Eight professors from across Faculties and campuses have received reductions in their course load from the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Service Course Load Reduction Program to further 91亚色鈥檚 commitment to fostering an inclusive academic environment that values the contributions of diverse voices.

Created as part of the 91亚色 Faculty Association Collective Agreement, this initiative provides an annual fund of $100,000 to support service related to EDI by faculty members who self-identify as Indigenous and/or members of racialized groups. By reducing recipients鈥� course loads, the programs provide them with additional time to advance or implement aspects of 91亚色鈥檚 Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEDI) Strategy. This includes the , Addressing Anti-Black Racism: A Framework on Black Inclusion, as well as other EDI initiatives specific to Faculties, schools and departments.

During the 2024-25 academic year, the program will support the following recipients who will further develop critical, EDI-focused work to have broader impacts across the University.

Sylvia Bawa, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Having recently completed a three-year term as director of the Resource Centre for Public Sociology at 91亚色, Bawa will organize and facilitate public conversations on topics of human rights, decolonization and Afrofuturism. She will also be mentoring women in academia who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour, as well as undergraduate students interested in research through a project on Afrofuturism.

Lisa Davidson, assistant professor, Teaching Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Davidson will focus on developing curricula to address systemic racism, discriminatory biases and classroom inequities. She plans to design micro-credential frameworks in ethnographic research and archeology workshops that include the perspectives of equity-deserving populations. Additionally, she will enhance inclusive experiential education learning opportunities by leading the creation of an open-access digital storytelling database, highlighting the connections among racialized groups across Canada.

Ashley Day, assistant professor, School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health

Chair of the Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (DEDI) Committee in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Day will advance DEDI priorities and conduct related research workshops, engaging with the 91亚色 DEDI Toolkit and incorporating DEDI principles into pedagogy. In the process, she will continue emphasizing the importance of relationship building among students, staff and faculty members.

Mehraneh Ebrahimi, assistant professor, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

As a senator and vice-chair of the Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Faculty Council, Ebrahimi brings the voices of minoritized communities to collegial governance. With the course load reduction, she will build on her efforts to support women of colour through mentorship and community building initiatives at 91亚色. As an executive member of the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Studies, she aims to establish a hub for Iranian and Middle Eastern scholars and students.

John Hupfield, assistant professor, Faculty of Education

Hupfield will establish a dedicated committee within the Indigenous Council to advocate for and develop Indigenous educational spaces on campus. Collaborating with multiple Indigenous stakeholders, he will investigate the potential for land- and place-based learning on campus. This initiative directly responds to the need for culturally relevant gathering spaces where Indigenous students, faculty and staff can teach, learn and connect.

Radhika Mongia, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Using a DEDI focus, Mongia will conduct a comprehensive review and revision of the hiring procedures and Affirmative Action Plan of the Department of Sociology. The goal is to align the department鈥檚 practices and procedures with 91亚色鈥檚 EDI strategy, the Indigenous Framework for 91亚色, and the Framework to Address Anti-Black Racism to improve faculty recruitment and retention in the department, which could potentially serve as a benchmark for other units.

Tiana Reid, assistant professor, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Reid will establish a Black Writers鈥� Group at 91亚色, an interdisciplinary writing group open to Black scholars at any stage. The collective will serve as a platform for co-working, connection, manuscript support and peer feedback. The initiative aims to address the gap in resources for Black scholars who are preparing their work for publication and looking for intellectual community. The group also seeks to foster mutuality with faculty members dealing with racialized burdens and anti-Blackness in the academy.

Shirin Shahrokni, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Glendon College

As an active member of the Race Equity Caucus and co-founder of the Caucus d鈥� Equite Raciale/Race Equity Caucus of Glendon, Shahrokni will build a cross-disciplinary, bilingual bibliography. This resource will compile the works of scholars and activists who advocate decolonial and anti-racist feminist views, addressing the challenge of finding teaching and research sources with critical perspectives. Additionally, she will organize a symposium highlighting the distinct barriers faced by students at the intersection of race, class and migration status.

