Syllabus Deconstruction VI: Understanding and Addressing Biases in STEMM

The Decolonial Hub is collaborating with Mcgill University’s STEMM Diversity team and Ph.D Candidates of Biology: Nathalie Jreidini, Jessica Ford, and Kirsten Crandall; as well as PhD candidate of Neuroscience Hadjara Sidibe from the Université de Montreal for the sixth instalment of our syllabus deconstruction series

At this event, we call students, faculty and staff across disciplines and schools to unpack the westernized biases within the STEMM field and develop anti-colonial ways forward. To do so, we present the syllabus as an unfinished tool to concretize plural knowledges in our curriculum and pedagogy. Come and join us to build on our continued collaborative multidisciplinary, cross-peoples and cross-power events where we construct – decolonial approaches to teaching, learning and being – together.

How can you participate? Attend the discussion in person (note, there is a maximum of 25 audience members permitted in the space) or online by registering for the Zoom meeting or watching live on 4th Space's YouTube channel.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia

Speakers

Ezgi Ozyonum is a Public Scholar and Ph.D. candidate in Education at Concordia University. She is currently a researcher and event coordinator at Decolonial Hub. Her research brings critical and decolonial perspectives to the study and practice of decolonizing internationalization. Through her work, she seeks to interrupt common colonial patterns of higher education engagement.

Jamilah Dei-Sharpe, is a Ph.D ABD in Sociology at Concordia University, specializing in Critical Gender Studies, Black/Afro-Diasporic Studies, Decolonial Pedagogy and Anti-Racist Education. She is a SSHRC Joseph Armand Bombardier recipient for her doctoral research “Black Masculinities in Canada: A Multimedia Representation of Black Empowerment and Community Engagement”. Her passion for cultivating systemic transformation and empowerment for the global majority drives her research and educational consultancy as the founding director of the Decolonial Perspectives and Practises Hub, founder of Respond to Crisis Canada, co-founder of the National Black Graduate Network, and as a student mentor and supervisor. Learn more at www.jamilahds.com & www.respondtocrisis.com  

Kirsten Crandall is a Joint PhD student supervised by Dr. Virginie Millien (McGill University) and Dr. Jeremy Kerr (University of Ottawa). She studies the ecological and environmental factors affecting the pathogens, ticks, and vertebrate hosts in Canada. She integrates a wide variety of methods such as meta-analyses, field surveys, genetic work, and transplant experiments to disentangle this complex disease system. In her spare time, Kirsten is a coordinator for STEMM Diversity’s mentorship program for under-represented McGill students, a writer and translator for the BioMatters magazine at uOttawa, and a science outreach enthusiast. 

Nathalie Jreidini is a PhD candidate at McGill University Biology department and Repdath Museum. Her research largely involves the movement patterns of animals in the face of environmental disturbance. Apart from her career as an ecologist, she is also a workshop facilitator with both Teaching & Learning Services and Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies at McGill. Through both roles, she is interested in science communication and education, and creating inclusive spaces in the sciences.

Hadjara Sidibé is a Ph.D. candidate in Neurosciences at Université de Montréal. Her research focuses on shedding lights on molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders. She is currently STEM content coordinator at ARPP. Through her activities, she aspire to ignite meaningful conversations in order to innovate science policies and improve STEMM fields by incorporating the voices often forgotten.

Jessica Ford is a PhD candidate in Biology at the Redpath Museum at McGill University. She studies the ecological effects of toad tadpoles on their aquatic environment and raises endangered toad tadpoles for release. She is equally passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion in science. She is the co-founder and Chair of STEMM Diversity @ McGill, and the author and illustrator of its colouring and activity book. Jessica is also an outreach enthusiast, and sits on both local and international EDI committees to promote positive change.