UBC Geography is deeply committed to promoting, supporting, and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive community of faculty, staff, and students.
Equity and justice are central to the courses that we teach, and to creating the kind of world in which we want to live, work and learn. We recognize that structural inequalities persist in academia, within the discipline of geography itself, and in daily life in the settler colonial state of Canada.
Our role is to confront, in ourselves and each other, the factors that continue to restrict full and equal participation in Canadian society, and in the academic world. We commit to learning from all members of our community in pursuit of this aim.
As part of this commitment, we have an Equity & Diversity Committee whose role is to foster and maintain an inclusive, open departmental culture; to develop initiatives in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion; and to provide a forum wherein faculty, staff, and students can discuss the wider role of academia in promoting more just and equitable societies.
We greatly value the plurality of identities, experiences, cultures and perspectives that make up UBC Geography. They are our greatest strength.
We recognize that diversity in our community is multifaceted, including but not limited to: racial and cultural identity, Indigeneity, gender diversity, sexuality, disability, health status, neurodiversity, age, body diversity, nationality, immigration status, religion and socioeconomic background.
All members of our community have an individual, shared and collective responsibility to actively support equity and inclusion, and to reject discrimination of any kind.