Events

Join Jessica Rumboldt (Educational Developer, Indigenous Languages) from the Centre for Teaching Excellence to gather and learn during the week before the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This workshop will begin with a presentation of relevant data, MMIWG policy, legislation, and recommendations for a path forward. The second part of the workshop will move away from discussing only a deficit model and encourage participants to recognize the strength and resilience of Indigenous women. The second part of this workshop will include a space for discussion and meaningful engagement through a unique "She Is Indigenous" activity.

Level:Introductory

This is a 3-hr introductory workshop to help staff/faculty build their understanding on how to work towards creating inclusive spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. The workshop will cover key terminology and concepts, provide a historical overview which informs how we can communicate with care, and will enhance knowledge on how to build Trans Inclusive Spaces on campus.

We are increasingly asked to envision and implement respectful and non-extractive research involving marginalized communities. But we are rarely challenged to bring those principles to bear in our own research groups, where asymmetries of institutional power between colleagues, students, and staff are normalized. This interdisciplinary panel will outline roles and responsibilities as well as best practices for graduate student supervision to frame a discussion of how to foster and maintain just relationships among researchers, with a focus on the principles and practices animating non-extractive student-supervisor relationships. 

Red Dress Day marks the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited people in Canada. Join Elder Myeengun Henry to honour and remember our missing and murdered sisters and to show solidarity with their family and loved ones. 

Audience: Staff 

This workshop is reserved for Waterloo Staff, especially Staff working in Student Services.

Level: Introductory

This is a 1-hour introductory workshop aimed to help student-facing practitioners build awareness of their own power and privilege based on their social identity. Participants will learn how power is enacted within the university, creating barriers for students from equity-deserving communities. The goal is to help student-facing practitioners from student services build anti-oppressive practices into their own work.

Dr. Bird will emphasize the two types of language taking place in video games: mechanical, coded language, and visual, representational language. She presents the importance of teaching the history of Indigenous representation in games and will break down various examples from Custer’s Revenge to the Mortal Kombat and Red Dead Redemption series to demonstrate these types of gamic language. Building upon these examples, she centers on the problematic ways players have historically translated the messages they are being presented within the digital medium of the video game. She illustrates how these translations result in harmful narratives about Indigenous avatars becoming cemented within the overarching discourse and design of games. Finally, she will look at new Indigenous works and how inclusive and decolonial game design and practices like ROM hacking can push back against these established narratives and the ways in which players read them, and instead create sovereign digital spaces for Indigenous peoples.

Neurodivergent students encounter a variety of barriers to learning in academic settings that have been designed for neurotypical students. In this workshop, you’ll learn about neurodivergence and discuss how course design and instructional strategies that support neurodivergent students are beneficial for neurotypical students as well.  Using student scenarios, we will consider how we can apply these strategies into our practice and share resources available for both neurodivergent students and instructors. 

Speaker: Dr. Hilary Bergsieker
45 Minute talk followed by Q&A session with the speaker 

Abstract: When, why, and with what effect are women sometimes excluded from informal social networks in STEM fields? Drawing on social identity threat and structural hole theories, a series of studies assess social network dynamics that may limit women's full inclusion in STEM circles. 

The workshop will explore the ways Vicarious Restorative Justice (VRJ) can be used in supporting the needs of survivors of sexual harm: Surrogacy.

Vicarious Restorative Justice (VRJ) is a model of restorative justice that brings together victims, offenders and others impacted for a dialogue, but who are not parties of the same harm or crime. It provides opportunities for those whom a traditional restorative justice approach would not be possible because one of the parties is unable, unwilling, or not ready to participate. Since the parties do not have a relationship, a VRJ process can increase safety and decrease the risk for re-traumatization.

In this workshop, we will discuss:

What is Vicarious Restorative Justice and why we would use it

How Revive is piloting Surrogacy

Initial learnings and where we are now

Q&A

The Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office (SVPRO), is hosting a virtual Lunch & Learn to discuss and answer questions about how and why it is important to teach young children about consent and boundaries. We will also discuss the power and importance of language and politeness conditioning and provide resources.