Geological Science and Engineering

GSGE Statement 

August 1, 2020 – The events over the last few months have made it clear that serious and systemic racial injustices and violence are being committed against Black people, Indigenous peoples, and minorities in Canada and elsewhere. We at the Queen’s University Geological Science and Geological Engineering Department condemn anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and the biases embedded in academic life. Addressing past and ongoing violence and discrimination against people of all communities - including, but not limited to, members of the Black, Indigenous, LBGTQ+, lower income, disability, and faith-based communities - requires both immediate action and continuous work, and we are committed to working towards building a welcoming and supportive environment for all members of these communities.

Our Commitment 

The GSGE Department recognizes that action is required, and we are taking the following steps:

• We have formed a departmental Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee in order to look into systems of oppression in our own department and to promote the creation of a more equitable and diverse community. We invite members of the community to provide feedback and volunteer to contribute to this committee, and our efforts.
• We will write and establish a Code of Conduct to ensure discriminatory behaviours are not acceptable in our department.
• We will commit to self-education and to listening about past and current racial injustices in geoscience and geological engineering.
• We will actively work to create opportunities for diverse groups to learn and engage in geoscience and geological engineering education and research considering equity and sustainability.

Our actions will speak louder than our words.

EDI Committee Updates 

Winter 2021

Members of the Queen’s GSGE community, including the EDI committee, are participating in a broad departmental group that has formed a pod to participate in the 16 week Unlearning Racism in Geosciences (URGE) initiative which aims to provide concrete guidance to investigate, learn, and plan next steps to improve the diversity, equity, and inclusivity of our department and the geosciences as a whole. We hope that through weekly readings, internal pod discussions, and external panel interviews alongside students, professors, and professionals we can come to better understand the experience of BIPOC in a broad sense but with a focus on those who work or study in the geosciences. Each week focuses on a different topic and allows participants to examine the barriers and challenges for BIPOC individuals through a different lens. Through our agreement to the URGE program, we are committed to engaging with our Department Head about our discussions and ideas to ensure that our words can be successfully turned into actions. We encourage others to follow along with the curriculum and the progress of the Queen’s Geology Pod here: https://urgeoscience.org/pods/queens-u-pod/

We hope to use this knowledge to fuel ideas about what changes our EDI committee can make regarding the administration, culture, and curriculum of the Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering Department and the broader Queen’s community.