Feminist Lunch Series - March 28 - Ehsan Akbari-FR

Event date(s): March 28, 2025
Time(s): 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Category: Fredericton
Location: Fredericton

Please mark your calendars for the fourth talk of our Winter 2025 Feminist Lunch Series to be given on Friday, March 28 at 12:30 p.m. in the Harriet Irving Library's Innovation Hub, Room 316, on UNB Campus in Fredericton by Dr. Ehsan Akbari.

The talk is titled: "Counter-Mapping University Campuses: A spatial and cartographic analysis of EDI policies”.

Dr. Akbari will present findings from a research project led by Dr. Mizzi on the impact of EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusivity) policies in higher education. These policies aim to challenge power dynamics that hinder full participation of women, 2SLGBTQ+, Indigenous peoples, racialized minorities, and people with disabilities, but some view them as “cosmetic diversity” (Ford & Patterson, 2019). Using a spatial justice framework and critical cartographic methods, our research examined how these policies are experienced by multiply-marginalized individuals, and how campus geography influences student experiences of oppression. From this research, Dr. Akbari will extrapolate theoretical and methodological insights that can be used in other contexts to address issues of inclusivity and marginalization.

Dr. Ehsan Akbari is an artist, educator and educational researcher. He received his Ph.D. from Concordia University in Art Education. He has worked as a Lecturer and Coordinator in Digital Pedagogy and Literacies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. He is currently teaching Visual Arts Education at UNB. His research is anchored in the question of how art can be used in classrooms to enrich teaching, learning, human interactions and environ-mental awareness. He believes strongly in the value of creativity, sensory learning and place-based education for engaging us with our bodies, our surroundings and each other. He has developed various creative and arts-based approaches to using digital media to explore places including smartphone sensory photography, soundscape compositions and collective online mapping.

All are welcome!

The Feminist Lunch Series is organized by the UNB Gender & Women’s Studies Program, the UNB/STU University Women’s Centre, UNB Libraries and UNB Alumnae association. For more information on the series, contact Sophie Lavoie (lavoie@unb.ca).