Save the Date:
October 24 - 25, 2023
Teaching and Learning Against
Social Abandonment
Two days of teach-ins by scholars, activists, artists and students.
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On Tuesday October 24th and Wednesday October 25th, SSC will lead a two-day labour action, “Teaching and Learning Against Social Abandonment,” calling on workers across the country to refuse academic business as usual, and instead organize and participate in popular education workshops, teach-ins, and protest actions. Recognizing important differences in the labour conditions of various faculty and student academic workers, librarians, administrative, service and maintenance workers, SSC is calling for collective action redirecting our teaching and learning toward one another and the wellbeing of the communities within which we live and work.
The present situation in Palestine characterized by the ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza will be reflected in the discussions taking place in all of the SSC Labour action teach-ins.
Scholar Strike Canada teach-ins will live stream on the SSC YouTube channel and recordings will be posted on our website after the event. Closed Captioning will be provided for every teach-in and ASL will be provided where indicated below.
Scholar Strike Canada is made possible through financial support from Critical Health and Social Action Lab, Black Research Network, Technoscience Research Unit, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT),
Ontario College of Art & Design Faculty Association (OCADFA), Women and Gender Studies Institute,
the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, CUPE Ontario, CUPE UofT,
and generous donations from scholars across Canada.
Scholar Strike Planning Committee Members
Adil Abdillahi, Beverly Bain, Justine Basi, Kristen Bos, Arthur Burrows, Desmond Cole, Sabra Desai, Eve Haque, Rosalind Hampton, Alessandra Jodhan, Gary Kinsman, Jamie Magnusson, Jen Teixeira, Ian Tian.
TEACH-IN SCHEDULE
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
12:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Opening Teach-in
“Against Social Abandonment: The University and the World.”
The racist, colonialist and capitalist society we live in is currently based on the social abandonment of many people including unhoused and poor people; Black, Indigenous and racialized people; migrants; those affected by Covid; people with disabilities; trans and queer young people; sex workers, drug users, precarious workers; low-waged workers; international students and many more. State policies and police attacks are central to social abandonment which take place in society more generally, globally and in the post-secondary worlds. While much of the post-secondary world is directly involved in these forms of social abandonment, they are also sites of resistance to social abandonment. This is what Scholars Strike Canada is building on in this session and these teach-ins. Panelists linking the broader forms of social abandonment to what is going on in the universities and colleges will describe what social abandonment is and how we are fighting against it.
Panelists
Nahla Abdo, Carleton University
Gary Kinsman, No Pride in Policing Coalition
Courtney Skye, Yellowhead Institute
A.J. Withers, Simon Fraser University
Rinaldo Walcott, University at Buffalo
Moderated by Beverly Bain, University of Toronto Mississauga
ASL will be provided for this teach-in.
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
2:15PM - 3:45PM EST
Teach-In 2
"Refusing the Neoliberal Carrot: Academic Precarity and Solidarity"
This teach-in draws on stories of the lived experiences of precarious academic workers to explore the structural underpinnings of precarity. We pose questions regarding who precarity serves and what precarity produces.
Panelists
Vannina Sztainbok, Researcher, Organizer and Exiled Academic
Zoe Newman, York University
Sheila Batacharya, University of Toronto
Stephanie Latella, York University
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
2:25-3:45PM EST
Teach-In 3
TRACE Presents
"Unsettling Borders: Translation's Intimate Labours"
What are the histories, constraints, and possibilities of language in relation to bodies, origins, land, colonialism, gender, war, displacement, desire, and migration? This panel brings together the editor/publisher of trace, and three contributors from River in an Ocean: Essays on Translation to unsettle linguistic, cultural and political boundaries between South Asia and its (mobile) diasporas. We invite you to join us in considering translation as a form of ethical, and political labour – one that requires attentive regard of an other – and a making and unmaking of self.
Panelists
NUZHAT ABBAS is the founder and director of trace press, and editor of River in an Ocean: Essays on Translation.
NEDRA RODRIGO is a translator, academic and curator
SUNEELA MUBAYI is a translator, independent scholar
RAHAT KURD is a poet and cultural critic
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
3:55PM - 5:25PM EST
Teach-In 4
"Confronting Police and Their Clients"
Police forces don’t work in isolation, they permeate our workplaces, schools, and businesses to sow fear, gain legitimacy, and promote themselves. This panel will explore police partnerships with the oil and gas sector, universities, and public schools. We’ll hear from people working to expose and challenge these partnerships, and the broader policing regime in Canada.
