CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A professor from the University of Alberta is calling for improved inclusion policies in academia.
Malinda S. Smith, professor of political science and a Provost Fellow EDI Policy at the University of Alberta, will give a public talk called “Equity, Diversity, and Decolonization in Higher Education: An Agenda for Change,” on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m., in Lecture Theatre A, at the Atlantic Veterinary College.
Smith will talk about her recent research and offer a critical assessment of the status of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programs and initiatives in Canadian higher education.
“Over three decades since universities adopted employment equity, the initiatives that survived have morphed into EDI policies and programs,” she says. “Although the EE legislation’s aim was to ensure a more equitable academy for women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities, most universities focused primarily, if not exclusively, on gender equity.
“Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, many universities have developed or enhanced strategic initiatives to indigenize the academy, including to decolonize the curriculum. Few universities have strategic initiatives to promote racial equity or disability justice. Many initiatives develop in silos, engendering a separate and unequal EDI landscape. A sustained push, first by the Tri-Agencies around the Canada Research Chairs Program and, more recently, the Dimensions EDI Charter, has re-ignited attention on all four equity groups and expanded to LGBTQ+. This assessment of the possibilities and limits of equity, diversity, and decolonization initiatives in the academy concludes with an agenda for change.”
Smith teaches international and comparative politics, critical race theory, and gender and politics. She is the co-author of The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities, and co-editor of States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century, and a forthcoming book, Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy (2020). She has received numerous awards and honours, including a 2018 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship, a 2018–2019 ISA-Canada Distinguished Scholar Award, a 2018 University of Alberta Equity Award, a 2016 HSBC Community Contributor Award, and a 2015 CAUT Equity Award.
Everyone is welcome to attend this lecture, which is co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President Academic and Research, the UPEI Faculty Association, and the Diversity and Social Justice Studies program.
