Special Session
Career Track
Helene Wagner
Professor
University of Toronto, Canada
John Croutch
Indigenous Training Coordinator, Indigenous Initiatives
University of Toronto, Canada
Tee Duke
Assistant Director, Indigenous Initiatives
University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
Monika Havelka
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, and ENV Program Director
University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
Sanja Hinic-Frlog
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream
University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
Session Description: How can we make a Land Acknowledgment, e.g, at the beginning of an Ecology class, the start of meaningful change? Why should we consider making this a personal commitment, as individuals, as educators, and as ecologists? How can we follow up and actually put this into practice in undergraduate teaching? And what change can this bring about, how are the students likely to respond and what will make their learning meaningful?
This session is organized as a dialogue between Ecology faculty and Indigenous partners within the university. We will draw on experiences from walking the talk together and integrating aspects of decolonization and Indigenous views on conservation into undergraduate ecology courses.
We hope that this session will encourage others to make first steps beyond the Land Acknowledgment. We will provide links to resources, including suggested readings and examples of assignments.