The initiative is part of the ’s fourth-year course Sport and International Development (KINE 4310) that engages students in community-driven projects with local and global organizations.

Led by Associate Professor Lyndsay Hayhurst as part of a community-service learning (CSL) initiative, 45 undergraduate students partnered with seven organizations – Jays Care Foundation, Commonwealth Sport Canada, Free to Run, Skateistan, Prezdential Basketball, Canadian Women & Sport and the International Platform on Sport and Development – to effect real-world change.

Working in small groups, students contributed approximately 25 hours over the term to support partner-identified priorities related to: gender equity; monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; newcomer inclusion and belonging; climate justice; and youth development.

Each group developed a structured work plan, maintained regular communication with their partner organization and completed a midterm progress report and final report outlining their research, analysis and recommendations.

A core focus of the course was knowledge mobilization, with students producing accessible, action-oriented resources designed to be used in practice by organizations. These outputs included monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) toolkits, policy briefs, infographics, coaching resources and digital content strategies.

The course concluded with a final in-class conference where students presented their knowledge mobilization outputs to partner organizations followed by discussion and feedback from partners and peers.

Partner organizations said the presentations offered practical relevance, clarity and creativity of the presentations, noting that several recommendations would be adopted to inform ongoing programming, evaluation and policy development.

The work, Hayhurst notes, highlights how students are engaging with contemporary challenges shaping sport and development practice.

One project, for example, worked on a policy brief on trans and non-binary inclusion for Canadian Women & Sport just as the International Olympic Committee released new guidance on trans athletes participating in women’s sport.

“The real-time policy shift that is widely interpreted as excluding trans athletes from women’s sports brought urgency to the group’s presentation and sparked conversations about how community sport organizations in Canada can respond with more inclusive, equity-focused approaches,” says Hayhurst.

The Jays Care student group worked on researching how youth-facing barriers to sport participation – and the efforts to address them – shape access, retention and experiences in community baseball. The project maintained a specific gender analysis, with attention to girls’ participation in the broader community-based landscape. Working with Jays Care, students presented an infographic exploring how equity, access, safe spaces, inclusive environments and meaningful participation translate (or fail to translate) into tangible outcomes for girls in baseball across Canada.

Alexandra Blanchard, director of strategy at Jays Care Foundation and York alum, says working with the students was positive experience, noting they were enthusiastic, curious and a pleasure to engage with.

“It's energizing to connect with the next generation of students who are passionate about the field and I'd jump at the chance to do it again,” says Blanchard. “University partnerships like this are a wonderful way to bridge research and community practice, and we'd recommend the experience to any community organization looking to do the same.”

In addition to applied research experience, the CSL model supports skill development in research, communication, teamwork and problem-solving.

“This course has run for the last 10 years with the goal of moving beyond traditional learning by engaging students in collaborative, community-driven projects,” says Hayhurst. â€śStudents are not only developing critical insights into sport, development and social justice, but importantly, they are also creating tangible knowledge mobilization outputs that will be taken up in practice by community partners.”

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In 2023, a Canadian-wide review of undergraduate nursing programs found that of all 2SLGBTQIA+ topics, gender-affirming care was the least included in the curriculum. Haghiri-Vijehan, assistant professor in the Faculty of Health, was not surprised given her own experience as an educator.

“The literature shows that 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are not feeling safe and health care spaces are not affirming of their needs,” she says. “We need to include this as part of our education.”

As she considered how to incorporate more affirming care practices into her Community Health Nursing course, Haghiri‑Vijeh turned to an asynchronous learning tool called the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Virtual Simulation (SOGI VS). The open‑access platform offers five‑ to eight‑hour modules featuring common patient scenarios, using interactive simulations to help learners identify appropriate, affirming approaches to care.

Haghiri-Vijeh integrated the tool into her course, but went a step further when she learned about York’s GNL initiative. The opportunity sparked a new idea: what if this simulation could become the foundation of a shared international assignment? It seemed like a powerful way to bring students in two countries into conversation, help them build intercultural competence and test whether a reflective, virtual global partnership could support that growth. Just as importantly, she hoped the project might serve as a practical model for other nursing programs.

To bring the collaboration to life, the GNL team at York connected Haghiri‑Vijeh with Alice Wong, a nursing lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).

