What’s New for November 2014

November 2 to 9 is Holocaust Education Week

“Holocaust Education Week brings generations of communities together who share a commitment not only to learning but to action.” Several events will be taking place across the city with a specific focus this year on collaboration. Keep an eye out for the following events:

“Comfort Women” in Asia: Alone in Atrocity, Together for Justice – Monday, November 3
Toronto ALPHA at New College, University of Toronto

Narrative of Survival: Jewish and Aboriginal Dialogue – Saturday, November 8
First Narayever Congregation

UNFILTERED: Truth talks

UTSC
Theme: Race, Gender and Culture in Higher Ed
With partnership support from the Equity & Diversity Office (UTSC)
Tuesday, Nov 4, 2014 – 4 pm to 5:30 pm
Management Wing, MW 130
Facebook Event Page

UTSG
Theme: Responding to Racism
With partnership support from Hart House
Wednesday, Nov 5, 2014 – 3 pm to 4:30 pm
Meeting Room, Hart House
Facebook Event Page

Come through, connect and build community!

FREE FOOD!

Look out for more information on our Facebook page!

UNFILTERED is a space for students, facilitated by students, to openly discuss race, culture, creed and their intersections. Now in its second year, UNFILTERED is expanding to include tri-campus discussions. Discussions will take place monthly on the St. George campus (October to February) and once per term at UTM (October & January) and UTSC (November & February).

Ulead Anti-Racism Training Open to All Students!

Difficult Conversations: Opening Minds and Spaces
Presenter: Nataleah Hunter-Young, Program Coordinator, Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office

What is anti-racism? How can you, as a student leader, help advance anti-racism through your club and events? Participants in this session will build on basic understandings of race and racism and discuss key strategies for creating safer and more inclusive spaces for dialogue. How do we work through and across differences? How can we challenge each other in constructive ways that support a common goal? How do we anticipate and recognize the signs of exclusion? Join us as we explore these questions and more.

Learning Outcomes:

Identify some of the challenges from current and past semesters that have led to conflict and exclusion within the group.
Review individual and club goals, as it pertains to advancing anti-racism and creating more inclusive spaces going forward.
Explore anti-racist strategies for inclusion.

Wednesday November 12, 2014 3:30 – 5 pm
Koffler Student Centre, Room 313
Register Here (at the bottom of the page)

The Cultural Club Network

For student executive members of recognized student clubs at U of T

Do you hold a leadership position in a Cultural Club at U of T?

Are you looking for an opportunity to network with other clubs?

The Cultural Club Network is organized by the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office and will meet once per term. Students will have the opportunity to connect with a broad diversity of cultural clubs within the University while learning from and with one another, networking, collaborating and engaging in facilitated skills development. Potential session topics include: mentorship, leadership, and engaging cultural diversity, equity and inclusion in the work of your club.

Our first meeting will be on the theme of mentorship! Does your club have a mentorship or tutoring program? If not, are you considering starting one? Hear about the resources that U of T has to support student mentorship initiatives!

Thursday, November 13 – 3 pm to 6 pm
WI 2002, Wilson Hall
New College
FREE FOOD!

Contact Nataleah Hunter-Young, ARCDO program coordinator, at n.hunter.young@utoronto.ca for more information or to join the group!
Partnership support provided by Student Life and New College.

Expressions of Faith – Race & Faith Dialogues

How does your religion impact the ways others interact with you?

Do media portrayals impact the ways students of certain religions are perceived or feel?

Is the classroom actually secular?

Expressions of Faith, as this year’s Race & Faith Dialogue theme, will explore the ways in which students interact with their faith, engage in faith practices and express their faiths on campus, whether they are wearing it, studying it, performing it, and/or struggling with it. This session seeks to spark dialogue about the ways students navigate their faith on campus, how that’s impacted by race, what barriers exist and what the University could do to help eliminate these barriers.

UTSG
Wednesday, November 19 – 3 pm to 5 pm
Quiet Room (Room 307),
Multi-Faith Centre

UTM
Tuesday, November 25 – 3 pm to 5 pm
Location to be announced…

UTSC
Wednesday, November 26 – 3 pm to 5 pm
Management Wing, MW 130

The Race & Faith Dialogues are presented by the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office with partnership support from the Multi-Faith Centre, the Equity & Diversity Office (UTM), the Equity & Diversity Office (UTSC), and the Ecumenical Chaplaincy of U of T.

Co-Curricular Community-Engaged Learning Opportunities

These are semester long opportunities that allow you to learn more about yourself and develop your skills while you volunteer in the community.