Article originally published in the September 3, 2024 issue of Yfile

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The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at 91亚色 will host a symposium to explore how human activity is pushing ecological limits to a breaking point, and climate change is a fundamental threat to human life.

Taking place on Nov. 24 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., both in person at the Keele Campus and online, the Planetary Health for a Planetary Emergency symposium aims to bring together scholars from the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and across 91亚色 who work at the intersection of climate change and health, to discuss the potentials of planetary health as a driver of just climate action.

This event will also launch the Dahdaleh Institute Planetary Health Research Council which supports a collaborative research community of faculty, postdoctoral Fellows and graduate students committed to planetary health research at 91亚色 and beyond. 

The event draws attention to the need for clear associations between climate change and health, and to develop critical problem-solving interventions and advocate for climate action that advances well-being for all. The symposium will explore questions, such as: How do we do this while holding a critical view of the systems and structures which have led us into this climate catastrophe, including the ideologies of colonialism and capitalism that underpin the modern era? How do we advance effective and equitable solutions for planetary health that work against these systems and structures instead of upholding them?

The day鈥檚 agenda will include panel discussions with three themes featuring guest speakers.

Water: This panel explores the role water plays at the confluence of environmental and human health. Speakers will discuss efforts to support vital biological and social functions of water in the face of our rapidly changing climate and how such efforts might be positioned to work towards more just, sustainable and integrated water management.

Speaking on the topic of water will be: Deborah McGregor, a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice and a professor cross-appointed with Osgoode Hall Law School and the Faculty of Environment & Urban Change at 91亚色; Sapna Sharma, an associate professor in the Department of Biology at 91亚色 and 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Change Biology; and Byomkesh Talukder, an assistant professor at the Department of Global Health at Florida International University. Moderating this panel will be Caroline Diana Duncan, a PhD candidate in civil engineering at 91亚色 with a strong focus on optimizing drinking water in the Arctic using participatory approaches to system dynamics modelling.

Land: This panel examines the role of land in achieving planetary health, taking a wide view across issues of food security, extractivism, urbanization and conservation. This includes examples of how land is inherently interconnected with people and the environment and how access to land and tenure rights are themselves a determinant of human and environmental health.

Discussion on topics related to land will be led by: Dayna N. Scott, an associate professor and 91亚色 Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice with Osgoode Hall Law School at 91亚色 where she is also cross appointed with the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change; James Stinson, a postdoctoral Fellow in Planetary Health Education at 91亚色, cross appointed to the Faculty of Education and the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health Research; Raphael Aguiar, a PhD candidate in the Health Policy and Equity program at 91亚色 and a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar; and Sarah Rotz, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change. This panel will be moderated by Nilanjana (Nell) Ganguli, a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change.

Air: This last panel addresses how air is brought into our approaches to planetary health, drawing together a range of fields related to emissions reduction, human well-being, air pollution and climate adaptation. Speakers will consider how air pollution disproportionately impacts low income and marginalized populations as well as the climate policy synergies of tackling air pollution that both damages health and impairs ecosystems.

Participating in this discussion are: Cora Young, an associate professor and the Rogers Chair in Chemistry at 91亚色; Eric B. Kennedy, an associate professor and area coordinator of the Disaster and Emergency Management program at 91亚色; and Jean-Thomas Tremblay, an assistant professor of environmental humanities at 91亚色. Moderating this panel will be Hillary Birch, a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at 91亚色, where she is a SSHRC doctoral Fellow.

For more information, or to register, visit the event webpage.

Article originally published in the November 7, 2023 issue of

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Human activity is pushing ecological limits to a breaking point, and climate change is a fundamental threat to human life.

Now more than ever we need to draw clear associations between climate change and health, develop critical problem-solving interventions, and advocate for climate action that advances wellbeing for all. How do we do this while holding a critical view of the systems and structures which have led us into this climate catastrophe, including the ideologies of colonialism and capitalism that underpin the modern era? How do we advance effective and equitable solutions for planetary health that work against these systems and structures instead of upholding them?

This symposium on critical planetary health brings together scholars from the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and across 91亚色 who work at the intersection of climate change and health, to discuss the potentials of planetary health as a driver of just climate action. This event will also launch the Dahdaleh Institute Planetary Health Research Council which supports a collaborative research community of faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students committed to planetary health research at 91亚色 and beyond.

