The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), along with several of its service centres, such as the Womyn’s Centre, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre (GSRC), and the Carleton Disability Awareness Centre (CDAC), are hosting a series of events on campus to promote intersectionality from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3.
Harar Hall, a co-ordinator at the Womyn’s Centre described “intersectionality” in an email.
“Very simplistically, it’s the understanding that people are complex and layered. It is recognition that the layer of people’s identity (gender, sexuality, race, class, ability etc.) impact the way we see the world but also the way that the world sees, treats, and gives opportunities to us.”
Hall said there are four events being hosted throughout the week, such as an “Anti-Oppression Seminar” and “Budgeting Brunch.” On Oct. 31, there was a discussion entitled “Food for Thought” that focused on eating disorders and intersectional identities.
Céline Brown MacDonald, the administrative co-ordinator at the CDAC said in an email that the centre hosted a closed discussion for women with disabilities on Nov. 1. She said the goal of the discussion was to “allow students to build friendships and support systems with other students who share similar experiences.”
According to her, students were receptive to the idea of a closed discussion and gave the CDAC the idea in the first place.
“We posted an anonymous survey over the summer to see what students wanted to get out of our services. We received several responses outlining the importance of being able to just sit back, relax, and chat with other students who share similar experiences,” Brown MacDonald said.
According to Hall, the purpose of the week is to “highlight the very tangible ways intersectionality manifests itself into the lives of individuals.”
“Looking at the ways that gender, race, sexuality and ability interact with a compound with someone’s identity as a student, or as an immigrant or as someone with different economic solvency is incredibly important and also a lot easier to contextualize,” she explained.
Brown MacDonald added that recognizing intersectionality as a concept is important “to show that individuals can identify with several minority groups, and their experiences reflect that.”
“For example, a woman with a disability might experience sexism, racism, transphobia, and/or ableism; this kind of discrimination can be felt separately, or overlap. Because CUSA has several service centers targeted towards different student populations, we wanted to create an event together to show that these identities overlap,” she said.
Hall said that she would like to see more intersectionality events in the future.
“There are so many events that we didn’t put on the schedule just because of time and planning limitations, I want us to keep doing this so we constantly have events that go through a collaborative process and resonate with so many students,” she said.
Photo by Justin Samanski-Langille
