Through the Lens is a series of interactive workshops designed to enhance UBC staff, faculty and community members’ understanding of diversity, while offering practical ideas for creating a more equitable and inclusive campus.
In the words of Audre Lorde, “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
Join speakers who are deeply connected to justice and inclusion work through their professional and lived experience. This workshop series aims to provoke meaningful conversations on issues of identity, intersectionality, diversity, equity and inclusion. Each workshop provides an opportunity to learn, connect with other UBC community members, and generate a network of allies across campus through story-telling and other resources.
Workshops
Amar will discuss Deaf Culture, its impacts from his personal perspectives, and his life journey as Deaf person. Through the initiative he founded on Instagram, Sign With Amar, he will share the barriers in sign language, how the initiative overcomes them, and the perspectives on communication and accessibility. There will be a Q&A session at the end for audience questions.
Workshop facilitator: Amar Mangat
"How do we create safe space so we can heal?" Elaine Alec decided to write a book called, "Calling My Spirit Back" to help answer this question. Her book and presentations share an extremely personal examination of her lived experience and also talks about a much broader overview of serious national sociological concerns and tangible steps to address them. It was meant to help others understand what is needed to cultivate safe space so that individuals can gather and contribute their authentic selves for decision-making in a solution based manner.
Workshop facilitator: Elaine Alec
Laura will facilitate a collaborative and creative learning space in which participants will focus on creating more hospitable spaces for people with disabilities. We will explore small changes and actions that can make a big difference toward creating spaces where everyone can find a sense of belonging.
Workshop facilitator: Laura Bulk
Expounding on lived experiences of resilience through creativity and self-governance grounded on the philosophy of Ubuntu. We will examine “glocal” resistance to white supremacy/ capitalism/ patriarchy and talk about the role of narrative in creating characters that play within identity politics, in a context of a society governed by white supremacist ideology. Exploring the ideas of white supremacy as a current Western cultural norm and henceforth looking at antiracism as a form of decolonization and rejection of the forced imposition of Western cultural values.
Workshop facilitator: Trophy Ewila and Lady Dia
The workshop, facilitated by registered clinical counsellor Sacha Médiné, will explore the experience of Blackness, and the toll of anti-Blackness, in the aftermath of events in 2020. This was a year that featured a rapid move from the longstanding invisibilization of anti-Blackness to a hyper visibility and newfound focus in response to the global Black Lives Matter uprising.
Participants will be invited to explore the impacts of, and responses of Black folks to, these dynamics, and to engage with their own participation in, or resistance to, ongoing anti-Blackness in its new context.
Workshop facilitator: Sacha Médiné
What does it mean to be Muslim in higher education? Drawing from personal experience, storytelling, and research, this workshop explores how religious identity impacts the experience of students, staff and faculty, the interventions that help, and how we might creatively imagine a campus that meets the needs of all.
Workshop facilitator: Shagufta Pasta
Join Love Intersections' Jen Sungshine and David Ng who will share their experiences as local documentary filmmakers and community collaborators. Presenting their film work, they will outline the challenges and joys of the collaborative filmmaking practice, and share strategies for building social trust while upholding artistic integrity and creative activism.
Workshop facilitators: Jen Sungshine and David Ng
What does it mean to be Muslim in higher education? Drawing from personal experience, storytelling, and research, this workshop explores how religious identity impacts the experience of students, staff and faculty, the interventions that help, and how we might creatively imagine a campus that meets the needs of all.
Workshop facilitator: Shagufta Pasta
Join Lady Dia and Trophy as they continue their conversation on expounding on lived experiences of resilience through creativity and self-governance grounded on the philosophy of Ubuntu. We will examine “glocal” resistance to white supremacy/ capitalism/ patriarchy and talk about the role of narrative in creating characters that play within identity politics, in a context of a society governed by white supremacist ideology. Exploring the ideas of white supremacy as a current Western cultural norm and henceforth looking at antiracism as a form of decolonization and rejection of the forced imposition of Western cultural values.
Workshop facilitators: Lady Dia and Trophy Ewila
A virtual introduction to decolonizing your relations to the land, your work and your community. This workshop will include an overview of decolonizing practices and will require self-reflection and for participants to be prepared to share and discuss their own experiences. While the teachings & critical Indigenous theory shared by Ta7talíya Michelle Nahanee are grounded in Squamish world view, they are applicable across Indigenous Territories. Whether you are new to these conversations & practices, or you are wanting to reconnect to, and re-inspire, your unlearning journey, join us!
Workshop facilitators: Ta7talíya