Full Description
As a global crisis, COVID-19 was a moment of reckoning for the academy. Unmasking Academia uses the pandemic as a catalyst for reflection on the intensification and intersectional impacts of white supremacy, colonialism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and misogyny in higher education. Highlighting the expertise of historically excluded and currently underrepresented faculty and students, the collection draws attention to the ineffectiveness of performative university equity policies and the need to address the increasing labour demands of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) on those who are most impacted by exclusionary institutional policies and practices. Using methodologies such as auto-ethnography, policy analysis, and Indigenous ways of knowing, the authors chart new pathways toward social justice and meaningful institutional transformation. By investigating post-secondary institutions' superficial commitment to EDI, the authors are able to offer critique and also suggest strategies for change. Unmasking Academia provides critical insights on survival and resistance along with recommendations for making higher education an equitable and just space. Provocative and incisive, the book is a rich resource for policy administrators, researchers, and teachers, and, indeed, for all involved in education. Contributors: Ayesha Mian Akram, Pallavi Banerjee, Sepideh Borzoo, Enakshi Dua, Isabel Fandino, Leah K. Hamilton, Carl E. James, Hee-Jung S. Joo, Erin Keating, Gabrielle Ellen Weasel Head, Corinne L. Mason, Nardos Omer, Fawziah Rabiah-Mohammed, Irene Shankar, Carieta Thomas, Ethel Tungohan.
Contents
Introduction, Corinne L. Mason and Irene Shankar
Part 1: Space Invaders
1. The Weight of it All: Navigating Graduate School as a Muslim Mother during a Pandemic / Ayesha Akram
2. Struggles of International Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Spectre of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policies at the University / Sepideh Borzoo, Isabel Fandino and Pallavi Banerjee
3. "We missed out on a lot": The Pandemic, Schooling, and Black Youth / Carl E. James
Part 2: Communities of Care
4. "Nobody's gonna talk to you about that": Methodological Considerations in Research with Undocumented Caribbean Care Workers during COVID-19 / Carieta Thomas
5. Community-Engaged Research with Refugee Communities During COVID-19: Overcoming University Inaction / Fawziah Rabiah-Mohammed and Leah K. Hamilton
6. Institutionalized Feminist Loneliness: An exchange on pandemic disruptions to research / Corinne L. Mason and Irene Shankar
7. 'Dissident Friendships' during COVID-Times / Ethel Tungohan
Part 3: A Future Otherwise
8. Resisting Racism through a Pedagogy of Resilience / Gabrielle Ellen Weasel Head
9. Abolishing Grades: "Ungrading" to Foster Freedom, Creativity, and Autonomy in the Pandemic Classroom / Hee-Jung S. Joo, Erin Keating, and Nardos Omer
Afterword: Exposed and Exacerbated: The Social and Institutional Conditions Underlying the Years of The Pandemic / Enakshi Dua
