U of T Law introduces a series of educational workshops on anti-racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Islamophobia
On September 29, U of T Law’s Dean Jutta Brunnée announced that the Faculty would be offering a slate of educational workshops on different equity groups. These workshops are mandatory for all 1L students and optional for upper-year students.
In introducing these sessions, Dean Brunnée referred to sentiments expressed in her welcome back letter to students, staff, and faculty. Her letter cited the many challenges on other fronts we have witnessed in the past year and the “endless stream of injustices, conflicts and crises.” She highlighted the role that law schools and lawyers can play in “dismantling systems of institutionalized racism in our society.”
The first 1L workshop took place on October 1 and focused on anti-racism and critical race theory (CRT) in the law. The morning session provided a detailed overview of key concepts under the CRT framework and anti-racism theories while examining their implications in legal practice. In the afternoon session, 1Ls were joined by representatives from Hill Studio for a more collaborative discussion on developing community spaces that support students’ intersectional identities.
Mandatory training sessions on anti-Islamophobia and anti-Semitism for 1Ls have been scheduled for October 22 and 29, respectively.
Separate sessions on the same topics were optional for upper-year students. On why upper years were not mandated to attend, Acting Assistant Dean Brittany Twiss said in a comment for Ultra Vires that “for the past 10 years, we have provided mandatory anti-oppression training to incoming 1L students. The goal is to ensure that all incoming students have a similar basic understanding of power, privilege, and oppression in our society. However, we need to balance this goal with research that shows that mandatory anti-oppression training can often have a negative impact and actually do harm to the goals of furthering EDI commitments.”
Acting Assistant Dean Twiss added that the “partners at the University’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office advised [the Faculty] to not mandate attendance beyond the first year.”
Before the workshops on anti-Islamophobia and anti-Semitism took place, the administration held consultations with Muslim and Jewish students at the school. The pre-consultations were intended to allow students identifying as either of these two equity-facing groups to share their perspectives and ideas on what material they would like to see incorporated in the training sessions.
The anti-Islamophobia pre-consultation was facilitated by Aasiyah Khan, former U of T research assistant and education programs manager at the National Council of Canadian Muslims. Former Campus Rabbi of Hillel U of T and Director of Innovation Training and Curriculum at Clal Rabbi Julia Appel led the pre-consultations on anti-Semitism.
The Faculty also plans to introduce workshops on Indigeneity and anti-Indigenous racism in the near future.
It is unclear if this year’s workshop model will be adopted in future years. Acting Assistant Dean Twiss shared that the law school will “review the success of this initiative and make decisions as to what extent [it] will continue this particular model, and/or incorporate aspects of it, into future initiatives.” Nonetheless, the school has maintained that anti-oppression training will continue to be an important part of the experiences of U of T Law students.
