Academic Year Welcome 2024

OCAD U Academic Year Welcome (AYW) 2024
Wednesday, August 28, 2024

AYW Main Event: 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm EDT 
Location: 100 McCaul St., Room 190 main auditorium + livestream viewing option
Social/reception: 4:00pm – 5:30pm at Onsite Gallery

Presented by the Vice-President, Academic & Provost and the Faculty & Curriculum Development Centre (FCDC) 

OCAD U’s Academic Year Welcome (AYW) brings together all faculty and staff to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year and to reflect as a community on shared commitments and priorities. 

Join us for this year's AYW which includes a keynote panel discussion, "Engaging in Brave and Compassionate Conversations in Art and Design Education," with Dr. Alana Butler (Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University), Dr. Sarita Srivastava (Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science, OCAD U), and Dr. Cheryl Thompson (Associate Professor, Performance, Toronto Metropolitan University).  A presentation of the Teaching Awards certificates to the 2023-2024 winners follows and a social reception to celebrate and mark the beginning of a new academic year concludes the event. See the detailed schedule below.  

All faculty and staff welcome. Please email FCDC@ocadu.ca with any questions and access requests.  

AYW Event Schedule: Wednesday, August 28, 2024
1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. EDT

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Dr. Alana Butler is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. In 2015, she graduated with a Ph.D. in Education from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She joined Queen’s University in 2017 and currently teaches in the Bachelor of Education program as well as the Graduate Studies program. Her research interests include the academic achievement of low-socio economic students, race and schooling, equity and inclusion, and multicultural education. From 2020-2023, she served as the EDI Coordinator for the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. Dr. Butler is also a former co-Chair of UCARE (The University Council on Anti-Racism and Equity).

Dr. Sarita Srivastava is Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at OCAD University. Her research areas include social movements, race, and emotion. In her previous position as a faculty member of the Departments of Sociology, Gender Studies, and Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, she developed seminars and supervised graduate students in areas such as Race, Gender and Nation, and taught a Social Justice practicum for many years. In her prior work as an activist, she was director of a national environmental campaign for Greenpeace Canada, active in community radio and environmental education, and supported Indigenous, labour and feminist social movements. Her new book, “Are You Calling Me a Racist? How to stop talking about race and start taking real antiracist action,” New York University Press, 2024 explores the conflicts, emotional responses and pedagogical practices that arise when organizations are faced with anti-racist challenges.

Dr. Cheryl Thompson is an Associate Professor in Performance at The Creative School in Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). She joined the School as Assistant Professor in 2022 and was previously faculty in Creative Industries (2018-2021). She is the author of Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty (2021) and Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture (2019), (external link)  external link (external link) . Dr. Thompson is currently director of Black Creative Lab, which extends the pedagogy of THF470: Black Creative Practices, an open elective course that unpacks Black creative origins, forms, and styles. Black Creative Lab's projects include, MobaProjects, a digital mapping of Black archival collections in Ontario; BREC, a collection and database that catalogues blackface as performance and Black community's resistance to it across time and space. Dr. Thompson is also a recipient of an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2021-2026) titled, “Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives Through Storytelling.”