The process behind that has now been published in a paper in . Wong is a co-author along with York colleague Karen A. Campbell and York master’s student Camille Alcalde.

In the paper, the team outlines how they shaped the shared assignment. Early on, Haghiri‑Vijeh and Wong came together to learn about each other’s institutions, consult with their universities’ GNL offices, test the simulation tool and work together to design their co‑teaching approach.

They aligned the assignment timelines across their courses while keeping the activities asynchronous to accommodate the 12‑hour time difference. Students were required to complete the SOGI VS modules on their own and write a three‑page reflection connecting the experience to their specific placements or practicums. They also submitted an aesthetic piece of their choosing – a song, image, drawing or other creative representation – to capture how the coursework resonated with them.

From there, the students were paired across the two countries. York and HKBU partners exchanged reflections and offered constructive feedback. Guiding questions encouraged students to explore similarities and differences between their placements, and to reflect on at least one social determinant of health and one UN Sustainable Development Goal. Then students were asked to write a second reflection capturing what they had learned from the dialogue.

As the exchanges unfolded, both faculty and students began to see the impact of the work. Assignments and class discussions showed students learning about approaches to 2SLGBTQIA+ care in another country, but also about the social and institutional contexts shaping those approaches. Faculty gathered informal feedback through conversations and the student assignments, and identified increased awareness around issues such as cis-normativity, power dynamics in health care organizations and the importance of inclusive policies and representation in clinical settings.

When the project concluded, its success prompted Haghiri‑Vijeh to write about it with the hope of inspiring similar efforts across the field. A second paper is already under consideration with another major journal, this time exploring the data more closely to identify implications for nursing education. Three students are also developing autoethnographies based on their participation, and several alumni have presented their work at international conferences.

Haghiri‑Vijeh continues to advance her work through a recent to learn about migrant 2SLGBTQIA+ students’ sense of belonging and well-being.

For Haghiri‑Vijeh, student involvement has been among the most meaningful outcomes.

“Where possible, we engage students in the writing and co‑creation of knowledge,” she says. “Asking them if they would like to be involved builds capacity for them, as well.”

She is eager to continue the initiative, including with partners beyond nursing. Conversations are already underway with U.S.-based colleagues in psychology and social work.

“I'm a big believer that if you're doing anything that might be innovative or helpful for others, you have to share it,” she says. “You have to mobilize your knowledge.”

With files from Suzanne Bowness

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For real-world action to result from academic inquiry, researchers must be able to actively share and apply their findings.

This is the focus of York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit (KMb Unit): to help scholars build relationships with community organizations, government and other non-academic partners. It supports efforts to share research in ways that are more accessible and usable beyond the University, ensuring York’s work reaches the right audiences.

For Michael Johnny, manager of KMb Unit, that work begins with communicating a simple idea.

“My definition of knowledge mobilization is that it helps take the best of what we know and makes it useful for people in our communities,” he says.

Located in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, the unit provides services and resources for collaborative projects, helps broker partnerships and offers training and strategy support for researchers, students and non-academic collaborators.

Johnny says it plays an important role because academic research does not always reach audiences in the right way.

“If everybody accessed information through academic journal articles, then we really wouldn’t need a service unit like this at York,” he says. “But it’s safe to say that different audiences like to access information in different ways.”

That means helping researchers build relationships at the front-end of the research cycle, and offering assistance in translating findings into plain language. There is also a multitude of tools and resources that can help implement research into practice.

Among the unit’s core areas of work is partnership-building. Johnny says the office regularly engages with organizations such as York Region, the City of Toronto and United Way Greater Toronto to better understand the kinds of questions and broader thematic issues that matter to them. KMb Unit then works to connect those needs with relevant York expertise.

That collaborative work also shows up in how researchers plan grant applications, with the unit supporting scholars who require a knowledge mobilization strategy for federal funding applications.

“Quite often what they are looking for is help and support around developing that strategy,” Johnny says.

The impact of the unit’s work can be seen in the long-term research partnerships it has facilitated. Johnny points to the work of Jennifer Connolly as an example – a psychology professor in York’s .

Through partnerships the unit helped facilitate in York Region, Connolly’s work took on a new direction, guiding graduate student research and overseeing collaborative projects while conducting research on gender-based violence.

