FCAT Community in Practice

Community in Practice (CiP) is an initiative led by FCAT’s Advisor, Equity, Community and Care. It encompasses our active work to respond to and demonstrate our commitments to decolonization, Indigenization, truth and reconciliation, and the wide range of issues within the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) compass. As the title emphasizes, it is a practice, and it is something we are doing collectively as a faculty to provide the time and space for FCAT faculty, students, administrators and staff to listen and learn together, to disrupt our regularly scheduled programming to discuss important topics affecting academic work life and student life—and to reflect on how we work together. 

Community in Practice goals: 

• make room for thoughtful discussions about CiP topics across FCAT

• make visible the CiP work done by FCAT teachers, researchers, staff and students  

• provide professional development and learning opportunities for FCAT community members

• develop best practices for community building within and across our classrooms and meeting rooms

Equity, Community and Care Working Group

Faculty and staff members doing decolonizing, equity-seeking, inclusion and anti-racism work in FCAT’s schools and the Dean’s Office have come together over the last year to discuss the formation of an FCAT Equity, Community and Care (ECC) Working Group. In its early stages, the FCAT ECC is 

• discussing the benefits and challenges of forming an FCAT level group and making this work visible internally and externally

• developing an ethics of care practice for working together 

• supporting the new role of the FCAT Advisor ECC

• informing content for the FCAT ECC Summit and CiP Speaker Series. 

FCAT Equity, Community and Care Summit 

The first FCAT EDI Summit was held in October 2022. Now an annual event, the FCAT ECC Summit brings together members of the ECC Working Group in conversation with student representatives (graduate and undergraduate), invited guests, FCAT school and program administrators, and the Dean’s Office. The intention of the Summit is to inform the ECC work being done across FCAT and the content for the CiP Speaker Series.

CiP Speaker Series

The CiP Speaker Series is held in early September and January and hosts experts from a broad range of fields and practices to address current (social, political and cultural) issues affecting academic work life and student life and to provide a prompt for FCAT to reflect on and consider. 

On CiP days, guests present to the entire Faculty in the morning. Talks may be in person, online or a combination of both and may be internal or public facing. The presentation is followed by afternoon programming curated by the FCAT Advisor Equity, Community and Care and the FCAT School and Program Directors and Managers. The afternoon events may include special school meetings or retreats, professional development workshops, community building activities, or other reflective practices. 

CiP 2023/2024 Events