Underclass Sisterhood of Solidarity: Radically Imagining Universities

In this event, presenters will reflect on findings from the award-winning community-based research doctoral project titled "Pushing Privilege Pillars in Canadian Universities". The foundation of this project is based on the creation of a grassroots program www.shoestringinitiative.com that supports students whose lives are shaped by (generational) poverty in Canadian Universities. In this project, a group of women (The Underclass Sisterhood of Solidarity; USS) came together to address the wicked problem of limited access to higher education for poverty-class students, despite higher education being essential to mitigate poverty across generations. USS tackled the myth of the classless society and the taboo subject of social class within this community-based research project which culminated in the radical imagining of a social innovation model to demonstrate to Canadian universities how to fully support this oft-overlooked domestic population from trauma-informed, decolonial, and strength-based lenses

In this webinar, attendees will delve into dominant social class narratives, wade into the messiness of classism on the higher education landscape, explore the rich mosaic of diverse knowledge systems, and engage in radical community-based imagination to support poverty-class students in higher education. Join USS members as we collectively radically imagine Canadian universities as sites that are inclusive of those whose lives are shaped by poverty.