J-Series
About the J-Series
The Justice Webinar and Speaker Series (J-Series) hosts scholarly, research, and arts focused events online through the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at Athabasca University.
We profile national and international scholars who address topics pertaining to social and transformative justice, anti-oppression, and equity. We host events that are collaborative and participatory, bringing grassroots movements, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions together in conversation and towards tangible action.
The primary goal of the J-Series is to increase capacities for justice, broadly conceived, throughout our communities, research initiatives, and teaching praxis.
J-Series is committed to the recognition of and respect for difference, responsibility and accountability, inclusion, and belonging and reparation.
Webinars
Webinar events are collaborative, participatory and community-oriented--bringing grassroots movements, non-profit organizations and academic associations together.
Each J-Webinar will focus on a particular aspect of justice work within FHSS and bring 3 to 5 Athabasca University academics (faculty, learning designers, library staff, etc.) together on a panel to share their work and to engage in discussion with one another and with participants.
The goal is for the panels to be collaborative and participatory. Presentations will be short as the goal is conversation and panels will be facilitated to achieve this goal.
Speaker Series
The Speaker Series is an opportunity to engage with national and international scholars via an open public lecture and online seminar discussion.
This invited speaker series provides opportunities for AU faculty and graduate students to engage with and foster networks of social justice scholars, and to increase knowledge and capacity of those within FHSS to engage in and converse about justice issues.
Scholars are invited to engage with us in two ways:
To give an online lecture which will be open to public registration.
To engage in an online seminar discussion with FHSS faculty and students on a pre-circulated paper of theirs. This paper will ideally be a working draft, but if they prefer it could be a published piece. Seminar participants will read the paper and come to the seminar ready to engage in scholarly conversation with the invited speaker.
Meet the Team
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Dr. Suzanne McCullagh
Suzanne McCullagh (she/her) is assistant professor of Philosophy at Athabasca University (AU). She works in feminist, political, and environmental philosophy as well as the environmental humanities.
Her current research projects explore, the temporality of extinction discourse, the limits of academic philosophy in North America to engage in conversations across difference, and ways of conceptualizing responsibility for climates, both social and ecological. She co-edited the interdisciplinary volume Contesting Extinctions: Decolonial and Regenerative Futures, as well as an edited volume on Gille Deleuze's thought, Minor Ethics: Deleuzian Variations.
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Dr. Nina Paulovicova
Nina Paulovicova (she/her) is an Associate Professor in History at the Centre of Humanities at Athabasca University, Canada. Her area of expertise is Holocaust and genocide studies. Some of her other projects focus on collective memory, the emergence, and normalization of the extreme right, and inclusion of heritage languages. In 2017 she founded Slovak Heritage School and currently serves as an academic advisor at International & Heritage Languages Association in Edmonton.
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Dr. Tobias Wiggins
Tobias Wiggins (he/him) is an assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Athabasca University (AU). His research centers transgender mental health, queer visual culture, clinical transphobia, community arts-based methodologies, and psychoanalysis. At AU, he coordinates the University Certificate in Counselling Women, an interdisciplinary program that applies feminist theory to the practice of counselling. His recent research has been published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Transgender Studies Quarterly, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and the anthology Sex, Sexuality and Trans Identities: Clinical Guidance for Psychotherapists and Counselors.
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Priscilla McGreer
Priscilla McGreer (she/her) is a graduate student in Athabasca University’s Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program. Her emerging research focuses on cultural reclamations and embodied knowledges.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the land upon which many members of the Athabasca University community live are home to 48 First Nations.
The land known as Alberta, Canada is covered by treaties 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10, traditional territories of Dene (Den-ay), Saulteaux (Soh-toe), Nakota Sioux (Na-ko-ta Soo), Kainai (Kye-nye), Piikani (Peeka-nee), Siksika (Sik-si-ka), Tsuu T’ina (Soot-ina), Nehiyaw (NAY-HEE-YOW), Métis (MAY-TEA), Anishinaabe (AH-NISH-IN-AH-BAY), Nakota Isga (NA-KOH-TAH EE-SKA).
Treaties are binding agreements between sovereign states that outline the obligations we all have to the treaty areas. We commit to learning about and enacting our obligations to the lands and to Indigenous peoples where we live.
We ask you to collectively turn inward and consider the land you're on, wherever you’re visiting from. You may think about the Indigenous peoples of the land you’re on, some of their names you have heard and perhaps there are many more to learn. You may think of those who are living, those we remember and honour, and the future we hope for. You may think about the beauty of the land and its host of human and nonhuman beings. You may honour the keepers of the land that sustains each of us and our communities.
We give thanks to Maria Campbell, Priscilla Campeau, and Ivy Lalonde of the Nukskahtowin Centre for sharing recipes, conversation, and the poetry of Louise Halfe (Sky Dancer). We are grateful for the vision, ethics, and actions outlined in the Nukskahtowin Plan which states: "As part of our ongoing commitment to Indigenous people in the land known as Canada and in response to the Calls to Actions of the TRC and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, we strive to move Indigenous Knowledge into the mainstream university culture as a way of building a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people."