Anthropology as a discipline is built on colonialism as a foundation and has relied on its structures of violence and privilege to exist throughout its history. It has played a part in perpetuating colonialism and has been a consistent engine of “Othering.”
While the McGill Anthropology Department has taken initiative to make reforms and be reflexive on this issue, we believe there is a need to start a more inclusive conversation that starts with reaching out to our student
body with this statement. It is important that we expand
on and radically change the way decision-making occurs surrounding these issues and invite discussion that informs and shapes the changes that are implemented. To read our more in-depth statement, click here (cw: police brutality, skip the first paragraph to avoid this).
As a group, we have had several discussions about how best to work more activism and educational advocacy into our initiatives. We welcome any feedback from the community on how we can do this.
​
To do this, we have implemented an anonymous feedback form that can be filled out directly from our website.
​
The ASA has also been in discussions with AGSA, and the Anthropology Faculty about forming an Equity Committee or Working group focused on anti-racist and anti-colonial initiatives in the department.
Regardless of what form this takes at the Departmental level, the ASA has started our own undergraduate Equity Committee, the EDI (Equity, diversity, inclusion).
Please email the ASA VP Internal, if you have any other contributions or are interested in applying to the EDI: asa.internal.mcgill@gmail.com