MANDATE
* COMMITMENT
TO STUDENTS * RESEARCH
INTERESTS
COMMUNITY LINKAGES * 2007-08
CIARS THEMATIC
Mandate
The Centre for Integrative Anti-racism Studies (CIARS) is
housed in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education
of the University of Toronto. CIARS is the first and only Centre
at the University of Toronto, and to our knowledge, the first one
in Canada, to be devoted to Anti-Racism Studies in Education. CIARS's
mandate is to enhance research and teaching in the areas of equity,
anti-racism praxis and alternative knowledge(s) in education. Our
research looks at education from an integrative perspective, that
is, education as a process embedded within wider social processes.
Our work takes place both inside and outside the immediate realm
of formal education (e.g., research on inclusive schooling practices;
social welfare, legal regulations affecting communities of colour;
media representations of communities of colour).
CIARS' mandate also
includes the generation of collaborative relationships with community
and other institutional organizations.
Our Commitment
to Students
CIARS constantly works to build strong relationships with students
at OISE and the UofT community in general. CIARS provides students
who are conducting their academic research on race and racism with
support and resources that inform the work of students to carry-out
this type of research. By providing access to faculty working in
the area of anti-racism students are able to overcome some of the
difficulties in doing this kind of work.
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Research
Interests
Student and faculty interests directly involve the active participation
of community groups. These areas of interest include research on
the judicial system, immigration, unions, community development,
community-state relations and globalization and its effects on communities
of colour. Examples of recent projects in which community involvement
has been integral include a project on the impact of war and displacement
on Kurdish women’s learning, a study on South Asian, African and
Chinese communities in Toronto; a project on inclusive schooling
that seeks the input of community members on how educational activities
for youth might be improved; and a project mapping how changes in
the garment industry affect Chinese and South Asian garment workers
involving the union and the community; and ways in which Afro-Guyanese
and Indo-Guyanese women produced, sustain and transform identities
through place and history.
Community
Linkages
Over the years, CIARS has regularly collaborated with community
groups such as the Black Secretariat and the Congress of Black Women,
co-sponsoring a number of lectures. In 1998 CIARS members conducted
a series of community consultations with South Asian Family Support
Services, the Sierra Leone Friendship Association, the Cross Edge
Network, the Jamaica Canadian Association, Ontario Parents of Black
Children, the Somali Immigrant Aid Organization, the Ashanti Canadian
Multicultural Association and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands.
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SPRITUALITY CONFERENCE 2009
2nd Annual Decolonizing the Spirit: Spirituality, Healing & Renewal Conference Annual Conference June 11th, 2009.
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