{"id":32,"date":"2022-01-17T17:33:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T00:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/confrontingcolonialism\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2022-06-23T11:06:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T18:06:05","slug":"stemhealth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/confrontingcolonialism\/stemhealth\/","title":{"rendered":"stem and health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confronting Colonialism in STEM and Health<\/strong>\u00a0is a research and knowledge mobilization project led by <\/span>Dr. Sharon Stein<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Dr. Cash Ahenakew<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Dr. Will Valley<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Dr. Tamara Cohen<\/span><\/a>. Through our project we seek to support students, researchers, and professionals working in STEM and health fields to: 1) <\/span>confront <\/span><\/i>colonialism in their institutions and individual practice; and 2) <\/span>reimagine<\/span><\/i> their work in more socially and ecologically accountable ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Guiding our work is a recognition that confronting and reimagining STEM and health will require identifying, interrupting, and redressing the complicity of these fields in systemic, historical, and ongoing harm, as well as learning to weave together the gifts of different knowledge systems with both intellectual and relational rigour. By relational rigour, we mean a commitment to fostering relationships grounded in trust, respect, reciprocity, consent, and accountability (Whyte, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important to note that Indigenous peoples and many others have been engaged in similar efforts for a long time. Today, there is increasing interest in this work, especially <\/span>in the wake<\/span><\/a> of the <\/span>final report<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Calls to Action<\/span><\/a> of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and other recent efforts to Indigenize and decolonize mainstream institutions in settler society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Drawing on Indigenous and other decolonial critiques, we note that many of these well-intended educational change efforts tend to <\/span>underestimate<\/span><\/i> the enormity and complexity of challenging enduring colonial hierarchies of knowing and being, and <\/span>overestimate<\/span><\/i> our collective capacity to do this work without becoming overwhelmed, frustrated, or reproducing colonial patterns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, even when people have good intentions, many reforms that seek to address colonialism remain <\/span>symbolic and superficial, rather than substantive<\/span><\/a>, leave underlying structures of dispossession untouched, and therefore allow for the continuity of \u201cbusiness as usual.\u201d This often looks like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n