Learn more about our 2022 keynote speakers:

• Visiting keynote:
  Dr. Ann Braithwaite, professor and coordinator, Diversity and Social Justice Studies, University of Prince Edward Island
• Memorial University keynote:
  Dr. Delores V. Mullings, vice-provost, equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism, and professor in the School of Social Work

Dr. Ann Braithwaite

Professor and coordinator, Diversity and Social Justice Studies,
University of Prince Edward Island

Who's on your syllabus, and how does that matter?

In 2013, theorist Sara Ahmed provocatively asked, “who appears? And: who does not appear?” in our academic curricula and conferences, positing that “the reproduction of a discipline can be the reproduction of these techniques of selection, ways of making certain bodies and thematics core to the discipline, and others not even part.”

The question of citational practices, her questions remind us, are always also equity issues, reflecting often unacknowledged assumptions not only about what gets taken for granted as important knowledge, but about who is included—excluded—as knowers. What perspectives and voices are made visible and centered in the choices we make for our syllabi and in our classroom practices? What is overlooked or rendered invisible? And how do these questions matter?

In this presentation, I want to go through a number of ways in which the issue of “citational politics” challenges us to revisit what we do in the classroom—in our pedagogical practices as much as in our curricular choices—and motivate us to together think more broadly about what building more inclusive knowledge and spaces—what teaching for change—must always consider.

Bio

Dr. Ann Braithwaite is professor and coordinator of Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, where she has taught since 1998. As the only faculty member appointed to the program, she teaches a wide variety of courses at every level, on topics such as Identities and Place; Monsters, Freaks, Zombies, and Cyborgs; Disability Studies; Race and Whiteness; and Theorizing Social Justice.

The co-author or co-editor of three books, with a fourth forthcoming later in 2022, Dr. Braithwaite’s scholarly work examines the ways in which disciplines—such as Women’s and Gender Studies—are constructed through languages and narratives that reflect a set of embedded ways of knowing, asking what versions of a discipline these assumptions make possible, and what possibilities they shut down.

Dr. Braithwaite is on the new Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) standing committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, in addition to several EDI committees at UPEI; both at UPEI and beyond, her passion is to engage others in exploring how to bring questions of inclusion and justice to the classroom and to curricular programming. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, educational leadership, and service awards at UPEI, the 2014 AAU Anne Marie MacKinnon Educational Leadership award, and is a 2021 3M National Teaching Fellow.

Dr. Delores V. Mullings

Vice-provost, equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism, and professor, School of Social Work, Memorial University

Teaching and learning transformation: Dangers of pivoting without critical thought and action

Occasionally something extraordinary impacts us as individuals, but rarely does anything affect everyone world-wide. In March 2020, that changed. The COVID-19 virus has and continues to affect the entire world, and quickly the new buzz word became “pivot". How do we “pivot” from this catastrophic world event to rethink and embrace teaching for change?

Utilizing the term “pivot” as a foundation, I will discuss past teaching and learning challenges that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and what must be addressed before we can achieve teaching and learning transformation. I want to disrupt notions of belonging, safety, and inclusion, while juxtaposing them with teaching and learning assets at Memorial. Participants will be invited to consider how our world has changed and what they can do to contribute to creating a better world so that students can realize their full potential in all their complexities.

Building on individual strengths, you will engage in interactive group conversation to develop creative ideas that can be applied in the classroom to support students’ growth into rockstars. Everyone will be gifted with strategies that they can implement immediately as we work towards eliminating systemic learning and teaching barriers so that students can thrive and succeed as global citizens.

Bio

Dr. Delores V. Mullings is Memorial’s first vice-provost (equity, diversity and inclusion) and an award-winning, engaging and challenging professor in the School of Social Work. Her work with students has been recognized across the institution as well as provincially and nationally with the YWCA Women of Distinction Award (Education and Mentorship), 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women Honoree, President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching (Faculty), and an appointment as Chair in Teaching and Learning in a competitive process in the School of Social Work.

Her interdisciplinary scholarship explores decolonizing post-secondary education, mental health and wellness, LGBTQ+ concerns, the Black Church, aging, migration, community engagement, mothering and parenting using critical pedagogies; in particular, anti-Black racism, Africentric theory and critical race theory.

Dr. Mullings’ research informs her teaching and learning pedagogy; she has a strong history of community engaged scholarship including community collaboration, supporting students in community service-learning projects, and partnering with interdisciplinary scholars nationally and internationally. She has an innate love for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) which is exemplified in the decolonized learner-centred, community-engaged approach that she employs by integrating a variety of teaching and learning pedagogy to challenge and engage learners in ways that respect their knowledge, life experiences, agency and differing social locations.