Rob Simon is associate professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and has been a teacher educator since 2003.  At OISE, Rob teaches courses in critical literacy and practitioner research. He is also academic director of the Centre for Urban Schooling (https://cus.oise.utoronto.ca) and director of the Toronto Writing Project (https://www.torontowritingproject.com). Rob began his career in education in 1998 as a founding teacher of Life Learning Academy (http://www.lifelearningacademysf.org), a high school for youth who experienced struggles in traditional school settings. Rob’s current research explores how teachers and students inquire into and co-research issues of social justice, and how they use the arts, film, writing, and other creative mediums to share their findings with the world.

Sarah Evis is a cis white woman, who teaches grades 7 & 8 at Delta Alternative Senior School, in Toronto, where she has taught since 2001. Her desire is to encourage students through hands-on, arts based learning, to actively engage with and push back against privilege, colonialism, oppression, and marginalization. Sometimes, she is successful. Sarah is involved with various community initiatives, and does activist work with a focus on issues affecting Indigenous, BIPOC, and queer and trans folks. She has two grown sons, Pogo and Mingus, who are fierce advocates for the rights of others. Before becoming a teacher, Sarah had a career as a visual artist and owned a restaurant. Her interests include visual arts, theatre, music, and gardening. She is devoted to her two pugs, Marvin and Rupert.

Ty Walkland is a writer, teacher, and teacher educator who works with youth and teachers to confront power, privilege, and the possibilities of a more just and equitable future. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum & Pedagogy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, where his research explores critical and holistic approaches to drug education. Before grad school, Ty spent several years teaching secondary English, Social Science, and Special Education for the Simcoe County District School Board. He still teaches high school occasionally, and continues to develop curriculum and lead workshops across the province that support education workers to meet the needs of diverse youth and families.

Ben Gallagher is a poet and essayist, and is currently a PhD candidate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. His research interests include experimental poetics, non-linear pedagogy, and the environment. His writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies across Canada, and in 2017 he won Arc magazine’s Critic’s Desk Award. He is the coordinator of the Toronto Writing Project, a co-founder of Listening Parties, an irregular reading series, a member of the Scotch Village Co-operative Farm, and a member of the arts collective 7+/-2. He has taught art and writing in community and non-profit settings for the past decade, and helped found The Spot, an arts program for people involved in the mental healthcare system. When Ben isn’t working with the Addressing Injustices project, he’s at home with his seven-month-old daughter stacking blocks and knocking them down, or encouraging her to nap.

Ashleigh A. Allen is a writer, poet, educator, researcher, and doctoral candidate (ABD) in Curriculum & Pedagogy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. She has taught creative writing and literature in classroom and community settings for over 15 years, first in New York City and, more recently, in Toronto. In both cities, she has sought alternative ways of being together with others that centre the lives, desires, and futures of the people, communities, and land. Her research interests are – teacher education, curriculum studies, literacy, arts methods, queer theory, community research, and care. Her poetry has appeared in The Malahat Review, the minnesota review, The Dalhousie Review, PRISM international, Contemporary Verse 2 and elsewhere. She was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2024 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. 

Douglas Friesen has led teachers, students, and professional musicians through ways of using improvisation and soundscape to engage creativity and community.  He is currently working on a PhD in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto where he is researching sound and listening pedagogies. Doug has worked as a teacher and Instructional Leader in public schools and a course instructor at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University. Doug is a student and friend of Canadian composer and educator R. Murray Schafer who he has taught with and for in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. As a professional musician, Doug has played with Dave Bidini (Rheostatics), John K. Samson (Weakerthans), Ron Sexsmith, and many others. soundmarker Noisetown

benjamin lee hicks is a visual artist, elementary school teacher, and PhD candidate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. They taught JK-grade 6 classrooms in the Toronto District School Board for 8 years prior to beginning graduate school. benjamin has written and designed curriculum materials on topics of sustainable community building, queering school space, and arts-based activism. They are interested in how we might better support teachers to expect queerness and welcome all gender identities in elementary school classrooms. benjamin is also passionate about centring the voices and experiences of trans/gender diverse people who are navigating the school system as students, staff, and caregivers.