Panelists
Sahra Soudi (Multimedia artist, curator, educator, and community organizer based in Hamilton, Ontario)
Chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), Hereditary Chief of the Tasyu Clan, one of the five clans of the Wet'suwet'en traditional territory, located in the central west part of British Columbia.
Moderated by Desmond Cole, Author of The Skin We're In and No Pride in Policing Coalition
ASL will be provided for this teach-in.
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
3:55PM - 5:25PM EST
Teach-In 5
"Militarized Cities: Sites of Resistance and Counter-Knowledges"
Toronto belongs to a network of “global cities,” each of which contains infrastructure necessaryto coordinate the flow of global racial capital. Global cities are therefore “assets” that must besecuritized, as evidenced by the intensification of militarized policing and surveillance. Thispanel unpacks the regimes of anti-queer and trans, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and racializedviolence that are yoked to producing cities for imperialist, fascist capitalism. We examine howthe counter-imperialist urban struggle is organized around access to a liveable life, relations ofcare, and self-determination. The pedagogies of collectivized life emerging from sites such asencampments, autonomous Indigenous zones, and queer and trans Black life are sources of hopeand inspiration for creating a better world.
Panelists
Idil Abdillahi, Assistant Professor, School of Disability Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University
Al (they/them), former encampment resident
Jennifer Jewell, former encampment resident
Chris Taylor (Otomi, Guanajuato, Central Mexico), Indigenous Culture Based Educator
Moderator:
Jamie Magnusson, University of Toronto and No Pride in Policing Coalition
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
10:00 - 11:30AM EST
Teach-In 6
"White Ethnonationalism, Hindu Nationalism and Islamophobia"
While oftentimes perceived as distinct extremist ideologies, white ethno-nationalism, Hindu nationalism, and Islamophobia constitute a surprisingly intertwined nexus which shares themes of unified identity and violent ideology with far-reaching consequences. White ethno-nationalism, characterized by the aspiration for white, homogenous ethno-states in North America and Europe, fosters xenophobic sentiments and exclusionary ideologies, particularly against non-white citizens and migrants. Meanwhile, Hindu nationalism, prevalent within India but also influential throughout Hindu diasporas, asserts the cultural and political primacy of Hinduism in India, at times encroaching upon the rights of minority groups–notably Muslims. While Islamophobia, a global concern, manifests as insidious prejudice, discrimination, and even violence against individuals or communities perceived as Muslim. Remarkably, these three modes of far-right extremism, while quite diverse on the surface and geographically separate, find common ground in their shared hostility toward Muslim others, patriarchal commitments, and dreams of a golden age of racial purity (among others).
Panelists
Fahad Ahmad, Toronto Metropolitan University
Zeinab Farokhi, University of Toronto
Azeezah Kanji, Legal Academic Writer and Journalist
Baljit Nagra, University of Ottawa
Moderated by Faiza Hirji, McMaster University
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
11:40AM - 1:10PM EST
Teach-In 7
"Protecting Decolonizing and Radical forms of Knowledges in the University"
We are witnessing a current rise in white Ethnonationalism, anti- Black, anti-indigenous, anti-Palestinian racism, queer and transphobia resulting in attacks on Black, decolonizing, Indigenous and Women, Gender, Sexuality and Trans Studies and those who teach them. The panelists in this teach-in will address these issues and creative forms of strategies to protect and resist the attacks on themselves, their teachings and research.
Panelists
Chandni Desai, University of Toronto
Megan Scribe, Toronto Metropolitan University
Qui Alexander, University of Toronto
Natalie Kouri-Towe, Concordia University
Evelyn Amponsah, Director
Moderated by Eve Haque, York University
ASL will be provided for this teach-in.
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
1:15PM - 2:15PM EST
Teach-In 8
Closed workshop at Wilfrid Laurier University
This teach-in engages Beverly Bain’s (2023) provocation to “refuse the university all its seductive, regulatory, and disciplinary institutional trappings” and imagine the terms of learning as based on collective engagement for liberation and freedom. What practices, interventions and strategies might we engage in learning to refuse the university? Using the model of the manifesto to orient oneself to the university as a site of political struggle, workshop participants will explore nodes of resistance and potential for collectively organizing intellectual work towards creativity as opposed to the logics of carcerality and accumulation.
