Project title: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Canadian Geography
Geography as a discipline has contributed to perpetuating injustice around the world. Geography through its tools (e.g., maps), ideas/theories (e.g., environmentalism), and early influential practitioners (e.g., Immanuel Kant – among the first to obtain formal appointment in geography), has been instrumental in imperialism, racial capitalism, colonialism, slavery, racism, and violence which still oppress or impact several groups in present day. In the more recent history, scholars within the discipline have been calling out geography’s whiteness and the inhospitable, exclusionary and marginalizing culture it creates for geographers of colour. Geography departments have a mandate to train the next generation of geography scholars. Understanding the extent to which geography departments expose students to diversity-related ideas is paramount for eliciting changes aimed at improving diversity within the discipline and beyond. The project has a three-pronged objective: a) examine faculty ethnic diversity changes over a 20-year period, b) examine the extent to which geography courses incorporate EDI themes, and c) examine geography department’s public posture on EDI.