Pamela Baer is a theatre and media artist with a focus on community engaged work. Drawn from a young age to storytelling as a way of connecting people and building community, her work revolves around personal narratives, oral histories, and life stories. Pamela has facilitated community arts projects with diverse groups, and wide reaching themes, in England, Ghana, and Canada. Her current work focuses on LGBTQ families, stories, and representations, and explores the role of collective community creation in the the production of participatory media. Pamela is a PhD candidate Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, the research manager on the LGBTQ Families Speak Out project (www.lgbtqfamiliesspeakout.ca), and an instructor of Applied Theatre at Brock University.

Slam poetry meets folk music meets queer-themed tunes in Toronto-based singer-songwriter Kate Reid. Kate has five albums under her belt: Kate Reid (ep, 2005), Comin’ Alive (2006), I’m Just Warming Up (2009), Doing it for the Chicks (2011), and Queer Across Canada (2013). She performs at live music venues, folk and music festivals, Pride festivals, conferences, public schools, universities, and in people’s living rooms. She also combines musical activism with teaching by facilitating workshops and giving concerts and keynote addresses for educational institutions and community service organizations. Kate is a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, where she is conducting research on the use of songs in curriculum development on gender and sexual diversity. Kate loves hiking, cycling, watching birds, (and all animals in general), and going to the occasional Blue Jays ballgame. www.katereid.net

Bishop is a community activist, educator, writer and PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Bishop's doctoral research at OISE explores what happens when queer and trans youth of colour work collaboratively to reimagine and recreate the Ontario sex education curriculum as a way to resist cis-heteronormativity, whiteness and racism. The research project will focus on the use of community youth participatory action research and arts-based pedagogies that centre queer community care, thrival and futurity. Bishop is a community educator at Planned Parenthood Toronto and the Sex Education Centre at UofT, an alumni junior fellow at Massey College and a research assistant on the LGBTQ Families Speak Out research project. They are passionate about creating equitable and socially just educational and political spaces for queer, trans and gender diverse folks of colour.

Jessica Taylor Charland is a PhD student in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto with an interest in how teachers’ cultural identities influence their pedagogy and classroom curricular practices. She has been a teacher educator for the last decade helping preservice teachers learn about 21st century literacy instruction, infusing her knowledge of multimodal literacies and social justice advocacy into her practice. She is the proud mom of two elementary-aged kids, active on the parent council at their school, a graduate student representative on the Canadian Association for Social Justice Education council (CASJE-CSSE), an avid reader of historical fiction, and art enthusiast.

Jennifer Chinenye Emelife is a PhD candidate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning and Research Assistant at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, studies critical literacy education for youth with histories of violent conflict and displacement and works in the Addressing Injustices and the Constructive Conflict Pedagogies projects. She has written curriculum materials for critical teaching of literature in West African secondary schools and is a finalist for the British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in English Language Teaching. Jennifer is an Associate Researcher with the UNESCO Centre and recipient of the UK Chevening Scholarship, DKG World Fellowship, PEO International Peace Scholarship, and African Women Development Fund awards. In 2024, she was named a McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation Academic Enrichment Grant recipient for her project, 'Literacy amidst Violent Conflict', which equips Nigerian students and teachers in violent contexts with critical literacy skills to challenge and act upon the injustices in their communities.

Samara Rosenbaum is a PhD student in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. With over a decade of experience as a documentary film producer, she has worked on both long and short-form projects. Samara has produced feature films for Participant Media, HBO, and Discovery+, covering topics such as access to abortion, education, and the foster care system in Los Angeles. In 2020, she won a Los Angeles Area Emmy for her work with Los Angeles County, creating short films on efforts to combat homelessness. She holds a degree in Arts and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she graduated in 2017. Samara is currently co-directing her first feature documentary, which explores the attack on public education in Detroit and the community's efforts to reclaim control of their school system.

Melissa D. Arasin is a PhD student in Language & Literacies Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. A career secondary educator, she worked with immigrant and refugee youth in Austin, Texas to develop their literacies through digital storytelling and multimodal productions, with colleagues to develop a school-wide social-emotional advisory curriculum focused on building community to challenge bias and bullying, and with K-12 teachers in integrating technology and digital literacies into their curricula. She is a teacher educator whose research interests lie in critical digital literacies—making sense of how teachers and learners might engage critically, ethically, and responsibly with AI/algorithm-driven digital technologies. Outside of academia, Melissa is an avid nature photographer and citizen scientist who finds great joy in observing and documenting flora and fauna and is always chasing butterflies.