Connolly works in partnership with York Regional Police and York Region’s Children’s Aid Society studying the prevention of sex trafficking. She uses her findings to develop tools and approaches for early intervention, such as the York Simcoe Sex Trafficking Screener.

“It completely changed the trajectory of her engaged scholarship,” Johnny says.

He also highlights the unit’s work with Community Music Schools of Toronto, originally based in Regent Park. After the organization approached the KMb Unit with a broad set of research questions, the unit helped coordinate an advisory group of York academics to respond.

According to Johnny, the resulting connections helped secure a $2-million endowment for the Helen Carswell Chair in Community Engaged Research in the Arts at żě˛ĄĘÓƵ, which creates meaningful opportunities for York students and faculty to work on projects shaped by community-identified needs.

KMb Unit’s training has expanded over time, including the introduction of MobilizeU, a non-credit course in knowledge mobilization. Johnny describes the offering as a “cornerstone service” that helps equip York researchers, students and community partners with tools and skills to maximize the impact of their work.

The success of MobilizeU, says Johnny, is due to the work of Senior Knowledge Mobilization Specialist Krista Jensen, who envisioned the program in 2017 and launched it in 2019.

The unit has also extended its reach through Research Impact Canada, a national network that grew out of early collaboration between York and the University of Victoria. Now made up of 46 members in Canada and the U.K., the network serves as a community of practice for knowledge mobilization, with York set to host its Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum in July.

For Johnny, one of the biggest challenges goes back to general understanding of what knowledge mobilization is, and why it’s important.

“For a lot of people, there is an understanding that knowledge mobilization is simply a dissemination or communications-based exercise around research,” he says. “And that’s not wrong. It’s just often incomplete.”

Applying research to real-world challenges, strengthening community partnerships and increasing research visibility are all key benefits of sharing the work of York academics.

Johnny notes that since it began operating in 2006, the unit has assisted in more than 1,600 unique interactions with faculty members, 2,000 non-academic partners and 2,500 students.

For Johnny, those numbers reflect the success of the KMb Unit and speak to the University’s a broader goal: helping research move into the world in ways that are collaborative, responsive and useful.

With files from Mzwandile Poncana

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The five‑year project will examine how nurse practitioners and registered nurses can deliver low‑barrier, community‑driven services for groups that experience gaps in access to health care.

The project is led by Mia Biondi at York’s School of Nursing, , with co-principal applicants Karen Campbell (żě˛ĄĘÓƵ), Molly Bannerman (Women and HIV/AIDS Initiative), Grace Chiutsi (AIDS Committee of Toronto) and Guillaume Fontaine (McGill University). The team also includes co-investigators from York and partner institutions, including School of Nursing Faculty Roya Haghiri-Vijeh, Catriona Buick, Ramesh Venkatesa Perumal; and School of Nursing graduate students Tamara Barnett and Michelle Hermans. The team received guidance from external partners, including service provider and community advisory boards, with members such as Elene Lam, from the School of Social Work.

The research builds on Phase I funding of $100,000 awarded in 2024 through CIHR’s Community-Based Research program and responds to a documented rise in HIV infections among women in Canada. The award funds projects grounded in lived experience and community partnership.

Biondi says cis and trans women, in particular, experience systemic and social inequities that limit access to HIV information, counselling, prevention and treatment. These inequities are intensified for women who are racialized, use drugs, have migrated, are criminalized, participate in sex work or identify as 2SLGBTQIA+.

The inform the direction of the project, the team held focus groups in spring and summer of 2025 with women affected by HIV and those who may benefit from prevention medication; service organizations and their leadership; nurse practitioners and registered nurses; and policy‑makers. Guided by its advisory boards, the team gathered input on facilitators and barriers to care, as well as supports for women‑centred models and what training and collaboration are needed.

Participants also helped identify priorities that will inform the project’s next steps.

“Drawing from these findings, we have outlined a five‑year plan that includes further consultation, co‑design of care models, pilot implementation and evaluation in communities where it is most needed,” explains Biondi. “The goal is to strengthen access to HIV prevention and treatment by supporting women-led, women-centred, nurse-facilitated, low-threshold models that can be delivered in community settings."

The proposal will work to develop a scalable, sustainable provincial implementation plan, where women in the community are leading the initiatives, she notes.

