A faculty member, students and alumni in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) are celebrating the first online special issue of Marvellous Grounds!, a blog funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant and an Early Researcher Award.
Supported by FES and York University’s Centre for Feminist Research, the blog is a collective effort involving FES Professor Jin Haritaworn, and FES and SPT graduates/grad students Alvis Choi, Ghaida Moussa and Syrus Marcus Ware. It is co-edited by former and current MES students Rio Rodriguez and Amandeep Kaur Panag, and features many contributors from the queer and trans black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC) community in and beyond Toronto.
Marvellous Grounds! project coordinator and principal investigator Haritaworn won the York University Research Leader Award at the annual York University Research Leader Celebration for their work on the project.
The special issue is titled “QTBIPOC SPACE – Remapping Belonging in Toronto” and features two digital maps that serve as an archive of QTBIPOC stories in Toronto, with contribution from Monica Forrester, Anna Malla, Aemilius Ramirez, and Syrus Marcus Ware. One of these maps is interactive, inviting QTBIPOC in the city to contribute their stories of joy, rage, grief, and other memories.
QTBIPOC SPACE also includes: an interview with Amber Sandy on First Story Toronto, an app that explores the Aboriginal history of Toronto; an essay by Gloria Swain on BLMTO Tent City; an interview with Syrus Marcus Ware on the Church Street Mural project; and, artwork and photography by Fatin Chowdhury, Raven Davis, Fonna Seidu, and Zahra Siddiqui.
For more, visit marvellousgrounds.com.