The City Institute at York, and the Geography Departments at York University, University of Toronto – St. George, University of Toronto – Scarborough, and Concordia University invite you to a one-day alternative American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting on Friday April 7th 2017 at York University, in HNES Building, Room 140 from 9am to 5pm.
Please join us for two morning panel sessions featuring key speakers (listed alphabetically below) on the effects of the Trump and Trudeau administration policies, followed by discussion groups in the afternoon.
Leora Gansworth
Standing Rock and beyond: the new and ongoing failure of the US & Canadian governments in their treaty relationships
Kristi Leora Gansworth is a poet and PhD student in the Department of Geography at York University. She is a citizen of Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg. In addition to her studies, she is working on a full-length collection of poetry. All her work is an ongoing engagement with her existence as Anishinaabekwe, in service to her ancestors and all those who are coming.
Emily Gilbert
Canada-US Border Collaboration: Costs and Consequences
Emily Gilbert is cross-appointed between the Canadian Studies program and the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. Her research examines how security logics are reconfiguring Canada’s borders and the implications for rights and accountability.
Niloofar Golkar
On Trump's Travel Ban: Possibilities and Limitations of Resistance within and beyond Academia
Niloofar Golkar is a Toronto-based activist and journalist with interests in environmental resistance and labor movement from the feminist, anti-racist, and class-based point of view. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at York University and on the editorial board of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action.
Mostafa Henaway
The Trump moment and fortress Canada: Dispelling the myths of Canada's open borders and the tasks ahead for migrant justice in Canada
Mostafa Henaway is a long time organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, and member of Tadamon Montreal! Mostafa is also an author and research assistant at McGill University. He has been active in migrant justice struggles in Montreal and Toronto.
Sharmeen Khan
Struggle for Labour Rights for Immigrants and Migrant Workers at York University
Sharmeen Khan is a long-time organizer and media activist based in Toronto. She currently organizes with No One Is Illegal, Toronto, and is on the editorial collective of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action. She has been working at CUPE 3903 at York University and is currently on leave from the union to coordinate the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Syrus Marcus Ware
The Art of Change: Octavia Butler, Radical Performance and the Movement for Black Lives in Toronto
Syrus is a representative of Black Lives Matter, a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. He uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture. Syrus is also co-curator of The Cycle, a two-year disability arts performance initiative of the National Arts Centre and is also working on a Ph.D. at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Julie Young
Refugees, Sanctuary and the Safe Third Country Agreement in the Trump/Trudeau Era
Dr. Julie E.E. Young is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on collaborative advocacy across the Canada-US border in response to the Central American refugee ‘crisis’ of the late-1980s. Her broader research program concerns North America’s borders in the context of global processes as well as what local practices tell us about where, how, and for whom borders work. Julie has worked as a researcher in academic, non-profit, and public-sector settings.
The afternoon will be devoted to strategizing about next steps geographers (and others!) can take, inside and outside the academy, to respond to the issues raised in the morning panels, as well as other concerns. Attendees will also participate in shaping the structure of the afternoon discussions.
The meeting is free but online registration is required by end of day (11:59pm) on April 5, 2017. Please follow the link below to register:
The meeting has been funded at York University by the Department of Social Science, Department of Geography, Graduate Program in Geography, the Faculty of Environmental Studies, the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and the Vice-President Academic & Provost. At the University of Toronto funding has been provided by the Department of Human Geography - Scarborough and the Department of Geography – St. George.