SJE DSA January Events Recap: Supervision, Funding, and Solidarity
In January, the Social Justice Education Departmental Student Association (SJE DSA) hosted three successful hybrid events featuring SJE faculty presenters. Together, these sessions created space for practical guidance, collective learning, and meaningful conversation across the department. Below is a brief recap for those who couldn鈥檛 attend.
Rumour has it that SJE DSA will also host two more Lunch & Learns in February鈥攕ave the dates for February 12 and February 26, 2026!
Lunch & Learn: Finding Supervision & Forming a Committee (January 21)
This Lunch & Learn was led by Dr. Rub茅n Gaztambide-Fern谩ndez, Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education. The session focused on how supervision actually works in practice.
Professor Gaztambide-Fern谩ndez talked through the role of supervisors and committees, emphasizing that there is no single 鈥渂est鈥 supervisor鈥攐nly what fits a student鈥檚 needs, working style, and project. Over pizza in the Airspace and on Zoom, students learned who can and cannot supervise, how cross-appointments work, and how committees are typically formed. A major takeaway was that supervision is relational: building connections with faculty, taking initiative, and being clear about expectations.
Lunch & Learn: Designing an OGS Proposal (January 30)
This session, led by Dr. Hayley Brooks, Assistant Professor in Social Justice Education, offered guidance on crafting a strong application for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS).
Dr. Brooks shared examples of successful proposals and broke down what makes an application compelling. She drew on prior experience working with the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation at University of Toronto Scarborough, where she specialized in research proposal development and editorial support for faculty SSHRC applications. The conversation focused on strategies for framing a project concisely, articulating its significance, and presenting a coherent research design. Attendees in-person and virtually also shared experiences and best practices!
Colloquium Series Session 1: Transnational Solidarities (January 29)
By the end of the month, the SJE DSA launched its 2026 Colloquium Series, Transnational Solidarities: Forging Abolitionist Communities, with its first session on Gender and Sexuality. In a political moment marked by rising xenophobia and exclusionary rhetoric around race, gender, sexuality, and migration, the Colloquium Series asks how solidarities can be built across borders, identities, and institutions. Session 1: Gender and Sexuality invited participants to engage creatively using art materials while discussing themes at the intersections of queer theory, feminisms, migration, incarceration, and education. Lots of Play-Doh was used!
The session featured Dr. Lore/tta LeMaster, Associate Professor of Queer Studies, and Ozzy (Narisa) Vickers, PhD student in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. DSA Communications Officer Harny Carlos Chan Lim moderated the session. The session explored how (un)belonging, vulnerabilities, and even grief can serve as productive or generative forces for building connections and collective action. Experienced "ruptures" were also reframed as opportunities to not only challenge and disrupt dominant and carceral systems and environments, but also a catalyst for healing, dreaming, and creating more viable, and queer futures. Additional sessions in the colloquium series are forthcoming.
You can stay connected by following SJE DSA on and through emails sent to the SJE community.