The project, says Biondi, is rooted in strong community-led integrated knowledge translation as well as justice, equity, diversity, decolonizing and inclusion plans. It also outlines training and capacity-building for women in the community, nurse practitioners and registered nurses, HIV sector service providers and graduate students.  

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For żě˛ĄĘÓƵ student Sadia Tasnim, that moment came while completing her second co-op work term at Food Banks Mississauga as a data administrator. During a shift, Tasnim encountered a client asking for menstrual products. The food bank, however, didn’t have any available.

“I felt terrible that I could not help her in that moment,” says Tasnim, an international student from Bangladesh who struggled with the idea of women who do not have access to essential products.

Tasnim knew her expertise in data science could help the organization respond to this need. Through her studies at the Faculty of Science, she has become adept at gathering, interpreting and presenting data – including using statistical methods, computational skills and data analysis techniques – and wants to apply that knowledge to create positive change.

“At York, I’ve learned a variety of unconventional ways to extract and organize data,” says Tasnim, a fourth-year student. “It’s important to me to use this skill for a meaningful purpose.”

During her Fall 2025 placement at Food Banks Mississauga, Tasnim worked on the agency relations team, helping to coordinate organizations that distribute food and essential items to roughly half a million visitors per year. When she was asked to analyze the organization’s historical data on female clients between the ages of 18 to 55 in response to the gap in feminine hygiene products available, she was thrilled.

She drafted a report of her findings, which was shared with Food Banks Canada – the parent organization that provides supplies to community sites. Tasnim says it was rewarding to see her data analysis shared with decision makers and help make a meaningful impact.

“That is what pushed me to take on this project – making sure this need gets met,” says Tasnim.

Addressing real-world challenges has long been a priority for Tasnim. As a teen, she co-founded her own environmental non-profit to plant trees in her home city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to improve its air quality. She also volunteered for a social enterprise that delivers clean drinking water to underserved rural communities.

Thinking about her future, Tasnim is considering career roles in social finance – an investing approach that centres societal and environmental impact.

“I believe we have to use our talents for humanitarian causes,” Tasnim says. “Data can help drive smart decision-making in these important matters.”

For Daisy Dang, a fourth-year environmental studies student, housing access is the issue that drives her commitment to work for change. She is completing a full-time paid co-op placement at the Toronto Region Real Estate Board (TRREB), a non-profit organization serving 70,000 realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.

In her role as a policy analyst in TRREB’s government relations unit, she contributed to the organization’s 2026 Market Outlook and Year in Review event. As part of that work, she conducted extensive research on the efficacy of the current private and rental housing supply in the city. She also gathered data on trends and metrics related to housing affordability, residential zoning practices and homelessness.

“There’s a need for a greater variety of the right types of housing and more density,” Dang says. “We should be building more up than outwards and building more units with two and three bedrooms.”

As a student at York’s in the Cities, Regions, Planning (CRP) program, Dang is well-positioned to understand and address Toronto’s diverse urban planning challenges. This interdisciplinary program teaches sustainable, inclusive practices to manage growth, adapt infrastructure, welcome newcomers and mitigate environmental impacts. She has critically examined urban planning through courses exploring sustainable design, regional governance, migration patterns and political ecology.

Dang is also applying her growing knowledge at TRREB in other ways. A core part of her job involves researching housing-related programs offered by the municipal, provincial and federal governments to include as resources on the organization’s website. Her research also helps shape TRREB’s advocacy responses in its interactions with government representatives.

Through her combined co-op and academic experiences, Dang has a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics driving urbanization in Toronto and is particularly interested in its impacts on residents who live at the margins of society.

After completing her degree in 2027, she hopes to support municipal government decision-making in addressing housing issues affecting the unhoused and low-income citizens.

“I think a city works when you put people first,” Dang says.

With files from Sharon Aschaiek

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International Women’s Day affords us the opportunity to celebrate the many strides made towards gender equity and inclusion. However, it is also an occasion for us to recognize the ongoing local and global forces that continue to challenge progress for cis and trans women and girls in all areas of social life.

On March 8, let’s honour and appreciate the social, cultural economic and political contributions and achievements of girls and women, while also paying attention to the intersectional barriers that remain in the way of full inclusivity. The continued prevalence of misogyny/misogynoir, gender-based discrimination and violence, and the clawing back of health care, education and voting rights and freedoms for girls and women in some countries around the world, confirm that the work to advance and actualize gender equity is not only far from done, it must be intensified.

