CMS is thrilled to invite you to its Research Conference 2025 at the xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees, Liu Institute for Global Issues, on May 1-2 in conjunction with UBC Okanagan.
Keynote Event: WhereWeStand
This year, CMS partners with Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (CERC Migration) at Toronto Metropolitan University to present WhereWeStand (WWS), a national multimedia storytelling initiative, which paired Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous newcomers on Turtle Island, now known as Canada. Their collaborative works celebrate creativity, embracing differences while seeking common ground and shared hope. Our keynote offers the opportunity to experience a curated selection of the collaborations and listen to the shared hope in the room. The performative experience is anchored by Dr. Cyrus Sundar Singh, the creative producer of WWS, CERC Migration Research Fellow.
In May 2023, CERC Migration embarked on its next multimedia storytelling collaboration WhereWeStand. The project brings together a cohort of Indigenous peoples and newcomers to co-create expressions of identity on the colonial construct of Canada, situated on Turtle Island.
WhereWeStand pairs an Indigenous participant with a newcomer participant and supports their process towards creating a story that will be widely shared with a public audience. Participants may choose any form of expression – including dance, music, film, theatre or installation – to produce their creative work.
WhereWeStand invites participants to reimagine the Land that sustains and shelters Indigenous peoples and newcomers. WhereWeStand is the third iteration of the inaugural i am… project, which opened the door to the shared experiences of displacement, which fuels the expression that frames the creative outcome. Identity and belonging are not fixed but ebb, flow, and evolve as the land beneath us shifts…
This project is a joint CERC Migration and Bridging Divides initiative.
Conference Program
Panel 1: Race, Indigeneity, and Ethnicity
Panel 2: Climate Change and Digital Pedagogies
Panel 3: Chinese Diasporas
3:45 PM (PT) - Keynote Event: WhereWeStand
Panel 4: Boundaries of Belonging, Dynamics of Exclusion
Panel 5: Precarious Mobilities
Roundtable: Making Research Matter: Strategies for Publicly Engaged Scholarship
Co-organized with:
Presented with support from:
WhereWeStand partners:
