The SIGNAL March Summit is a three-day convening that brings together researchers, students, practitioners, and community partners working at the intersections of gender justice, digital media, technology, and social futures. The Summit emphasizes collaborative dialogue, care-centered research practices, and practical knowledge sharing.
Supported by Waterloo’s Global Futures Fund, the Summit emerges from the work of SIGNAL and invites University of Waterloo faculty, staff, and students, along with external partners, to engage in any part of or the whole three-day Summit.
Speakers and contributors
The Summit will include keynote talks, panels, and workshops led by a mix of internal University of Waterloo contributors and invited external speakers. Invited contributors include senior scholars, early career researchers, and practitioners working in feminist media studies, digital ethics, policy, and community-based research.
Schedule
From March 4 to 6, the Summit offers a deliberately lighter schedule to support thoughtful engagement and a positive atmosphere. Each day includes a maximum of three core programmed sessions, with time built in for informal connection. Attendees can register to attend as many individual sessions as they wish.
DAY 1: Wednesday, March 4, 2026
10:00–10:30 am — Opening Reception and Welcome
Kick off the event with drinks, introductions, and a warm welcome as we bring together researchers, practitioners, and community members for a few days of collaboration and conversation. Light breakfast provided.
Location: LIB 323
10:30–11:30 am — Opening Plenary, “The Intersectionalities of Preventing Violent Extremism: Building our Community of Practice”
Speaker: Jillian Hunchak, Senior Research Analyst, Canada Centre for Community Engagement & Prevention of Violence
This talk traces the evolution of Canada's approach to preventing and countering radicalization to violence. Preventing and Countering Radicalization to Violence has historically been dominated by hard security approaches and exceptionalism. In the last 10 years, Public Safety Canada has attempted to shift this narrative towards a more public health-informed approach, moving away from a focus on ideology or demographics and towards more holistic risk frameworks. This talk will explore the evolution of the CRV field in Canada, how violent extremism is becoming increasingly relevant in our daily lives, and the gaps we must look to fill through leveraging community-based knowledge and social equity frameworks.
Location: LIB 323
11:30–11:45 am — Break
11:45 am - 1:00 pm — PANEL, “UW Initiatives and Student Outreach for Community Building”
Speakers:
- Brenda Lee, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Associate Chair, UG, Undergraduate Advisor, Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo
- Rebecca MacAlpine, Educational Technologies (EdTech) Sandbox Supervisor, University of Waterloo
- Yu-Ru Liu, Professor, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo
These University of Waterloo researchers and educators share how grassroots effort and institutional support can transform campus culture: Brenda Lee reflects on her journey from experiencing exclusion to building FemPhys into an officially recognized departmental organization that creates the inclusive spaces she once lacked; Yu-Ru Liu, through the Women in Mathematics (WiM) Committee, introduces the Directed Reading Program and how it advances equity and inclusion within the mathematics community; and Rebecca MacAlpine showcases the EdTech Sandbox, a hands-on "collision space" in Dana Porter Library where faculty, staff, and students can experiment with emerging educational technologies together.
Location: LIB 329
1:00–2:00 pm — Working Lunch, “From Support to Partnership: Rethinking How We Work With Communities”
Speaker: Pamela Braza Pitman, Interim Director, Education & Outreach in the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDI-R), University of Waterloo.
This reflective and practical workshop challenges institutions to move beyond a service-delivery mindset toward genuine partnership with communities. Drawing on equity-informed and community-engaged practice, participants will examine power imbalances embedded in institutional systems, explore how expertise and legitimacy get constructed, and identify concrete ways to redistribute decision-making and trust, all while meeting accountability requirements and advancing community self-determination. Lunch provided.
Location: LIB 323
2:15–4:00 pm — Workshop: Erasure Poetry as Creative Praxis
Facilitator: Adra Raine, Fellow in the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDI-R), University of Waterloo, Educator and Writer
In this hands-on creative workshop, participants will be introduced to the art of erasure poetry before trying their hand at the form using a curated packet of source materials, from public apologies and political speeches to news stories and social media posts. All experience levels welcome. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own texts to erase!
