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Canadian Political Science Association2025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College, Toronto, CANADA
June 3 to June 5, 20252025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College
June 3 to June 5, 2025
Workshop 6 - Anti-oppressive strategies and solidarity in and out the classroom (Presented by the Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples And Politics Section)
W602(a) - Workshop 6 - Roundtable: Reading the Room: Lessons on Pedagogy and Curriculum from the Gender and Sexuality Studies Classroom
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location: SJA-809
Chair/Président/Présidente : Natalie Kouri-Towe (Concordia University)
Gulzar R. Charania (University of Ottawa)Sabina Chatterjee (York University)
Carol Lynne D’Archangelis (Memorial University)
Meghan Gagliardi (University of Toronto)
Natalie Kouri-Towe (Concordia University)
Abstract: In recent years, increasing political interference in education, such as new legislation around academic freedom in Quebec introduced in 2022, illustrates how post-secondary education can serve as a vector of state control and scene of contestation over divisive ideological battles in society more broadly. Debates over what language we use in the classroom, what topics we can or should learn, and how we grapple with difference permeate all classrooms across disciplines. Yet, those teaching in the areas of gender and sexuality studies have found themselves on the frontlines of many of these debates, such as on topics of gender ideology, “woke” culture wars, trigger warnings, and “cancel culture.” This roundtable features 5 contributing authors and the editor from the recently published open access book Reading the Room: Lessons on Pedagogy and Curriculum from the Gender and Sexuality Studies Classroom (Concordia University Press 2024, ebook January 2025). The session follows a discussion between the roundtable panelists on how insights from their own classrooms can be extended across disciplines to build more inclusive, adaptive, and transformative education. Drawing on the expertise of each panelist and referencing their chapters in the edited book, the session will look critically at the implications of racial discourses underlining disciplinary norms in learning, the limitations and possibilities of critical pedagogical tools and strategies for social change, and how coalitional approaches to education can attend to the challenges facing contemporary classrooms divided by debates on ideology, social justice, geopolitics, and social movements.