About Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)
Established in 2023, the EDI Office is dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment within the Faculty of Music. Our mission is to enhance EDI, wellness, and safety through strategic policies, programs, and initiatives. Guided by insights from a Climate and Culture Review completed in 2022, the Office and Faculty are committed to creating spaces where everyone feels they belong and can thrive.
The EDI Director is available for confidential consultations, advising, and resource navigation related to EDI, wellness, and safety. Please connect with us if you need guidance or support, have questions, or wish to provide feedback.
Strategic Priorities
Education and Community Engagement
Enhance awareness and education on EDI principles, tools, strategies to support and guide our communities through cultural shifts and systemic changes that advance EDI and reconciliation, and foster safety, wellness, belonging.
Systems Navigation
Work with those who need safety or EDI-related support to connect with resources that support community members to live, learn, and work in discrimination and harassment free-spaces.
Respond to concerns with sensitivity in ways that demonstrate accountability and enhance access, belonging, and wellness.
Accessibility
Identify and work to remove barriers to education, professional development, and opportunities to engage in meaningful scholarly and artistic work.
Provide equitable opportunities to participate and thrive to all members of our communities, supporting each other to maximize our individual and collective creative potential.
Principles and Guidelines
The Faculty of Music’s Statement of Values and Principles outlines our commitments to inclusion and belonging, reflexive engagement with cultures and communities, integrity and accountability, and process and innovation. You can access the full document here. The Statement was created by the Faculty’s EDI Committee and approved by Faculty Council in May 2023. You can contact the EDI Director if you would like a poster of the Statement for printing or sharing.
The Statement serves as a companion to our Faculty's Community Guidelines. All members of the community are encouraged to review both documents. Feedback or questions may be shared with the EDI Director.
The Faculty of Music’s Community Guidelines outline best practices and guiding principles in the context of music education, and the Faculty’s broader music community. The document references university policies and guidelines governing power dynamics, sexual violence, bullying, harassment and discrimination, use of intoxicating substances, and pedagogical best practices. It also lists resources for our community members who need support. You can access the full document here. The Guidelines were created by the Faculty’s Taskforce on Equity and Belonging and approved by Faculty Council in May 2023.
The Guidelines accompany our Statement of Values and Principles. All members of the community are encouraged to review both documents. Feedback or questions may be shared about the Guidelines with the EDI Director.
Projects and Initiatives
Art Refresh Project
In 2023, the EDI Office engaged in a project to refresh art within the Faculty's physical spaces. Showcasing pieces by visual artists from equity-deserving groups and members of the Artists' Jazz Band, 40 works were installed within 90 Wellesley St. West (Faculty of Music South building) and 80 Queen’s Park Crescent (Edward Johnson Building). They include Sorogen by Rita Letendre (1928-2021), Mother and Child: Dissonance by Sarindar Dhaliwal, Three Horns by R. Holland Murray, and A Strong Law Bids us Dance by David Neel.
art(un)done: public lives, private encounters, an exhibition part of the research project, Sustainable pARTnerships: Collaboration and reciprocity in creative cities (Ely Lyonblum, Nasim Niknafs, Laura Risk, Adrian CN Berry, and Hayley Janes) is hung up just outside one the Faculty's second largest performance space, Walter Hall.
The project focuses on improving representation and building a sense of belonging within the Faculty by including visual works by artists from historically underrepresented communities on campus. Featured pieces are from the University of Toronto Art Museum and the Canada Council Art Bank.
Navigation Project
In 2024, the EDI Office completed a project to make wayfinding easier within Faculty of Music buildings. The process involved consulting with the university's AODA Office, and invited community members to provide input on draft signage that included a QR code linking to an anonymous feedback form. More than 150 accessibly designed signs were created, improving accessibility and safety within our physical spaces for students, faculty, librarians, and guests.
Committees and Taskforces
Established in 2020 as the Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression (ARAO) Committee, members engage in crucial discussions related to anti-racism, ableism, gender equity, safety, and social justice. Each year, the Committee is comprised of students, staff, sessional instructors, and faculty who work collectively to support the Faculty's work to enhance EDI.
