EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION LEARNING GROUP

As individuals, we each have aspects (dimensions) of our identities in which we hold privilege , and other(s) in which we may experience marginalization. Understanding our "Marginalization and Privilege Profile" or MAPP is an important step in the internal work we must all do if we are committed to creating a more just society. As the recently announced SFU honorary degree recipient barbara findlay, K.C. has stated " “Unless we work... as hard against the ways in which we are privileged as we do on the ways in which we are oppressed, there [will] never be any such thing as equality or fairness or justice.” In this presentation, we will discuss power and privilege and participate in an exercise to help uncover our individual MAPP. We'll discuss how understanding our MAPP is a critical first step in unlearning the ways in which we may cause harm. In addition, we will explore the uniquely privileged role that mathematics plays in the academy, how harm continues to be done in the name of mathematics, and what we mathematicians can do to create more welcoming learning and working environments. 

content warning: While you do not have to participate in the MAPP exercise, the discussion of oppression and marginalization may bring up trauma. 

Participants are invited to engage with content in advance of this session by reviewing the Accountable Spaces Guidelines for the EDI Learning Group (which is on our Canvas page).

Dr. Mary Catherine Kropinski is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at SFU, joining the department in 1995 as an NSERC Women's Faculty Award winner. She recently completed a term as Special Advisor to the Vice President People, Equity and Inclusion. From 2020-2022, she served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Faculty of Science, and prior to that she served as department chair. Dr. Kropinski has a BSc from Queen’s University, an MMath from the University of Waterloo, and a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and held a postdoctoral appointment at the Courant Institute of NYU. Her research interests are developing fast integral equation methods for incompressible fluid dynamics.