On Oct. 1, McGill’s Macdonald Campus hosted Jessica Ware as the keynote speaker at the 2021 edition of Queer History Month at McGill. Ware is a professor of entomology at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History. In her talk “Diversifying Entomology,”[Read More…]
Tag: diversity
Body diversity and “The Body Issue”
On Sept. 4, ESPN The Magazine released the 11th edition of “The Body Issue.” This year’s issue boasts 17 covers, all featuring world-renowned athletes completely nude. The artfully-shot photographs are meant to celebrate these athletes and the bodies that allow them to perform at the highest level. The accompanying interviews frequently[Read More…]
Inclusive hiring requires more than a quota
Dalhousie University has recently come under fire for limiting its search for a new vice-provost student affairs to “racially visible persons and Aboriginal peoples,” in an effort to boost minority faculty representation. Critics have condemned the policy as discriminatory against white people, and argue that hiring based on race, rather than[Read More…]
Evaluating gendered bias in course evaluations
‘Tis the season—for course evaluations. At McGill, the online form asks students to effectively grade their professors, by identifying the degree to which they agree with statements such as, “Overall, this instructor is an excellent teacher.” These data are then made available to all McGill students, but open-ended feedback is[Read More…]
Hiring discrimination exists—it’s time for universities to acknowledge it
In her Nov. 4 column in The Globe and Mail, Margaret Wente denounced the decision of Universities Canada, a national university lobbying group, to release the demographic data for each university faculty in a national database. Her argument is that universities have come to prioritize inclusivity over performance; hiring staff,[Read More…]
WIIS holds first public event on women in peacekeeping
The McGill chapter of Women in International Security (WIIS) held its first public event, “Women in Peacekeeping,” on Oct. 11, which called for increasing the participation of women in the United Nations’ (UN) peacekeeping forces. The talk was hosted by WIIS executive director, Cassandra Steer, who has worked with McGill[Read More…]
STEMM Diversity @ McGill launches at Redpath Museum
Nearly a year after its inception, the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine (STEMM) Diversity @ McGill initiative, which aims to promote diversity in STEMM fields, launched an exhibition under the same name at the Redpath Museum on Oct. 11. The exhibit, which is still growing, features interviews with women and[Read More…]
It’s not just humans who can be biased
The tech industry has long been a demographically homogeneous place, and there has been a lot of conversation about how to make the industry more inclusive for people who don’t fit the stereotype of the Silicon Valley tech bro. However, making the products themselves more inclusive hasn't received as much public[Read More…]
Campus Spotlight: Social Equity and Diversity Education Office
The Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) Office at McGill provides equity education across campus and beyond. Through equity training sessions, workshops, and advising services for students and faculty members, SEDE aims to serve the needs of marginalized voices on campus. Founded in 2005 by Associate Director Veronica Amberg, SEDE[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Harry Potter and the burden of diversity
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been in the news regularly for her steadfast refusal to let her series fade from public consciousness. These efforts range from small pieces uploaded to the website, pottermore.com, to the addition of an entirely new instalment in the form of a play script. In the[Read More…]