Questions and feedback may be directed to Co-Chairs Dr. Amy Clements-Cortes and EDI Director, Reshma Dhrodia.
Formed in 2022, this Taskforce assists the Faculty with working to identify, connect with, support, and learn from communities through outreach and reciprocal relationship building.
The Taskforce's work has included a survey of community engagement projects and programs undertaken by Faculty of Music members, highlighting engagement within education, justice, and wellness/mental health sectors, and with equity-deserving communities across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. Partnerships have included the Toronto District School Board, the YWCA, the Marigold Music Program, Community Music Schools of Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, other community agencies, and detention centres.
We are grateful to the community members who participate in the Taskforce: Co-Chairs Professors Bina John and Catherine Moore, doctoral candidate AK Dionne, Dean Ellie Hisama, Acting Dean Ryan McClelland, Advancement Director Tyler Greenleaf, Strategic Research Development Officer Ely Lyonblum, and EDI Director Reshma Dhrodia.
Questions and feedback about this Taskforce may be directed to Professors John and Moore.
Founded in 2021, the Task Force on Equity and Belonging focused on hiring an inaugural EDI Director, creating navigational support for the Faculty's communities, and exploring an art refresh project. The Task Force concluded in 2023 after the creation and launch of the Faculty's Community Guidelines document.
We are grateful to the community members who participated in the Taskforce: undergraduate student Sophia Stellato, doctoral candidates Rena-Marie Roussin and Tara Henechowicz, Dr. Camille Rogers, Dean Ellie Hisama, Acting Dean Ryan McClelland, Registrar Nalayini Balasubramaniam, and Professors Bina John, Mark Campbell, and Aiyun Huang.
Learning and Unlearning
The EDI Office facilitates professional development opportunities for our community members that align with our Faculty’s commitment to inclusion, belonging, integrity, and accountability. All trainings include information on resources available to community members in need of support.
Questions and feedback about EDI-related training and professional development are welcome and may be shared with the EDI Director.
Free EDI-related professional development opportunities for U of T staff, faculty, librarians, and sessional instructors are available through the Centre for Learning, Leadership, and Culture.
Recent training sessions for Faculty of Music community members have covered topics such as psychological safety, crisis support, language and ableism, and trauma-informed responses to harm, violence, and discrimination.
Free EDI-related trainings for Faculty of Music student organizations, classes, studios, ensembles, and masterclasses can be requested by contacting the EDI Director.
Students can attend also free EDI, leadership, and clubs essential trainings offered by Student Life's Clubs and Leadership Development Office.
EDI work at the university has evolved over many years, with key champions engaging in and advocating for equitable and inclusive spaces at the university. These efforts culminated in the establishment of U of T's Institutional Equity Office (IEO) within the Division of People Strategy, Equity & Culture. The IEO works collaboratively across the university’s three campuses to build capacity, support communities, and provide leadership in support of Indigenous Initiatives, EDI, and anti-racism efforts that lead to a greater sense of belonging for all community members.
Under the direction of the Executive Director of EDI, the IEO supports and guides the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office (ARCDO), the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office (SGDO), and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Office. It works in partnership with the Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII).
Resources
This free, online Quercus course offers a pathway towards realizing equitable communities within Music Studies – to create spaces where folks feel welcome, safe, supported and empowered to learn, teach, perform, and create.
Learning Objectives include awareness and skill-building related to self-reflexive critical thinking, EDI-related issues in music academia, responding to incidents of discrimination, and supporting student-led initiatives to address and improve EDI within music communities.
The course continues to evolve and will eventually be available to anyone globally as a Massive Open Online Course. Supported by Dr. Ely Lyonblum, the course is authored by undergraduate and graduate researchers as part of the EDI Committee's Work Study program. A full list of contributors is available within the course.
This resource was created by the EDI Director in collaboration with John Croutch, Indigenous Training Coordinator within U of T’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII). It is intended to serve as a guide for crafting meaningful land acknowledgements and to provide additional resources for learning. You can access the full resource here.
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Meet the Team
