As a sociology student who hopes to make a difference in the world, this program is invaluable. To be able to learn about and actively discuss in a classroom setting many of the issues and challenges we face is empowering. I believe this program will provide me with the tools needed to have a positive impact.

Wanjiku Waithaka
Uvic undergraduate student

As a mixed Indigenous woman and mother, I believe there are multiple forms of social justice, some competing with each other. A consciousness raising space in the academy is needed and welcomed. This program speaks to me because I am interested in learning about the power and science of oppression. Doing so is helpful for me as it names things in my gut and in my heart that I find hard to explain. It can be uplifting and is a form of resistance. A space and program like this also has the possibilities to dissipate some of the loneliness and isolation that many experience at university and in the workplace.

Rebecca Taylor
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG)

Having worked in the gay and lesbian community for a number of years, I'm elated to see a program that connects theory to practice. Programs like this will help to ensure that people aren't simply research projects.

Dann Hoxsey
UVic undergraduate student

As a student, researcher and community organizer, I am very excited to see a program that transcends the boundaries between academia and activism -- in theory and in practice. The Social Justice Studies program recognizes that bridging these worlds is key to social change. It will surely enrich both the lives of its students and the communities in which they work.

Tamara Herman
MA Candidate, Studies in Policy and Practice, UVIC
Research Coordinator, the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group

As both a Sociology student and parent, the issues addressed in Social Justice Studies are of extreme importance to me. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, UVic's SJS provides a synthesis of activism, consciousness, and pragmatism that speaks to the problems and needs facing people and societies the world over.

Zebariah Baranyai
UVic undergraduate student

As a fourth year Sociology major, Women's Studies minor, I was very excited to hear about the development of the Social Justice Studies Program here at UVic. At the heart of SJS lies an intersectional and critical understanding of social justice that is committed to creating emancipatory change(s) for all people in society. Deconstructing power relations and systems of power that structure people's everyday lived realities is integral to this process. As such, this program necessarily offers a plurality of approaches to social justice that span across a variety of disciplines, and encompasses a wide range of activism(s)- from the local to the extralocal. Challenging and eradicating oppression and intolerance requires a commitment to reflexivity, intersectional analysis, and a critical focus on praxis. These are the real strengths of SJS at UVic.

Leah Staples
UVic undergraduate student

As an activist / graduate student who attempts to maintain a praxis-oriented balance between academia and activism, I believe that the Social Justice Studies program at the University of Victoria offers just such a balance, a level of integration of thought and action which is sorely needed in the world today.
We live in a world of growing injustice, a world in which questions of privilege and power can no longer be thought of as external to, or separate from, the universities and cultures in which we live and learn. Now more than ever we need to begin to ask the hard questions which might provide us with new visions of justice, visions which might orient us towards a new way of living. I believe that this program will allow students to engage critically with these questions -- and through thought and action to provide these visions of a more just world.

Craig Ashbourne
UVic graduate student