Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Precipitated by a human rights complaint against its prestigious Canada Research Chair (CRC) Program – a program to recruit and support over 2000 high-profile ‘academic superstars’ – the Canadian government struck the Federal Science Review Panel to examine the state of research funding and support across the country. The Panel’s extensive consultations exposed broader concerns, indicating deeper systemic problems of inequality and exclusion in the academy. The Panel found significant gaps in recruiting, retaining, celebrating and supporting women, Indigenous people, disabled people, and racialized people in the Canadian academic system. As a result, significant interventions have occurred within the CRC Program, including setting equity targets, and threats of withholding funding for universities that fail to meet those targets. Additionally, the government has piloted the Dimensions program, a made-in-Canada version of Athena Swan, which supports universities and colleges to develop equitable practices and cultures relating to women and other gender and sexually marginalized groups, disabled people, Indigenous people and racialized groups. As a member of the Federal Science Review Panel and a disability studies scholar, I am both pleased and concerned about these initiatives. In this paper, I examine some of the challenges and hopes of the CRC and Dimensions programs. Paying particular attention to disability inclusion, I argue that equity targets and promoting culture change may be destined to fail for disabled scholars, unless coupled with grassroots activism at the very earliest stages of one’s academic career.