żě˛ĄĘÓƵ has long recognized the importance of gender equity. Examples abound of the ways in which students, staff, faculty members, alumni and retirees contribute to disrupting and undoing gender inequity – such as research excellence at the Centre for Feminist Research, new partnerships with global networks, cutting-edge and interdisciplinary courses and academic programs focused on women and gender, programming for women-identified students, supports for women entrepreneurs and so much more.

I want to highlight just a few of the remarkable achievements by community members from the past year, and hope you will take time to engage with their stories.

• The selection of Professor Emerita and Distinguished Research Professor, Pat Armstrong, to join the Sectoral Table on the Care Economy, advising the federal government on how to better support both paid and unpaid care providers.
• The work of staff and alumni Talisha Ramsaroop and Krystle Skeete to empower youth in community and on campus.
• The naming of Pina D’Agostino, associate vice-president research, to Chair of the Ontario Centre of Innovation board of directors.
• The inspiration of alumna Lilly Singh, who was awarded an honorary degree.
• The scholarship through co-creation and cultural storytelling of Stephanie Fearon, York’s inaugural assistant professor of Black thriving and education.
• The work and initiatives to build stronger pathways for women to succeed in computer science and engineering by the Women in Computer Science and Engineering group.

I invite you to celebrate International Women’s Day in a way that makes sense to you and that marks the many achievements of women and girls around the world. And, I encourage community members to learn more about the barriers to gender equality that remain.

Together, we can ensure that everyone has the chance to flourish and contribute to a more equitable and prosperous future.

Thank you. Merci. Miigwech.

Parissa Safai
Interim Vice-President Equity, People & Culture

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The annual Canada’s Best Diversity Employers list is part of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project and evaluates workplace diversity and inclusiveness programs. 

During the review process, adjudicators measured how well York embeds DEDI commitments into its long-term planning, governance and community engagement. Initiatives ranging from York's programs for underrepresented communities to its strategic approach were considered against those of other post-secondary institutions.

York was cited again as a Best Diversity Employer for initiatives such as the development of its , its inclusion-oriented recruitment processes and the customized education sessions provided by the Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion.

“We’re incredibly honoured to be recognized as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for the third year in a row. York’s commitment to equity, decolonization and social justice has long guided who we are and how we move forward,” says Parissa Safai, interim vice-president of the Division of Equity, People & Culture. “Our diversity and how we draw on that as a response for innovation for doing things differently, for creating real positive change in the community, is precisely what makes York different and special.”

The distinction reflects the University’s ongoing efforts as a progressive institution dedicated to a culture of equity and social justice.  

The University embeds these commitments across its campuses by advancing the DEDI strategy alongside the Framework and Action Plan on Black Inclusion and the Indigenous Framework. These principles are also core to York’s well-being and sustainability strategies.

The 2026 Best Diversity Employers announcement follows other recent recognitions of York’s leadership in advancing equity. In the 2025 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which evaluate how universities contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), York placed second across Canada in SDG 5 – Gender equality and SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities.

In 2025, York was named the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) Hub Chair for Sustainable Development Goal 10 – Reducing Inequality for a three-year term, recognizing its efforts to address systemic inequality and exclusion across the University’s operations, teaching, research and outreach.

“These recognitions energize our ongoing work in decolonizing, equity, diversity and inclusion,” says Safai. “Further, they reinforce the importance of the commitments we have made as a university and are a testament to the efforts of our University community members working together to dialogue and work together across difference.”

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Launched following the COVID‑19 pandemic through żě˛ĄĘÓƵ’s Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters program, the group brought together Black scholars from five Faculties to study structural inequalities that influence how Black communities experience and recover from epidemics.

From the outset, members knew the work would require a differently approach to fulfill a key goal: collaborating and centring the lived experiences and resilience strategies of Black populations.

“We were clear from the start that we had to depart from traditional means of doing research that tend to be extractive,” says Sylvia Bawa, associate professor of sociology and co‑principal investigator. Research in marginalized communities, she explains, often involves collecting data without collaboration or returning findings in accessible ways.

