A message from Dr. Carrie Smith, VP EDI

Many of us working towards EDI in this university have spent the last two weeks trying to listen and to learn more about the hurt, harm and fear, as well as the possible ways through – and eventually forward – together. Many of us have been asked many times some version of this question: How can we speak about equity, diversity and inclusion, about care and safety and anti-racism, about decolonization and reconciliation, when we call in the police to forcibly dismantle a protest encampment built through a collaboration among Palestinian, Jewish and Indigenous activists and allies as a resistance to genocide? Many of us are asking this same question of ourselves, alongside other soul-searching questions: 

How can I be committed to what might be when what is is filled with confusion, and is contradictory and antithetical to those values I hold personally and professionally? How do I work to carry out acts of care within an institution whose recent actions seem care-less? How can I love a place that breaks my heart? “What, politically, might be made of grief besides a cry for war”? (Judith Butler, Precarious life: The powers of mourning and justice, p. xii). 

There is no doubt about it: the events of the past two weeks have had an impact on us as humans and as a collective. For some, the events have rattled belief in the university’s commitment to advancing equity, justice and access. While we work through these questions with raw tenderness of grief and anger, many are also wrestling with how to remain accountable to precisely those equity, justice and access commitments. Many people have expressed fear about whether they can safely speak to these convictions and commitments at all. 

All of this can be true at once – we can be angry, disappointed and even disgusted while also being resolute in our commitments and open to possibility. I witness many members of this community who are determined to continue to identify and change how various forms of harm and violence are at play within their own actions, and to work towards the same in the collectives that make up this university. I witness those who are determined to seek out and prioritize non-punitive, systemic and collaborative ways through hard things, including those of which we may – wittingly or unwittingly – be a part. Because, we are often complicit in the very forces of harm and inequity we work against: there is no true "outside" to most human and ecological injustices. I am resolute in my commitment to continue this work on myself, my relationships and the networks and institutions of which I am a part. There are so many extraordinary people working in these ways, both inside and outside the U of A's formal EDI structure. Many of the incredible people working for change from within the institution do not have the privilege of leaving EDI work here without significant costs to themselves – and to us. How do we honour the decisions and contributions of those who have chosen to continue this important work both from outside and from within formal EDI structures? 

So long as there is a glimmer of hope that we can have any desired impact from within, I remain resolute in my commitment to work with anyone who stays, who leaves and who has always worked from the outside to try to bring us closer to the community and institution we want to be.

This is a call to keep open our imagination around the multiple ways people can contribute to equity, justice and access. Sometimes deep breaking, like this one, is the first step to remaking.

We believe that just as universities have often been complicit in perpetuating harm and exclusion, they are also sites of vocal, creative and critical transformation; spaces of deep collaboration, creativity, generosity and innovation. They are places where policy can be mobilized not only for policing, but also for world-making, crafted to bring about an institution in response to intellectual and human flourishing. To get there, is it incumbent upon us to try to rebuild institutional and inter-relational trust around the critical right to many forms of dissent and the crucial practices that support dialogue across differences.

In “Continuing Our Stories,” which was released on May 1, I indicated that what we heard are the stories that will define the direction of the VP EDI portfolio for the coming years. This is a moment for continuing to listen, hard. It is a moment for us to act in relation to what was and is shared, to practice embodying the principles of integrity and integration precisely when these aspirations prove most elusive and essential. We can’t offer strategic direction without taking a moment to figure out how we can best serve this moment, and how our interactions in this moment could serve to catalyze more just ways of being together. How we collectively handle this will impact the direction of this office. We are committed to going forward with EDI, but we must do so thoughtfully and in the spirit of mutuality. We have to take on today, first, so that we can take on our future. Because we are our glimmer of hope; our radicality is working together. “We become — with each other or not at all” (Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, p. 4).

Shaping a More Equitable and Accessible University: How should our story continue?

The Office of the Vice-Provost (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) invites you to join in holding space for an honest conversation about equity, diversity and inclusion efforts at this moment. With the release of the document “Continuing Our Stories” on May 1, shortly before the events of May 11, we have to ask: How should our story continue? Please join us in a session to share thoughts and explore ways to be in this moment as we work toward an institution that centres equity, access and justice in all that it does.

Thursday, May 30 - 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. |  Register via Zoom