Transformation Cafe - Finding Sanctuary
This Transformation Cafe explores how we can create university cultures that are hospitable to students with precarious immigration status
Our final Transformation Cafe of the year highlights the research of Sanctuary Scholars at the OSI and beyond. How do universities participate in bordering practices, even when they present themselves as welcoming or inclusive spaces?
This Transformation Cafe explores how we can create university cultures that are hospitable to students with precarious immigration status through conversation with researchers and community leaders working across Canada and the UK. Featuring Daniella Chan and Montserrat Ballesteros from the Finding Sanctuary project, Brantella Williams and Fatima Mohamed from the S4 Collective and the Access, Protection, and Welcome project, and facilitated by Rebecca Murray from the University of Sheffield and the Access, Protection, and Welcome project, this panel will invite collective reflection on how 鈥渟anctuary鈥� is imagined, practiced, and constrained within university spaces.
Drawing on emerging research, lived experience, and activism for systemic institutional change, panellists will examine the discourses that shape how students with precarious status are understood and treated on campus, the barriers they face in accessing and moving through higher education, and the limits of institutional responses that focus only on inclusion without structural change. Speakers will explore questions such as: How do discourses of deservingness shape which migrants are welcomed into higher education, under what conditions, and at what cost? And, what can we learn from students鈥� experiences about the limits of institutional inclusion when the institution itself is embedded in colonial, nationalist, and bordering logics?
This Caf茅 invites participants not only to listen, but to think about our collective responsibility in creating more just universities that are welcoming to all.
Location + Time
When: Wednesday, April 29th, 2:00pm -3:30pm
Where: 288 Church Street, (DCC building), room 707/709
Access: ASL interpretation. This is a mask-mandatory event. Please wear a mask when not eating, and we will have surgical masks available. For questions about access, please email eliza.chandler@torontomu.ca
Mutual Aid
In the spirit of community care and mutual aid, The Sanctuary Students Support & Solidarity Collective, commonly known as the S4 Collective is looking for donations to be used for scholarship. The S4 Collective supports students with precarious or non-formal immigration status in accessing education. Many face barriers like high international fees and ineligibility for financial aid, making post-secondary pathways difficult.
They are raising $10,000 to fund scholarships and sustain their work. Your support helps make education more equitable and accessible for all.
Donate and learn more .
Facilitator
Dr Rebecca Murray is a Lecturer in Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield (UK) where she sits on her institutional sanctuary oversight group, and is a member of the national University of Sanctuary steering committee. Rebecca鈥檚 extensive practice and research in relation to bordering and post compulsory education has been developed in partnership with young migrant-led grassroots campaigning initiatives. Her research centres on 鈥�(Re)imagining the Higher Education Border鈥�, seeking to explore the scale of bordering practices across UK-universities, whilst creatively (re)imagining them in collaboration with project researchers, experienced in displacement, studying within and lobbying for improved access to higher education. The 鈥楽anctuary Template鈥� is the product of a knowledge exchange project between the South Yorkshire region in the UK (young migrants, City of Sanctuary and the University of Sheffield) and Toronto, Canada (young migrants, the S4 Collective and the Sanctuary Scholars programme), which aimed to envision a university free from immigration borders. Rebecca (she / her) is a white British cis-gender woman who has no lived experience of migration or displacement.
Speakers
Brantella Williams (She/Her) | Executive Director | S4 Collective (Sanctuary Students, Solidarity and Support Collective)
Brantella Williams is a systems-change advocate advancing equitable access to education, with a focus on Sanctuary Students and precarious migrants. With a degree in Political Science from York University, she works at the intersection of policy, research, and community organizing to dismantle structural barriers in post-secondary education. She has contributed to multiple research projects, workshops, and panel discussions with York University, 91滴滴, the University of Toronto, including Peel Community Engagement Toolkit and People for Education (PFE). Brantella attended the UN High-Level Political Forum in New York twice as a UN Youth Delegate, contributing to Canada鈥檚 Voluntary National Review (VNR), and has served as a panelist with CCR conference in Winnipeg and many other community forums. Her advocacy is grounded in anti-racism and pro-migrant campaigns that elevate migrant voices and drive institutional and policy change.
Fatima is a project coordinator at S4 Collective, working on initiatives that support sanctuary students by bridging gaps in access to post-secondary education, resources, and information. Creating events and workshops for Sanctuary Students where they can feel comfortable and be a part of the community. Currently a second-year Graphic Communication Management student at 91滴滴.
Daniella Chan is a 4th year student in the Sexuality Studies Honors program at York University. She volunteered at the People's Pantry as logistics coordinator, helping provide people with hot meals and groceries over the COVID pandemic. Daniella is interested in queer theory and history, and how intersections of class, race, and geography/migration impact sexuality.
Daniella Chan is a 4th year student in the Sexuality Studies Honors program at York University. She volunteered at the People's Pantry as logistics coordinator, helping provide people with hot meals and groceries over the COVID pandemic. Daniella is interested in queer theory and history, and how intersections of class, race, and geography/migration impact sexuality.