4. Thriving on Campus-Part 1

Glossary of Terms

1. SSHRC Insight grant: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grants aim to build knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world by supporting research excellence in the social sciences and humanities research initiatives.
2. SSHRC Connection grant: Connection grants support events and outreach activities geared toward short-term, targeted knowledge mobilization initiatives
3. Knowledge mobilization: Knowledge mobilization refers to the process of promoting and facilitating the use of research by knowledge users such as decision-makers, policy-makers, practitioners, and community members. The primary aim is to help users engage with research findings as they make informed decisions regarding policies, programs, practices, and behavior.
4. Interdisciplinary: Interdisciplinary research integrates perspectives, concepts, theories, and/or methods from multiple disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline. Research is truly interdisciplinary when it is not just pasting two disciplines together to create one product but rather is an integration and synthesis of ideas and methods.
5. 2SLGBTQ+: The acronym 2SLGBTQ+ is used to refer to people who identify as Two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer, or with other diverse gender and/or sexual identities. To learn more about these particular identity terms, please see Egale’s 2SLGBTQI Terms and Definitions.
6. Mixed method study: Mixed methods research combines elements of qualitative and quantitative research approaches (e.g., use of qualitative focus groups with a quantitative survey) for the broad purposes of breadth and depth of understanding and corroboration.
7. Microaggressions: Microaggressions refer to often subtle, unintentional discrimination against a member of a marginalized group, such as a Black person, a trans person, or a disabled person. They can include insensitive or rude comments or actions that degrade the targeted person (i.e., microinsults), dismiss or erase their experiences (i.e., microinvalidations), or often blatantly attacks that purposefully aim to cause harm (i.e., microassaults).  Regardless of the type, microaggressions convey a negative message about the targeted group and serve to other and marginalize the group. Microaggressions occur interpersonally in exchanges between individuals and environmentally through social policies, practices, and norms.
8. Intersectionality: Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how individuals' various social identities (e.g., race, gender) in the context of related systems of oppression (e.g., race, sexism, cisgenderism) result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage, including gender, race, ethnicity, class, sex, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance. Depending on the intersecting identities one holds, a person can experience privilege, oppression, or both within society.3
9. Cisgender: Someone is cisgender when their gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth. For instance, a cisgender woman is an individual who identifies as a woman and was assigned female at birth.
10. Campus Climate: Broadly, campus climate refers to the experiences and treatment of marginalized students on campus. Campus climate includes experiential aspects (such as discriminatory actions from others and systems), psychological aspects (for example, perceptions of belonging and perceptions of university inclusion policies and practices), and structural aspects (for instance, policies and resources specifically for students from marginalized communities).
11. BIPOC: The acronym stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour. It is a term used to encompass groups that are racialized and are harmed by racism and white supremacy. By centring Black and Indigenous communities, it acknowledges that these communities are particularly impacted by racism and white supremacy.
12. Nonbinary: Refers to a spectrum of gender identities that do not exclusively align with a binary understanding of man/masculine or woman/feminine. A nonbinary person may identify outside of these binary categories entirely or may experience gender in a fluid or multifaceted way. The term "nonbinary" encompasses a diverse range of identities, including but not limited to agender, genderfluid, and genderqueer..

Our Guests

1. Michael Woodford: Michael (he/him) is a Professor at Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work and the Associate Dean for the PhD in social work program. He is a gay, cisgender, white settler living and working on the Haldimand Tract within the territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee people. His research addresses the inclusion/exclusion, wellbeing, and resilience of 2SLGBTQ+ people and communities. Michael specializes in the study of contemporary 2SLGBTQ+ discrimination, including microaggressions and campus climate, and their effects on 2SLGBTQ+ students’ mental health, social belonging, and academic success. His work on resilience explores multi-level factors, including social policies and programs that can protect individuals from the negative effects of discrimination. His research is interdisciplinary, utilizes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method designs, and is informed by an array of theories and frameworks, such as minority stress, socio-ecological theory, intersectionality, positive psychology, and community-based research. Dedicated to fostering 2SLGBTQ+ responsive services, Michael also engages in research related to inclusive healthcare and social work practice. His work is funded by various sources, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and he is a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. Michael is the Principal Investigator for Thriving On Campus study and mobilization project. 
2. Eric Van Giessen: Eric (he/they) is a fifth-year doctoral student in Sociology at York University. His SSHRC-funded dissertation research examines the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ Christians specifically delving into how queer self-conceptions intersect with spirituality and lived religion. His interests include critical sexuality studies, lived religion, queer utopianism, and innovative queer methodologies. His approaches often incorporate community-based research and arts-based methods, reflecting a commitment to knowledge mobilization and making research accessible. Eric has been working with the Thriving On Campus project since 2019, first as an Interviewer and then as a Research Assistant helping to organize Thriving's webinar projects and the 2022-2023 Virtual Conference Series. 
3. Tin Vo: Tin (he/they) is an equity-focused researcher who is completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph, a Master of Public Health from the University of Alberta, and PhD in Social Work from Laurier. His dissertation explored the experiences and wellbeing of 2SLGBTQ+ people within queer leisure spaces, examining inclusion/exclusion, belonging, and mental health through an intersectional lens focusing on the experiences of racialized, trans, and disabled individuals. As a Credentialed Evaluator, Tin has over ten years of research and evaluation experience in the Ontario public health, social services, and higher education sectors. Tin contributed to the Thriving On Campus study as a member of the BIPOC workgroup that focused on findings related to BIPOC students’ experiences and as a collaborator on the Virtual Conference Series that mobilized research findings and supported change on campuses. 

Support & Funding

• The Centre for Leading Research in Education

Resources

• The Centre for Leading Research in Education
• Thriving on Campus –Community Reports
• Know the Land
• Whose Land