Location: ML109
4:00–5:30 pm — Welcome Social @ Grad House
End the first day on a high note by joining us for drinks, food, and conversation at the Grad House. This informal welcome social is the perfect opportunity to meet new faces, reconnect with colleagues, and ease into what promises to be an engaging few days ahead. Food provided.
Location: Grad House
DAY 2: Thursday, March 5, 2026
10:00–11:30 am — PLENARY, “Methods of Solidarity and Care in Research and Activism”
Speakers:
- Alana Cattapan, Associate Professor, Political Science, Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction, University of Waterloo
- Kimberly Lopez, Associate Professor, Recreation & Leisure, University of Waterloo
- Trish Van Katwyk, Associate Professor, Director, School of Social Work, Renison University College
This plenary brings together three researchers working at the intersection of gender, race, class, and technology to examine how systems of power shape vulnerability and resistance. Trish Van Katwyk and Kimberly Lopez draw on their work with migrant care labour to explore how racialized, gendered, and classed identities navigate necropolitical systems and how tech-facilitated violence mirrors these same structures of harm. Alana Cattapan critically examines the pervasive use of "women of reproductive age" in public health and biomedical research, arguing that the term obscures broader dimensions of women's health while disproportionately downloading responsibility for future generations onto potentially pregnant people. Together, the speakers invite a conversation about solidarity, care, and the stakes of research and activism in an unequal world. Light breakfast provided.
Location: LIB 323
11:30–11:45 am — Break
12:00–1:00 pm — Special Lunch Panel! “Beyond the CV: A Discussion on Success, Values, Boundaries, and Accepting That You Can’t Do Everything.” WiM x SIGNAL
Speakers:
- Brianna Wiens, Assistant Professor, English Language & Literature, University of Waterloo
- Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor, O’Donovan Chair in Communication Across the Disciplines, Communication Arts, University of Waterloo
Join Women in Math (WiM) and SIGNAL for a candid panel conversation on sustainably navigating academic careers, covering work-life balance, setting boundaries, motivation, and avoiding burnout, with a pizza lunch and a celebration of International Women's (+) Day.
Location: MC 5501
1:30–3:00 pm — Student Panel: “Research Across the Fields”
This showcase highlights the timely work of students tackling some of the most pressing issues at the intersection of gender, technology, and society. Projects span a range of interconnected themes, including technology-facilitated gender-based violence, online radicalization and polarization, social media cultures, disability justice and community outreach, and feminist activism, offering a window into the next generation of critical, community-engaged scholarship. Come ready to engage, ask questions, and be inspired by the creativity and thoughtfulness students are bringing to these urgent conversations.
Presenters from UWaterloo across undergrad, MA, and PhD programs:
- Amaya Kodituwakku, Undergraduate Student, English Language & Literature
- Andie Kaiser, MA Student, English Language & Literature
- Anna McWebb and Rency Luan, PhD Candidates, English Language & Literature
- Blaze Welling, PhD Candidate, English Language & Literature
- Samantha Fowler, PhD Student, English Language & Literature | Disability Inclusion Coordinator, Campus Accessibility
- Spencer Kim, Undergraduate Student, Liberal Arts
Location: LIB 323
3:00–4:00 pm — Workshop: Strategies for Change in Gender Justice
Facilitator: Alex Pershai, Associate Director, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Office
This session offers an inside look at the University of Waterloo's Trans and Non-Binary Equity Strategy, with space for open discussion, questions, and connection around what meaningful institutional change for gender justice looks like in practice.
Location: LIB 323
4:00–5:30 pm — Social: Crafty Connections: “Alchemy of Becoming: A Well-being Focused Creative Hour
Facilitator: Scarlett van Berkel, Administrative Manager and Graduate Studies Coordinator, French Studies, W3+ Representative
Join us for a moment of creativity, reflection and connection inspired by Suleika Jaouad's The Book of Alchemy. Together, we'll explore how art can transform emotion into meaning and strengthen solidarity among womxn and nonbinary members of our UW community. Art materials will be available--and you might win a free book!