This symposium will be held in-person at 91亚色 (Keele campus). The event will also be streamed on Zoom.

Learn more and register

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The recently launched 鈥淩etooling Black Anxiety鈥� project at 91亚色 looks to examine increased anxiety among Black youth and families who have had encounters with the criminal justice system (CJS).

With $35,000 from the Faculty of Health鈥檚 Anxiety Research Fund, powered by Beneva 鈥� a Quebec-based insurance and financial services firm 鈥� the project is led by two 91亚色 professors: serving as principal investigator is Professor Godfred Boateng, director, Global & Environmental Health Lab and Faculty Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research; co-investigator is Nombuso Dlamini, a professor in the Faculty of Education whose work focuses on youth, especially racialized youth within leadership and political systems. Partnerships with the Ghana Union of Canada (GUC) and Gashanti Unity (GU) is also a critical component of the project in order to help lead community-based research activities and intervention.

The collective goal is to work and mentor youth and their families towards better experiences of addressing anxiety and mental health issues mainly induced by encounters with the criminal justice systems (CJS) and the child welfare systems (CWS).

Research conducted in 2021 by the Department of Justice Canada, and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat at the Department of Canadian Heritage, identified how over-policing in schools and in Black communities 鈥� particularly in economically marginalized neighbourhoods 鈥� as well as police reliance on child welfare agencies, has increased the encounters Black youth have with the criminal justice system. According to the Department of Justice Canada, in 2020-21, Black males made up 19 per cent of all male youth admissions to custody, and Black females made up 11 per cent of all female youth admissions to custody.

According to Boateng, these realities have a profound effect on the mental health of Black youth and their families. The professor shares that he has observed how this has led to a significant increase in stories of anxiety, youth entrapment and disillusionment among Black youth and their families. Given how anxiety and mental health can limit individual potentials and capabilities, and injustices that put Black youth in jeopardy can affect their long-term possibilities, Boateng and his partners have prioritized exploring ways to address these ongoing challenges.

The GUC and GU will play a crucial role in implementing the project in their communities. 鈥淎n important part of project is to dialogue with community partners to ensure that they feel fully and respectfully engaged and involved as driving forces for this project,鈥� says Boateng. Each organization will leverage their membership, network and cultural community advocates to recruit young adults who have had encounters with the criminal justice system or the child welfare system to be part of the program.

During the project鈥檚 early exploratory phase, all partners will work to interview and focus group discussions. Subjects will receive a one-pager that articulate project intent, target cohort, duration and expectation. During the subsequent implementation phase they will recruit participants, identify key needs and work with clinical professionals to provide interventions, as well as work with participants on outcomes.

The interventions will be tailored specifically to subjects鈥� anxiety. After an initial assessment, referrals will be provided to appropriate support systems for those found to have higher levels of anxiety, stress and/or depression symptomatology. Among the choices of intervention for Black youth will be either a restorative justice program aimed at healing and consciousness raising, as well as helping keep youth away from CJS; or enrollment in Unstuck & On Target, an eight-week program aimed at improving self-regulation and good directed behaviors in Youth with offences in CJS/CWS. Family and caregivers will be offered an eight-week program aimed at educating them on how to identify or flag risky behaviors in children, as well as providing crisis support, counseling and therapeutic services referrals to parents or caregivers.

The 鈥淩etooling Black Anxiety鈥� team has further ambitions for the future. 鈥淲e are hoping to scale up this study and apply for larger research and community funding that will advance the mental health of Blacks in the Greater Toronto Area and reduce anxieties experienced by Blacks and Black families,鈥� says Nombuso. The team expects to apply in the future to the SSHRC Collaborative grant to further scale-up the study.

A website is still in development, but those wishing for further information can reach out to the project team directly by email. Boateng can be reached at gboaten@yorku.ca; Dlamini can be reached at ndlamini@yorku.ca, and project coordinator Salwa Regragui can be reached at sreg97@my.yorku.ca.

Article originally published in the April 11, 2023 issue of

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