Laurier expert alert: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

March 18, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The following Laurier experts are available to comment on a variety of topics related to the elimination of racial discrimination:

Ardavan Eizadirad, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education, is an expert on equity, diversity and inclusion in education. He has written and taught about inclusion and decolonization in education in Canada and abroad. He is an educator with the Toronto District School Board, author of Decolonizing Educational Assessment: Ontario Elementary Students and the EQAO, and co-editor of Equity as Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care and International Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education (forthcoming).  Eizadirad is also the founder and director of EDIcation Consulting offering equity, diversity, and inclusion training to organizations. He is also on the board of directors for Amadeusz, which provides educational programs and services for incarcerated youth and young adults. Contact: aeizadirad@wlu.ca

Barrington Walker is Laurier’s associate vice-president of equity, diversity and inclusion and a professor in the Department of History. Walker is leading the creation of a university-wide EDI strategy and providing expertise, guidance, mentorship and support to faculty and staff working toward EDI-related goals. Walker has written about and taught Black Canadian history, race, law and immigration; Canadian social history; African-American history, especially in the American South; and relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in North America. He has written one book, Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858-1958, and edited two others, History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings and The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays. He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Toronto. To set up an interview with Barrington Walker, please reach out to Claire Bruner-Prime, communications and media relations officer, at cprime@wlu.ca. 

Ciann L. Wilson, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, nests her work within critical race and anti-colonial theories, to name a few. Wilson engages in community-based health research with Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities around topics such as education, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, social determinants, and wellbeing. Contact: ciwilson@wlu.ca

Jasmin Zine, professor in the Department of Sociology and Religion & Culture, is an expert in Islamophobia; Critical Muslim Studies, decolonial studies, racism; race and education, securitization; Canadian Muslim studies; Muslim youth and identity post 9/11; and Muslim women’s studies. She has completed a national study on the “9/11 generation” of Muslim youth and Islamophobia in Canada and is currently conducting research on mapping the Canadian Islamophobia industry. Contact: jzine@wlu.ca