Date and Time: January 24, 2023, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET
Registration
Please note that this event is open to all (not just CARL institutions) and will be recorded and posted to the CARL YouTube account afterwards.
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ (CARL) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group is pleased to announce the fifth in a series of planned webinars on inclusion perspectives, which will feature a panel of library colleagues from the 2SLGBTIAQ+ Community discussing their perspectives on the state of Canadian librarianship and how we can affect change.
This 1.5 hour moderated panel discussion will focus on progress on EDI initiatives to date and goals to strive for in the future. This will be a collaborative future-forward conversation, so please bring your own questions, comments and/or proposed solutions.
In addition to being subject to the CARL Code of Conduct, CARL asks all participants, panelists and organizers to be respectful of what is being shared and in how they ask questions.
In the interest of accessibility, simultaneous translation and captions will be available throughout the session. Additional accommodation requests can also be emailed to Julie Morin, Senior Program Officer at CARL ().
Speakers Bios
The moderator for this event will be Ebony Novakowski
Ebony Novakowski (she/her) is the Copyright Officer of Red River College Polytech and Chair of the Gender and Sexual Diversity committee at RRC polytech. Ebony began her journey in library services volunteering with Winnipeg’s Rainbow Resource Centre Library and continues to lend herself to efforts to create equitable library services and spaces for members of the 2SLGBTIAQ+ through involvement with events and education at the RRC Library and in the Manitoba community at large.
Donna Langille (she/they) is the Community Engagement and Open Education Librarian at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO). Donna has contributed to numerous queer initiatives at UBCO including planning the annual Pride Picnic as a member of the Postive Space Committee and co-chairing the library’s EDI Committee. Their interest in community engagement and queer histories led them to produce Okanagan QueerStory, a storytelling podcast about the queer history of the Okanagan in British Columbia. Donna is also a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBCO researching queer histories, cultural memory, and feminist technologies.
Billy J. Choi-Gekas (they/them) is a Nonbinary, Queer, mixed-race Settler from Tkaronto. They are the Circulation Supervisor for the John W. Graham Library at Trinity College, University of Toronto, and the Chair of the “Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, Antiracism” (IDEAR) Committee of the University of Toronto Libraries. Billy’s current graduate research at the University of Toronto focuses on Ecological Theology and Indigenous Methodology. They serve on the Board of Directors for Toronto Urban Native Ministry, and has a private practice as a wholistic practitioner and anti-oppression consultant, working with individuals and communities, as well as numerous social justice, Queer, and interreligious organizations across Canada.
Michael David Miller (il & he) is an Associate Librarian at McGill University. He has contributed to numerous Queer iniatives at McGill, notably organzing the first Canadian Lavender Graduation Ceremony at McGill (the Launch of the Rainbow) in 2018 and co-curating a exhibit on the 50th anniversary of the decriminialization of homosexuality in Canada. He has contributed to the EDI Committee (la commission Légothèque) of the Association des bibliothécaires de France, co-founded in 2020 the EDI Committee of the Fédération des milieux documentaire and contributes to adressing the Queer Québécois content gap in the francophone Wikipedia.