Panelists
Alexandra Boutros, Wilfrid Laurier University
Sara Matthews, Wilfrid Laurier University
Marcia Oliver, Wilfrid Laurier University
Hillary Pimlott, Wilfrid Laurier University
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
1:20 - 2:40PM EST
Teach-In 9
"Organizing for Just and Public Education: Conversations with Migrant Students United"
With decreasing federal and provincial fundings, Canadian higher education has been increasingly privatized, particularly, through the recruitment of international students. At the same time, universities and colleges provide minimum support to care for students, who are also recently blamed for the housing crisis in Canada. This panel addresses these urgent issues by focusing on migrant students' organizing efforts in universities and colleges across Canada. Panelists link international students' struggles with broader logics of privatization and social abandonment, and discuss how we can fight it.
Panelists
Wei Chun, Formal Simon Fraser University Student and Oganizer
Anwaar Baobeid, BC Health Alliance and Organizer for Healthcare for All
Sarom Rao, Migrant Student United and Organizer
Vedanth Govi, York University Student and Campus Organizer
Harshill Dhingra, Migrant Student Worker Leader and Migrant Students United at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
Moderated by Ian Tian, University of Toronto and No Pride in Policing Coalition
ASL will be provided for this teach-in.
Musical Interlude #1
2:50-3:05PM
Performance by Faith Nolan
Faith Nolan is a folk and jazz singer-songwriter with a deep history of queer, women’s and anti-poverty activism. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, her parents and extended family were coal miners in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia of African, Miqmaq and Irish heritage. She later grew up in Toronto's working-class Cabbagetown. Her commitment to social justice comes from her life experiences and the people she grew up with, and she works through the cultural tool of music. Her music is her political work, a politics firmly rooted in her being working class, a woman, African Canadian and queer.
Faith is the founder and director of three different choirs in Toronto, Singing Elementary Teachers of Toronto; CUPE Freedom Singers , the Women of Central East Correctional Centre; Sistering Singers. produced a film, Within These Cages, about women in prison; and continues to fight for a better understanding of how poverty has created a disproportionate representation of poor women, especially black and First Nations, in Canadian prisons: “Even though we might be trembling, we still have to tell the truth,”
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
3:10 - 4:40PM EST
Teach-In 10
"The Extractive University"
This teach-in asks, What are the extractive relationships that sustain the University? What are our roles and responsibilities when we work with educational and cultural institutions who are funded by resource extraction and extractive economic models? How do we disrupt these relations?
Panelists
Jeffrey Ansloos, University of Toronto
Layla Staats, Land and Water Protector, Educator, and Filmmaker
SA Smythe, University of Toronto
Moderated by Kristen Bos, University of Toronto
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
3:10 - 4:40PM EST
Teach-In 11
"The Fight Against Prison Expansion"
In many regions across the country, prison and border officials are calling for prison and jail expansion. Proposed developments threaten to expand the harms of incarceration, destroy farmlands, and further entangle jail and prison within local economies. We’ll hear from activists, including those formerly incarcerated, who are challenging prison expansion in their local communities.
Panelists
Randy Rilery, Prison Activist, Writer and Co-Founder of the Black Power Hour
Johanne Wendy Bariteau
Colleen Lynas
Moderated by Desmond Cole, Author of The Skin We're In and No Pride in Policing Coalition
Musical Interlude #2
4:45-5:00PM
Performance by Faith Nolan
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023
5:00 - 6:00PM EST
Closing Session
"Beyond the University? Reflections and Imaginings"
This teach-in closes off the two days of the Scholar Strike Canada Labour Action on Teaching and Learning Against Social Abandonment. Panelists will share reflections and insights of ways to think about learning in the current context. Considering the corporatized, neoliberal settler colonial context of the university, can it be transformed? Is it possible to move beyond the university to imagine something different? What could this look like and what should we be doing to make learning, spaces of freedom and liveability?
Panelists
Andrea Davis, York University
Gina Starblanket, University of Victoria
Eve Haque, York University
Moderated by Idil Abdillahi, Toronto Metropolitan University
Want to catch-up with us? Watch our celebration of Labour Day 2023 and the announcement of our second labour action on our SSC YouTube Channel. It featured discussion, music, and poetry led by university workers, activists, artists and students, including Dionne Brand, Naomi Klein, Christina Sharpe Harsha Walia, Percy lezard, Rinaldo Walcott, Minsook Lee, Fred Hahn of CUPE, Syed Hussan of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, David Simao of CUPE Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee, Metro Workers, TVO workers, El Jones, Kpass drummers and many more.
Want to show your support for SSC? Sign onto our statement and endorse our event!
For inquiries and media, please contact Scholar Strike Canada at scholarstrikecanada@gmail.com
