Solidarity

Steps towards (BILD-ing) a sense of belonging in Academia (by Krystina Raymond & Kai Forcey-Rodriguez)

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For our last post of the 2022-2023 academic year, we are pleased to welcome two first-time BILD guest bloggers. Krystina Raymond (She/Her/Elle) is a, multiracial and multilingual, PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology and Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She is very passionate about language learning, taught English as a second-language in Ahmedabad, India and currently teaches elementary students in bilingual programs in Montréal, QC. Krystina continues to be devoted to issues supporting bi/multilingual education, culturally responsive anti-bias practices and disseminating knowledge to support diverse students. Kai Forcey-Rodriguez (They/Them) is an autistic (savant areas in memory, music, and language learning), non-binary, multiracial, and queer person from the United States who recently graduated from the Developmental Psychology and Education MEd program in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto-OISE. One of Kai’s most notable accomplishments to this date is their scholarly work in the emerging field of Autism and Mental Health: creating frameworks to prevent suicide and nonsuicidal self-injury in Autistic people to foster well-being, through publishing their sole-authored debut, “The Risk Factors and Preventative Methods of Self-Harm and Suicidality of Autistic People”.

This week’s blog post includes a linked audio file. Just click on the link below if you would like to hear the post read aloud. Scroll down to read the text.

Born on different sides of life
We feel the same and feel all of this strife
So come to me when I'm asleep we'll cross the line
And dance upon the street
—” Through the Barricades” by Spandau Ballet (Through the Barricades [Album]-1986)

This is the journey of two racialized graduate students who met in the Spring of 2021 during a student support initiatives meeting. We instantly connected on the topic of intersectionality and our similar identities. With construction hats, tape measures, and a very large toolbox derived from our brilliant minds and creative ideas, we took steps towards BILD-ing a sense of belonging in academia at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).

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Unlearning the Language of Social Distancing (by Danielle Douez)

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This week’s blog post includes a linked audio file. Just click on the link below if you would like to hear the post read aloud. Scroll down to read the text.

Our guest blogger this week, Danielle Douez, is an MA student in philosophy at Concordia University. Before moving to Montreal, she lived in Atlanta for 10 years and worked in communications and journalism. She loves stories, storytelling, and chocolate chip cookies.

The streets of Montreal are quiet. All I hear is water. Miniature icebergs of an unusually mild winter’s snow and ice are finally birthing small brooks and streams. April showers are joining them down into the drains, merging with the already swollen Saint Lawrence River.

Soaking in the stillness from my living room, I occasionally dip my toe into the rip tide of headlines and social media. It’s gotten increasingly difficult to stay afloat, as everyone and their mom, y las abuelas y tías too, are clamoring on to this virtual Noah’s ark. Other days, I check in by text, and more often than usual by phone, with people I haven’t talked to in ages. I find myself listening for a pulse.

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