Insurgent Flourishing: Centring Indigenous and Black Futurities
Indigenous and Black people have long come together to create, act, make “good trouble”and engage in collective world-making historically as well as in these political times.
Join Dr. Flavia Novais, Klinton Letterman, and Dr. Rai Reece for a dynamic panel discussion, where we discuss what it means to flourish, to unpack institutional requirements for flourishing, and to strategize for how we can support one another to flourish. We will explore the following questions:
How do you flourish?
How do you support others to flourish?
What prevents us from flourishing, and how do we challenge those barriers?
How can we collectively create conditions for flourishing to support one another over university priorities?
Time: 12pm - 1:30pm
Location: Daphne Cockwell Complex (DCC) 707/709 (7th Floor), 288 Church Street
Join us for this vital conversation on March 27th.
Access:
-Accessible building and room
-Accessible all-gender single stall washroom
-ASL interpretation
-Zoom captions (live captioning upon request)
-Relaxed space
-Hybrid event
-Free and open to the public
-Food provided
-For additional access requests, please contact Eliza at eliza.chandler@torontomu.ca by March 20th 2025.
Facilitator
Dr. Rai Reece is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist teaching in the Department of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her work examines how carceral processes in Canada are organized and maintained by historical and contemporary narratives and practices of colonial violence specific to anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. More broadly, her work explores the intersection of gendered punishment and misogynoir as legally and socially enacted via governance and white settler capitalism.
Speakers
Dr. Flavia Novais earned her PhD from UFRGS in Brazil in 2023 and she is currently the Ethel Louise Armstrong Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Disability Studies at TMU. Dr. Novais has experience working and researching mainly on human rights; sexual, gender and body diversity; and care theories, inspired by science and technology studies (STS) and postcolonial and ethnographic approaches. During her postdoc, she is conducting research inspired by Anzaldúa (2005; 2021), who proposes weaving as a form of manual action that goes beyond writing. By engaging with collective spaces for handmade crafts such as embroidery, crochet, knitting, etc., she aims to understand how this production and exchange of experiences impact the lives of people with diverse corporalities, from a perspective based on anti-ableist approaches of feminist disability studies.
Michael Mihalicz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy, and Special Advisor to the Dean on Indigenous Initiatives at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM), where his research combines principles from psychology and economics to explore how people make decisions.
At TMU, he supports reconciliation priorities by leading the development of policies and processes that create more opportunities for Indigenous students to achieve their educational goals.
Michael is deeply committed to making education accessible and desirable to underserved and often neglected segments of the population. Drawing on his lived experiences within Canada’s prison system, Michael is dedicated to addressing social injustices surrounding the over incarceration of Indigenous peoples, and what he believes is the greatest threat to the future wellbeing of our youth—the age of mass incarceration.
Brian Norton, Anishnaabe from Chimnissing First Nation, is the Program Manager for Gdoo-maawnjidimi Mompii Indigenous Student Services. In this role, he is part of a team of people who share the belief of being life-long advocates for higher learning. Along with his colleagues, he strives to deliver services that are essential for the success of the Indigenous students at TMU.
Jasmine Wemigwans is graduating soon from a Master's of Information, in Library Science program, at the University of Toronto. She graduated with a bachelors in English from TMU. Wemigwans has a strong interest in Indigenous cultural preservation and the decolonization of library spaces. She hopes to be a positive inspiration and kind influence in the library and information sector