Jeffrey Squire, an instructor in the Department of Social Science and co-principal investigator, notes this top‑down approach is common in academia. “We undertake research that affects the lives of a community, but often their input is limited,” he says. “We wanted to incorporate those voices.”

Cluster members began by meeting with local organizations, including Toronto’s Black Creek Community Health Centre, to discuss research opportunities. Rather than arriving with a fixed agenda, researchers outlined their goals transparently and asked, “What would make sense for you as a partner in knowledge creation?” Those discussions led to more in-depth engagement through town halls with the broader communities, ensuring priorities reflected lived concerns.

At a public town hall in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, residents spoke candidly about challenges – from vaccine hesitancy to unequal access to care – and emphasized that inquiry should reflect real, everyday priorities. This reinforced that meaningful research requires listening first and allowing community concerns to shape questions, methods and outcomes.

The cluster extended its approach internationally, connecting with think tanks, advocacy organizations and local health groups across six African countries, including Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. These partnerships were central to its transnational mandate: to link Black communities in Canada and Africa for knowledge sharing on how epidemics are experienced and managed in different social and health contexts.

Early conversations revealed a common concern that partners valued collaboration on data collection but wanted supporting research. “Many of those groups talked about the fact that conducting research was important because the data was helpful for them, but they also wanted research that would be helpful for their work – not necessarily research questions that would be helpful only to us,” Bawa recalls. In response, the cluster created small internal grants for co‑developed projects and committed to shared authorship, ensuring collaborators were involved in producing publications and other knowledge outputs.

Three years into its efforts, the initiative has now entered what Bawa describes as its “research dissemination phase.”

Findings will be published, such as a forthcoming open‑access paper co‑written with Black women leaders in the Greater Toronto Area about guiding communities through the pandemic. It has also contributed to other research examining how the pandemic intersected with gender‑based violence in ways relevant to advocacy and intervention.

Impact on the community remains central, and Bawa stresses the importance of providing accessibility through open‑access venues and plain-language reporting. Published findings are structured so community partners can provide feedback, engage with findings and see their voices reflected.

Research is also shared through interactive forums to foster dialogue and bring together scholars and community partners to exchange insights and reflect on findings. Last fall, the Community Research Showcase and Gathering at York’s Keele Campus featured presentations of funded projects alongside community‑led reflections, with panels deliberately weighted toward community voices. African collaborators joined via Zoom, while local organizations, including Toronto Public Health and grassroots health groups, participated in person.

During the event, Bawa and Squire observed how meaningful the work – and the international engagement – has become. “There’s a real appetite for this kind of work,” Squire says, noting one participant in Africa logged in by generator after losing electricy and another found the session so valuable they stayed up until 2 a.m. local time.

The cluster plans to continue meeting that appetite. Members are translating findings into practical recommendations, organizing an academic-community panel for an upcoming Canadian Association of African Studies conference and planning public showcases focused on Canadian and African contexts to ensure ongoing transnational knowledge exchange.

These efforts of the cluster have real‑world stakes; since SARS in the early 2000s, major epidemics have emerged every few years, says Squire.

Now, with networks firmly in place across Canada and Africa, lessons learned through the cluster's work can travel faster and reach the contexts where they matter most when health crises emerge. “Through our research, through talking to people, through observing what is going on in communities and overseas, we are able to disseminate information that now will be very useful in addressing responses,” Squire says.

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The certificate is designed to help grad students apply DEDIA principles to academic work, research, teaching and professional settings.

Co-created by the Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion (CHREI), the Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Teaching Commons, the program uses a mix of self-guided learning, workshops and applied practice.

The goal, says Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, associate dean academic, Faculty of Graduate Studies, is to strengthen students’ abilities to foster inclusive learning and working environments and to develop equity-focused leadership skills within higher education and beyond.

“This certificate will encourage graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to strengthen their scholarship while at York and provide career-ready insights for reflective and justice-oriented work,” says van Daalen-Smith.

Titled Graduate Student Certificate in Decolonization, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility, the certificate program is now accepting registrations. Oliver Martin, director of workplace restoration and culture at CHREI, says the learning opportunity reflects the University’s ongoing commitment to embed DEDIA principles into the everyday work of York graduate students. He also notes its timely launch, which takes place during the University’s Inclusion Week.

Structured to be flexible, students can earn the certificate in as little as one semester or spread out over three years. All required and optional learning activities are tracked through YU Learn and students who complete the requirements will earn a digital certificate.

