It is with great pleasure that the Faculty Association's Equity Committee (aka SWEC) announces the 2018 Equity and Inclusivity Award honourees: Christine Logel; Sarah Wiley; Women in Computer Science; and Treaty Lands, Global Stories.
Christine Logel is a social psychologist at Renison University College whose research focuses on women in STEM and stereotype threat. As a co-founder of the College Transition Collaborative, she creates and researches social psychological interventions. Her intervention initiatives have reached tens of thousands of students at over 23 institutions. At Waterloo, her Belonging Intervention had tremendous impact among women in their first year of engineering. She has partnered with equity groups and local companies addressing issues of gender diversity, and actively championing on behalf of mature students and students with disabilities.
Logel “listens, notices barriers, and removes them,” says Carla Fehr, associate professor of philosophy. “She has a long track record of effective advocacy and constructive interventions that create a world in which we all are empowered to work to our full potential and she removes barriers that block us from putting our best selves forward.”
Sarah Wiley is a fourth-year psychology student who has been passionately advocating on gender and Indigenous issues. She has volunteered as a coordinator of the Women’s Centre on campus and the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region, and served as VP: Education of the Federation of Students (Feds). Her advocacy has brought results not only at the University, but also at the provincial and national levels, in areas including sexual assault prevention and funding for Indigenous students. Nominator Chris Lolas says that “her time with Feds exemplified what we should all do to promote equity on campus.”
Women in Computer Science (WiCS) has worked for 10 years to build an environment in the School of Computer Science where women are supported in their work and studies. WiCS offers technical and soft skills workshops, mentoring, online resources, career panels and orientation activities. It partners with local companies, offering outreach activities within the community, and has contributed to significant, measurable improvements in gender diversity within the School. “WICS has made a sustained and highly valuable contribution for a decade in fostering an environment to encourage participation and to ensure equity for women,” says Dean of Mathematics Stephen Watt in his nomination letter. Jo Atlee, Professor and Director of WiCS, will accept the award on behalf of the group.
Treaty Lands, Global Stories was founded by architecture graduate students Samuel Ganton, Amina Lalor, and Paniz Moayeri to “look beyond the western world in our cultural study, acknowledge Canada’s Indigenous heritage, and respond to the diversity of the student body.” Through workshops, papers, exhibitions, film screenings, and more, the group’s influence includes changes to the architecture curriculum at Waterloo and partnerships with a variety of groups on and beyond campus.
Adrian Blackwell, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture, says the group has had “a powerful effect on the school in both student awareness of issues of diversity, and in faculty understanding of how the curriculum needs to change. The structure and content of many courses in the Architecture school have been transformed over the past year in response to the demands of TLGS to include a more diverse range of subjects and authors in direct response to the group’s work.”
The Equity and Inclusivity Award is a celebration of the members of our community whose contributions have made a difference in improving equity, inclusivity and diversity landscape at the University of Waterloo. The recipients will be honoured at a reception on April 18, 2018.