Presenters from seven Indian institutions, representatives from four departments in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professionals Studies (LA&PS) at York University and three community organizations in the Greater Toronto Area will converge on York University’s Keele campus for the Resisting Inequality/Enabling Inclusion: An India‐Canada Comparison Symposium at York University’s Keele campus. The symposium began June 8 and will continue June 9.
Participants will consider how globalization has intensified inequality, consider the social consequences of this increasing inequality and discuss how people in India and Canada are resisting inequality and promoting inclusion and fairness through social movements, legal challenges and policy initiatives.
“The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies is pleased to sponsor this international workshop, which is bringing a number of excellent scholars to York to discuss issues of global inequality,” says Faculty Dean Martin Singer. “Initiatives such as these help to further our internationalization goals by promoting global partnerships and networks and, in particular, by strengthening our relationships with universities in India.”
“The idea behind this symposium is to explore common questions and collective concerns about globalization and the rise of inequality in both Global North and Global South” says Biswajit Das, a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University, a public university located in Delhi, India. “Both Jamia Millia Islamia and York University have vibrant, collaborative activities that range from research, common teaching, faculty and student exchange and, finally, organizing interuniversity symposiums and seminars. The present symposium also adds experts in the field and invites scholars from other universities and institutions in India.”
The symposium includes academic presentations on topics ranging from transnational labour and migrant families to women’s rights advocacy, scavengers in India and the information technology industry as a tool for intensifying income inequality. A community panel representing three South Asian communities, the Human Endeavour, Punjabi Community Health Services and India Rainbow Service will discuss issues immigrants face in Canada. York U LA&PS Professors Tania Das Gupta and Srabani Maitra will screen their documentary Journey to Find Myself Again.
Nancy Mandell, chair of the symposium’s organizing committee, sees the event as providing a unique opportunity for faculty and students to exchange ideas and research experience regarding issues of global inequality. As well, it provides a platform for the development of joint course offerings between York’s Department of Sociology and the Jamia Millia Islamia University Department of Sociology and Centre for Culture, Media & Governance. All are welcome to the event, which will take place on June 8 and 9 in Room 152, Assembly Hall, Founders College.
For more information, visit the Resisting Inequality/Enabling Inclusion: An India‐Canada Comparison Symposium website.
This symposium is generously supported by: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada; Dean’s Office, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Department of Sociology; Sociology Undergraduate Student Association; York International; Jamia Millia Islamia University; Master’s Office, Founders College; and Human Endeavour, with the support of the York Centre for Asian Research.