SFU Vancouver Lunch 'n' Learn
About the Lunch 'n' Learn:
Date: Thursday, November 16
Time: 12:00 - 1:00pm
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, room 1600, 515 W. Hastings St.
Please join us for our next Lunch ‘n’ Learn with Dr. Aftab Erfan, Executive Director of SFU’s Centre for Dialogue and former Chief Equity Officer for the City of Vancouver, for this collective exploration of the topic below, one with deeply personal implications.
Bringing our whole selves to work: is it a good idea?
The notion that people should not have to leave themselves at the door when they come into work has become fashionable in discussions about the modern workplace. Whether it is the ethical imperative of inclusion or the capitalist imperative of productivity that drive, organizations are increasingly talking the talk of welcoming the whole self. Yet, the whole self can also be dangerous, to itself or to other people. Furthermore, the invitation raises conceptual and practical questions to attend to: who is the self that is invited or decides to walk in? How are the right conditions put in place for the different selves that bump into each other? What does the welcoming of the whole self do to the idea of professionalism and its boundaries? The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.
This is an in-person event with lunch provided.
About the Speaker:
Aftab Erfan (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner currently serving as the Executive Director of the Wosk Centre for Dialogue and an Associate Member of the faculty at the School of Public Policy at SFU. She was previously Chief Equity Officer for the City of Vancouver, and Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement for the University of British Columbia. Her work is centred on design and implementation of organizational structures and practices that lift up the voices of the margins, and create the conditions for every person to flourish. She brings a pragmatic, empathic, and rigorous approach to every project.
Originally from Iran, Aftab is a first-generation Settler. She moved to Canada as a teenager with her family and settled in the Vancouver area, on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands. Her formal education is in environmental sciences, fine arts, and urban planning. Aftab grew up within the youth environmental movement, where she learned that activism is an effective antidote to despair, and where she experienced the gifts of working in community. She holds a PhD in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia, where she subsequently taught for over a decade. She has worked as a consultant on five continents. She is cautiously optimistic about the future of humanity.