers at the School of Optometry & Vision Science are currently seeking adults 18 years and over diagnosed with macular degeneration who use their side vision to see for a study which examines whether reading can be improved through a combination of practice and the use of a safe, well-established technique for modulating brain function called non-invasive brain stimulation. Recently published results from the group suggest that a single session of non-invasive brain stimulation may have a short-term effect on reading in adults with macular degeneration. The current study is exploring the possibility of longer-lasting effects.

Participants will be asked to read words on a computer screen for 9 study sessions (each 2 hours per visit) spaced out over a period of 2 to 3 months. Participants should not be undergoing eye-based injections and must be eligible for non-invasive brain stimulation (researchers will screen for this). Eligible participants will receive $20 per session in appreciation for their time and regional transportation costs will be covered. If you, your family members, or acquaintances might be eligible and interested, please contact Melanie Mungalsingh for more information at mamungal@uwaterloo.ca. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.