Creating Space: Precarious Status Women Leading Local Pandemic Responses

Join us for a virtual symposium celebrating the creative and collaborative work of Creating Space:  Precarious Status Women Leading Local Pandemic Responses. This two-year collaboration was led by 14 community partner organizations with our Artistic Manager and three co-PIs, and was supported by two  project managers, eight York researchers, a team of students and interns, and six organized research units (ORUs) at York University.

The project was designed to support and augment the work of community organizations representing  women who live with insecure citizenship and/or job status, specifically female temporary foreign  workers, asylum seekers, Indigenous and racialized persons, undocumented frontline workers and  disabled persons. Together, we explored ways to envision and enact economic, physical, and community  well-being; inform inclusive policies; and address systemic challenges such as gender-based violence and labour rights.

The symposium will feature highlights of the Creating Space Digital Archive, a diverse collection of artistic audio and visual expressions of the project’s examination of the question, “How do we build  collective power in the context of assigned precariousness during COVID-19?” Narratives and change  strategies are expressed in audio-recordings with animation, dance workshop and performance, original  playscript and theatrical production, graphic visualization, music video, documentation of a Carnival, and visual art.

Together, we will celebrate collective achievements, share policy consultation outcomes, and showcase experiences and visions for just responses and transformation.

Register here to receive the Zoom link

If you have any questions, please email us at creatingspace@yorku.ca.

Contributing Community Organizations 

ACORN Canada

BC Employment Standards Coalition

Black Nurses Group

Canadian Caribbean Art Stars Inc.

Feminist Alliance for International Action Canada

KasheDance

Migrant Resource Centre Canada

Nail Salon Workers Project, Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre

PEACH

PerSIStence Theatre

Work Safe Twerk Safe

Participating Community Organizations 

Global Legal Action Network

Indigenous Friendship Association

Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres

Co-Directors

Angele Alook (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

Elaine Coburn (Director, Centre for Feminist Research; International Studies at Glendon College)

Deborah McGregor (former Director, Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages; Canada Research Chair in  Indigenous Environmental Justice;  Faculty of Environmental and Urban  Change/Osgoode Hall Law School)

Gertrude Mianda (former Director, Harriet Tubman Institute; Gender and Women’s Studies at Glendon College)

Project Managers

Myrtle Sodhi, Artistic Research Manager

Tiffany Pollock, Finance Manager

Hajer Mirwali, Communications Manager

Co-Principal Investigators

Luann Good Gingrich (former Director, Global Labour Research Centre; Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

Heidi Matthews (former co-Director, Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security;  Osgoode Hall Law School)

Yu-Zhi Joel Ong (former Director, Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology; Faculty of Arts, Media,  Performance & Design)

Collaborators

Ethel Tungohan (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

Pat Armstrong (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

Natasha Dixon (M.A.)

Tuulia Law (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

York Organized Research Units

Centre for Feminist Research

Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages

Global Labour Research Centre

Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security

Harriet Tubman Institute

Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology

York University acknowledges the financial support of Women and Gender Equality Canada