Reflections on social change advocacy, activism and agency: In conversation with Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard

Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard is a community activist, a researcher at the Dalhousie School of Social Work, and a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers. The first African Nova Scotian to be appointed to the Canadian Senate, she has promoted citizen engagement and social work engagement in Canadian politics and in law-making.

Dr. Arig al Shaibah is McMaster’s new Associate Vice President Equity and Inclusion and adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research and teaching have focused on educational equity in higher education, feminist pedagogy and critical race studies. She was most recently the vice-provost (Student Affairs) and acting executive director of Human Rights and Equity Services at Dalhousie University.

Join us for an honest and engaging conversation about advancing equity-focused and anti-racist organizational change work. Arig will facilitate a dialogue with Wanda about how she came to her worldview about social change, her approach to change-making advocacy and activism, her perspective on personal agency, and what it has taken to sustain hope remain renewed and nourished in the face of resistance and backlash in these times.