Requirements include: a five-module self-paced DEDIA Self-Reflective Toolkit; the Do the Work: Dialogue Across Differences workshop; and two additional self-selected workshops focused on research, teaching, bystander intervention or responding to disclosures. The programming builds on core competencies in critical self-reflection, inclusive communication, trauma-informed practice, equity-focused research and community building.

Focusing on hands-on learning, the curriculum is designed to help graduate students stay grounded, communicate effectively and act with care during moments of conflict, tension and create opportunity for an equity-based approach. Participants, says van Daalen-Smith, will practice real-world skills that go beyond theory and apply across sectors and can equip students with career-ready insights and practices.

She notes the certificate was inspired by the FGS Council 2023 Nothing Less Than Justice roundtables, where members of the graduate community shared candid insights and recommendations to advance DEDIA within the graduate community.

Martin adds that earning this certification will help participants build confidence, accountability and develop people-centred skills – and engage at a pace that fits their needs.

“By offering flexibility and combining independent learning with applied, skill-based training, we are setting our graduate students up for success in integrating decolonizing, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility into day-to-day practice,” says Martin.

Learn more about the DEDIA Graduate Certificate.

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York researchers will pursue 10 projects that reflect the University’s strength in interdisciplinary, community-engaged research across the humanities and social sciences – including legal and social systems, youth well-being, economic futures and more.

“These SSHRC Connection Grants  highlight żě˛ĄĘÓƵ’s commitment to research that is both rigorous and deeply connected to communities, partners, and collaborators across Canada and beyond,” says Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation at York. â€śThey celebrate the diverse ways our scholars are engaging across disciplines to address complex social, cultural, and global challenges, and to build meaningful, lasting connections between academia and society.”

Connection Grants support events, workshops and outreach activities that often lay the groundwork for longer-term research projects and enable scholarly exchanges by building bridges between academic and non-academic partners, as well as collaboration between the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

These projects are part of the November 2025 competition and received funding for one year.

Converging and Conflicting Buddhist Legal Frames: Secular Governances and Buddhist Transgressions, led by Alicia Turner (associate professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS)) with co-applicant Benjamin Berger (professor, Osgoode Hall Law School), received $24,619.

PROJECT IMPACT: Coming together to establish a priority agenda for knowledge mobilization initiatives for the well-being of Canadian children and youth, led by Rebecca Bassett-Gunter (professor, Faculty of Health) and co-led by a team of York researchers including Heather Prime, Jennifer Connolly, Jennine Rawana, Jessica Fraser-Thomas, Karl Erickson, Madison Aitken, Melody Wiseheart and Thanujeni (Jeni) Pathman, received $24,948.

The Relational Turn: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead, led by Ruth Buchanan (professor, Osgoode Hall Law School) and co-led by Annie Bunting (professor, LA&PS) and the University of Toronto, received $20,096.

Waste-work: race, caste, and labour in the new global politics of disposability, led by Shubhra Gururani (associate professor, LA&PS), received $23,503.

Monstrous Intimacies at 15, led by Tiana Reid (assistant professor, LA&PS), received $24,055.

Colère et Espoir autour de la Palestine : Perspectives d'artistes et de chercheur.es en sciences sociales, co-led by Nadia Hasan (assistant professor, LA&PS) with partners from Université Laval and Université du Québec à Montréal, received $24,997.

Respite, Care, and Ethics for Cultural Workers: A Traveling Symposium, led by OCAD University and co-led by Casey Mecija (associate professor, LA&PS), received $49,996.

De l'économie politique postcapitaliste à l'utopie — Rencontre entre recherche en sciences sociales et pratiques artistiques, led by Saint Paul University and co-led by Audrey Laurin-Lamothe (associate professor, LA&PS) and partners from Lund University, Université Laval, and Université du Québec en Outaouais, received $23,646.

Lusophone Studies Association Meeting, “Voices and Visions: Lusophone Communities in the Global Landscape,” led by the University of British Columbia and co-led by Robert Kenedy (associate professor, LA&PS), received $24,375.

Tó: Tewatia'tarò:rok Taetewatia'takéhnha', led by the University of Toronto and co-led by Jeremy Green (assistant professor, LA&PS), received $50,000.

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