Six Projects Funded Through EDI Capacity Building Grants

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Research
By Emily Carr University

Posted on March 08, 2022 | Updated March 15, 2022, 10:25am

The projects aim to create seed activity and programming to develop, enhance, and implement equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives across the ECU community.

The Research + Industry Office is pleased to announce six projects funded through the first round of the EDI Capacity Building Grants.

From building internal capacity for decolonization to improving hiring practices and engaging with marginalized communities at ECU, these five projects showcase the creative ways faculty and staff are incorporating EDI principles into their work and amplifying community engagement.

Last December, faculty and staff were invited to submit proposals for initiatives to advance Emily Carr’s EDI Research framework and support underrepresented researchers through training and mentorship. A committee selected the funded projects.

The grant program was made possible through Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) funding.

Summary of projects:

Subversive Kin: Immigrant diasporas, indigeneity, and land-based practices

Lead: Christine Howard Sandoval & Gwenessa Lam

With roots in Indigenous and diasporic communities, Christine and Gwenessa’s project will feature a series of field visits and conversations with local practitioners of land-based practices. The purpose of the project is to explore reciprocity through sharing time, knowledge, and care for the territories we live and work on. They will engage Indigenous knowledge keepers and artists with horticultural, archaeological, and site-specific practices with the hope of sharing this knowledge in classes and shaping their curriculum.

ECU Library researcher-in-residence

Lead: Ana Diab

This project will allow the library to appoint a faculty member as the researcher-in-residence to work on a project that will connect JEDI principles to their research practice and utilize library collections and concepts. Spanning the fall 2022 term, the researcher may work on curating displays, organizing events, hosting collaborative-research sessions, or undertaking art or research initiatives with an intersectional lens at the library.

Library Student Job postings: looking through the lens of disability justice.

Lead: Emma Sommers

This project identifies the accessibility barriers that prevent students from applying to Research Assistantships or Student Monitor roles at the library. The library team will collaborate with the Library + Archives Accessibility Committee and the Systems Change: Cripping Job Applications (a sub-group of the Emily Carr Disabled and Neurodivergent Artists Collective) to identify current gaps. The aim is to reduce an ableist lens amongst staff and write job descriptions that invite more applications from people who self-identify as disabled and/or neurodivergent. The hope is to share the project and outcomes with the Career Development and Work Integrated Learning Office.

The Borderlands Network

Lead: Pat Vera (Ada Nilda Vera Oviedo)

This project will connect Global North and Global South participants through decolonial practices and concepts. This network will unravel the modernist and colonial structures that support systemic racism in Canada and the Global North through inclusive dialogue prioritizing Global South Indigenous and Indigenous Canadian perspectives. The first initiative is the “Border-ing Decolonial Forum,” fostering awareness and engagement with marginalized communities at ECU.

One You Breathe With (OYBW)

Lead: Reyhan Yazdani and Justin Langlois

This project is a dialogical exploration of companionship, friendship and community. This initiative was inspired by the Persian word, ‘Ham-dam,’ meaning “the one you breathe with.” The project will aim to reimagine community building within institutional spaces as a way to develop, enhance, and activate our community’s approach to EDI principles.

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop Reading Group: Decolonizing the Creative Classroom

Lead: Jacqueline Turner

Description: This project will be a reading group centred around the book, The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez as a way of experimenting, enacting, and practicing techniques in the book. The goal is to create collective action within the ECU community by uniting through the act of writing, reading, and discussion of a powerful decolonial methodology. The project will culminate in an online session with author Felicia Rose Chavez to deepen the possibilities of how the concepts of decolonial education could be applied to our local context. This project supports the development of decolonial writing classrooms for faculty, specifically peer tutors, and the broader community.