Fudger House
Registration open until November 5
http://uoft.me/fudger
You can get involved with Fudger House by becoming a Friendly Visitor. You will be paired up with a resident and you will have the opportunity to visit with them 1-2 times a week for an hour. You will provide a vital community link for the resident. You will spend some one-on-one time and can make new friends as you discuss the weather, current events or memories from years past.
From 3 to 3
Registration open until November 5
http://uoft.me/from3to3
Do you enjoy working with young children? Do you like reading and telling children’s stories? Become a From 3 to 3 tutor. Partner with a classroom for 8 weeks and read stories to help develop children’s language and social reasoning abilities for school success. The commitment is 2-3 hours a week.
Portage Trail Middle School Youth Mentorship Program
Registration open until November 5
http://uoft.me/ymp
Become a Youth Mentor at Portage Trail Community Public School. As a mentor you will be part of your mentees life and will help support them in a before school literacy program. Portage Trail is located in the west end neighbourhood of Weston/Mount Dennis.
TDSB Tutors
Registration open until November 5
http://uoft.me/tdsbccp
10 more tutors needed for the TDSB tutors in the high schools from January-June. Use your knowledge and skills to benefit students in high school. Tutors work in partner schools to help teachers support learning in their classrooms. We are in high need of students that can tutor Math and Science

For more information contact Kristina Minnella, Coordinator at the Centre for Community Partnerships, at kristina.minnella@utoronto.ca.

More Events

(If you wish to request that your event be included in our monthly newsletter, please submit requests to antiracism@utoronto.ca at least one week prior to the beginning of the new month.)

November 3, 6:30 pm – 8 pm, Multi-Faith Centre (UTSG): Religious Freedom in an International Context: A Panel Discussion with Andrew Bennett, Canadian Ambassador for Religious Freedom. The panel, moderated by Professor Pamela Klassen, Department for the Study of Religion, will explore religious freedom in an international context. Panel respondents include Professor Ruth Marshall, Department for the Study of Religion and Department of Political Science, and Professor Melissa Williams, Department of Political Science. Refreshments to follow with performance by a quartet from the Ismaili Youth Choir. Sponsored by the Toronto Area Interfaith Council, the U of T Religion in the Public Sphere Program, the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, and the U of T Multi-Faith Centre.

November 3, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, William Doo Auditorium (UTSG): “Comfort Women” in Asia: Alone in Atrocity, Together for Justice. During the years of the Asia-Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Army mobilized more than 200,000 women from across Asia into a military sexual system. Those women coming from distinct culture, identity, heritage, and memory were all euphemistically referred to as “Comfort Women”. Their ongoing struggle has brought them together in solidarity for their rights as women and as human beings. Come and join us for an evening where we reflect on the long-lasting legacy and resilience of the “Comfort Women” survivors and discuss approaches to move towards peace and reconciliation.

November 5, 4 pm – 5:30 pm, Health Sciences Building (UTSG): HIV Cure Research: Ethical Challenges and Implications for Developing Countries. Stuart Rennie, PhD Associate Professor, Dept. of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Abstract: Over the last quarter century, the struggle against HIV/AIDS has concentrated on preventing new infections and treating persons living with HIV. Intriguing clinical cases have recently suggested another possibility: curing HIV. This talk will briefly describe these clinical cases and key research approaches in the newly emerging HIV cure field. I will then present conceptual issues surrounding the notion of cure and associated notions such as eradication and remission. Lastly, I will present some crosscutting ethical challenges related to HIV ‘cure’ research, paying particular attention to the implications of this innovative and growing research field for high-HIV prevalence, low-resource settings.

November 5, 5 pm – 6:30 pm, CCIT 180 (UTM): Gender in Wonderland: Zackary Druker, Rhys Ernst on the Art and Play of Gender in “Relationship” and “She Gone Rogue”. Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst are contemporary artists who have come to international attention for the intimate and diaristic recording of their relationship as a transgender couple transitioning in opposite directions (Ernst becoming male from female, and Drucker female from male). Their acts of self-fashioning entail shifting subjectivities and identities, playing both subject and object in their creative negotiation and collaborations. In Drucker’s words, “Our bodies are a microcosm of the greater external world as it shifts to a more polymorphous spectrum of sexuality. We are all collectively morphing and transforming together, and this is just one story of an opposite-oriented transgender couple living in Los Angeles, the land of industrialized fantasy.” The artists were recently featured in the Whitney Biennial, New York, 2014. Sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts, 2014-15.

November 11, 3 pm – 4:30 pm, Spigel Hall (UTM): Interfaith Circle. What is the Interfaith Circle? Gather 1-2 times per term; members include students from faith and humanistic student groups; sub-groups provide highlights of activities; group prepares a summary of activities and interfaith recommendations for future; brings together Programming and Building Interfaith subgroups. Chaired by Cat Criger, Aboriginal Elder with Student Life and Nythalah Baker, Equity & Diversity Officer.

November 13, 5 pm – 8 pm, Robarts Library (UTSG): FILMANTHROPY — V for Vendetta. Multifaith Center is kicking off a new film series called Filmanthropy and our first film this month will be V for Vendetta, based on the critically acclaimed comic book by Alan Moore. Filmanthropy is a free drop in film series interested in framing questions of identity and the human condition around art as a platform for discussion. Feel free to drop in any time or leave any time, and stay around after the movie is over to talk over free food or grab something to go. Everyone is welcome, and the building is accessible for wheelchair access.

Disclaimer: This newsletter may contain links to non- Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office (ARCDO) websites. These links are provided solely as convenience to you. The ARCDO is not responsible for the content of any non-ARCDO websites and does not endorse the information contained therein.