Transformation Cafe - Finding Sanctuary

Our final Transformation Cafe of the year highlights the research of Sanctuary Scholars at the OSI and beyond. How do universities participate in bordering practices, even when they present themselves as welcoming or inclusive spaces?

This Transformation Cafe explores how we can create university cultures that are hospitable to students with precarious immigration status through conversation with researchers and community leaders working across Canada and the UK. Featuring Daniella Chan and Montserrat Ballesteros from the Finding Sanctuary project, Brantella Williams and Fatima Mohamed from the S4 Collective and the Access, Protection, and Welcome project, and facilitated by Rebecca Murray from the University of Sheffield and the Access, Protection, and Welcome project, this panel will invite collective reflection on how “sanctuary” is imagined, practiced, and constrained within university spaces.

Drawing on emerging research, lived experience, and activism for systemic institutional change, panellists will examine the discourses that shape how students with precarious status are understood and treated on campus, the barriers they face in accessing and moving through higher education, and the limits of institutional responses that focus only on inclusion without structural change. Speakers will explore questions such as: How do discourses of deservingness shape which migrants are welcomed into higher education, under what conditions, and at what cost? And, what can we learn from students’ experiences about the limits of institutional inclusion when the institution itself is embedded in colonial, nationalist, and bordering logics?

This Café invites participants not only to listen, but to think about our collective responsibility in creating more just universities that are welcoming to all.

Location + Time

When: Wednesday, April 29th, 2:00pm -3:30pm

Where: 288 Church Street, (DCC building), room 707/709

Access: ASL interpretation. This is a mask-mandatory event. Please wear a mask when not eating, and we will have surgical masks available. For questions about access, please email [email protected]

Mutual Aid

In the spirit of community care and mutual aid, The Sanctuary Students Support & Solidarity Collective, commonly known as the S4 Collective is looking for donations to be used for scholarship. The S4 Collective supports students with precarious or non-formal immigration status in accessing education. Many face barriers like high international fees and ineligibility for financial aid, making post-secondary pathways difficult.

They are raising $10,000 to fund scholarships and sustain their work. Your support helps make education more equitable and accessible for all.

Donate and learn more here.

About Transformation Cafes

The Office of Social Innovation launched our new event series titled Transformation Cafes in 2024. These panel events explore our strategic theme: social justice approaches to accessing education and campus space. Transformation cafes are discussions that are open to the TMU community and the public that invite people from different disciplines and communities to engage in dialogue around a common issue.

Previous events in this series critiqued inclusion into a normative system and offered different perspectives on safety and security on campus space. Stay tuned for our next Transformation Cafe in May that will center the intersection of disability, death, and access to housing.

Learn More

https://www.torontomu.ca/social-innovation/initiatives/programs/transformationcafes/

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Host or Publisher Office of Social Innovation at Ryerson University