The Office of the Associate Vice-President, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (AVPEDI), in collaboration with the Tshepo Institue for the Study of Contemporary Africa and Laurier’s Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, is pleased to announce the launch of an annual EDI speaker series named after Associate Professor Lamine Diallo – a distinguished scholar in the Leadership program and founding member of our two partnering groups here at Wilfrid Laurier University. One of our institution’s long time champions promoting notions of equity, diversity, and inclusion across our campuses, this event is in recognition of his tireless efforts to embed these same principles into our collective consciousness.

Every year, the Office of the AVPEDI will invite three featured speakers to participate in this event. Speakers for this series will consist of recognized internal Laurier EDI champions, community activists, administrative and professional practitioners, and academic speakers from across the country.

Consistent with Laurier’s broader EDI institutional strategy, the Lamine Diallo EDI Speaker Series will help to raise awareness, competencies, and understandings about equity, diversity, and inclusion within the context of Canadian universities, while at the same time encouraging and fostering meaningful conversations with all members of the Laurier community. Each event will serve to complement other EDI dialogues taking place across the university about a range of equity issues that exist in our society.

2022/23 Series: Antiracism in Scholarship

“Antiracism in Scholarship” is the overarching theme of this year’s speaker series. This theme provides opportunities for invited speakers to share how they have mobilized research to address racism, how they embedded antiracism into their research process, and how they led antiracism efforts within their field or research community. The scholars who share in this series will speak about some of the successes and challenges that resulted from their work.  

All events this year will be hosted online via Zoom and are open to all members of the Laurier community and the general public. We hope that you will join us to hear from the EDI champions featured on this year’s program.  

Ardavan Eizadirad

Ardavan Eizadirad, assistant professor, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier University.

• Research as Activism: Advancing EDI Beyond Performative Politics 

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, assistant professor of Physics, core faculty member in Women’s and Gender Studies, the University of New Hampshire.

• The Disordered Cosmos: In Conversation with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Maryam Khan

Maryam Khan, assistant professor, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Research with Sexually and Gender Diverse Muslims

Past Events