Creating Space: Precarious Status Women Leading Local Pandemic Responses – Virtual Symposium
Join us for a virtual symposium celebrating the creative and collaborative work of Creating Space: Precarious Status Women Leading Local Pandemic Responses. This two-year collaboration was led by 14 community partner organizations with our Artistic Manager and three co-PIs, and was supported by two project managers, eight York researchers, a team of students and interns, and six organized research units (ORUs) at York University, including Osgoode Professors Deborah McGregor and Heidi Matthews.
The project was designed to support and augment the work of community organizations representing women who live with insecure citizenship and/or job status, specifically female temporary foreign workers, asylum seekers, Indigenous and racialized persons, undocumented frontline workers and disabled persons. Together, we explored ways to envision and enact economic, physical, and community well-being; inform inclusive policies; and address systemic challenges such as gender-based violence and labour rights.
The symposium will feature highlights of the Creating Space Digital Archive, a diverse collection of artistic audio and visual expressions of the project’s examination of the question, “How do we build collective power in the context of assigned precariousness during COVID-19?” Narratives and change strategies are expressed in audio-recordings with animation, dance workshop and performance, original playscript and theatrical production, graphic visualization, music video, documentation of a Carnival, and visual art.
Together, we will celebrate collective achievements, share policy consultation outcomes, and showcase experiences and visions for just responses and transformation.