Location: LIB 323
DAY 3: Friday, March 6, 2026
10:00–11:30 am — Plenary, “Disinformation By Omission: How Joe Rogan and Other Far Right Influencers Distance Themselves From Their Violent Rhetoric”
Speaker: Jaigris Hodson, Canada Research Chair in Digital Misinformation, Polarization & Anti-Social Media, Royal Roads University
Using Joe Rogan's anti-trans discourses as a case study, this presentation will interrogate the language and other tactics that far-right and intellectual dark web influencers use to distance themselves from harmful speech. Under the framework of communicative capitalism, and employing what Jaigris Hodson terms "disinformation by omission," Hodson will show how these podcasters are rewarded for perpetuating dehumanizing discourses. Furthermore, Hodson will show why distinctions between "misinformation" that is, false information spread without intent, and "disinformation" that is, false information spread for personal gain or with intent to harm are made meaningless under a system that rewards controversial, conspiratorial or charged acts of speech. When the affect of an utterance matters more than the content of an utterance, then speech which harms becomes supercharged, and dehumanizing disinformation is inevitable. Light breakfast provided.
Location: HH 139
11:30–11:45 am — Break
11:45–1:00 pm — Panel, “How To Survive Toxic Media”
Speakers:
- Emma Brandt, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
- Kiera Obbard, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
- Laura Blanco-Murcia, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
- Michael Iantorno, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
This panel brings together four scholars examining how toxic media environments are made, experienced, and resisted. Emma Brandt's What's In a Metaphor? Unpacking 'Toxic' Media Environments draws on ethnographic research with Serbian youth to ask what our framings of "toxic" or "polluted" media make possible and what they foreclose. Laura Blanco-Murcia's Surviving Toxic Media: Reclaiming Care and our Shared Humanity proposes a framework for resisting dehumanization and amplifying care-based narratives that can spread as alternatives to fear and distrust. Kiera Obbard's Remixing Misogyny: Employing Creative Analytic Practice as Method turns to erasure poetry and remix as tools for responding to misogyny directed at women and women of colour poets and creators, drawing on her SSHRC postdoctoral research-creation project. Michael Iantorno's "Please Don't Feed Me Into the Algorithm": AI, Privacy, and Burnout in Qualitative Research Design reflects on the ethical and practical challenges of designing qualitative research in the age of AI, including navigating confidentiality, burnout, and the growing hostility of creative workers toward technologies threatening their livelihoods. Together, these presentations offer a rich and timely conversation about media, power, creativity, and the responsibilities of researchers working in an increasingly fraught digital landscape.
Location: HH 139
1:00–2:00 pm — Lunch
Join us for a provided lunch to debrief about the day’s sessions.
Location: HH 139
2:00–3:30 pm — Workshop: Data Jam, “ManoWhisper: Mapping Discourses of Hate, Polarization, and Radicalization in the Manosphere”
In this hands-on Data Jam session, participants will explore ManoWhisper as a research tool for studying political rhetoric, gender discourse, and online radicalization. Nick Ruest will walk through how to query the database, identify patterns across hosts and episodes, and discuss the methodological and ethical considerations of working with this kind of content. No prior coding experience is required–– come ready to dig into the data and think critically about what it can (and can't) tell us
ManoWhisper is an open-access database of podcast transcripts and analysis, developed as part of SIGNAL Network. The database indexes tens of thousands of episodes from dozens of right-wing, manosphere, and politically conservative podcasts, making their spoken content searchable and analyzable at scale.
Facilitators:
- Nick Ruest, Librarian, York University
- Brianna Wiens, Assistant Professor, English Language & Literature, University of Waterloo
- Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor, O’Donovan Chair in Communication Across the Disciplines, Communication Arts, University of Waterloo
Location: ML 109
3:30–4:30 pm — Closing Reception
Join us to wrap up the inaugural SIGNAL Summit with drinks, food, conversation, and the chance to connect with fellow attendees and speakers.
Location: ML Foyer