Past Event

Transforming our Social World: Radical Practices of World Building & Destruction

The graduate students of the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation are pleased to announce this year’s Graduate Students’ Annual Conference: Transforming our Social World: Radical Practices of World Building & Destruction. This full-day conference will be taking place on Thursday, March 23, 2023, from 9:00 AM to 6:15 PM at 2017 Dunton Tower and live via Zoom. Please ensure to register below to receive the Zoom link and to ensure allergies and accessibility needs are respected!

This year’s conference was inspired by the Institute’s recent name change, personal projects, and the work of countless thinkers and activists working towards social transformation that benefits everyone, especially those living with multiple oppressions. With particular inspiration drawn from abolitionists and community organizers like Da’Shaun Harrison. Their book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (2021) calls on us to push past reform and build an entirely new world. When thinking about abolition we also turn to Morgan Bassichis, Alexander Lee, and Dean Spade (2015). Abolition is about breaking down, or destroying, what oppresses us. But it is also just as much concerned with building things that nourish us. It is a transformative practice that is founded on collective struggle, care, and interdependence.

Check out the  Program Schedule here: FIST Graduate Students’ Conference booklet

This is a hyflex event, meaning that participants and attendees can join in person or via Zoom. Participants and attendees are highly encouraged to wear masks and refrain from wearing scented products for the in-person portion. Lunch and refreshments will be offered and will include vegan and gluten-free options. If you require other food accommodations, please let us know in the accessibility box provided below.

The event will offer live AI captioning. Dunton Tower and the conference room are physically accessible. Children are welcome.

Carleton has accessible parking available in lot P1 (behind MacOdrum Library) and in front of the University Centre (UC). Dunton Tower (DT) is accessible through both of these buildings via elevators and the underground tunnels. There is also a para transpo spot (#11) at the back of DT with access leading from this lot directly to the tunnels.

There are accessible washrooms on the same floor as the conference room, an all gender bathroom 6 floors down (DT floor 14), and an all gender accessible washroom on the 4th floor of UC that is accessible via the tunnels.

This year’s conference is made possible thanks to the contributions of the following: Women for Justice Foundation (WJF), OPIRG/GRIPO (uOttawa), Joint Chair in Women’s and Gender Studies (JCWS), Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS), Department of English Language and Literature, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies (SICS), Institute of Political Economy, Department of History, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Department of Sociology and Anthropology (SocAnth), and the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (FIST).