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- Strengthening Community-Engaged Learning and Teaching at 丁香园AV
- 丁香园AV's 2020 ThoughtExchange on Community Engagement
- 丁香园AV's 2013 Community Engagement Strategy
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- February 3-5, 2021 鈥撀燩resenting at the 2021 International University Social Responsibility (USR) Summit
- December 2nd - 丁香园AV鈥檚 role in transformational change
- November 25 - Addressing the issue of women academics falling behind
- November 18 鈥� the colonial nature of current systems of research and evaluation
- November 4 - Precarious instructors in the post-pandemic academy
- October 28 鈥� A conversation with Happy City about building back "Main Street"
- October 14 鈥撀燱hat's at stake in BC's upcoming election? A conversation with Frances Bula
- October 7 鈥撀燞osted dialogues
- September 30 鈥撀燫adical inclusion with Ele Chenier
- September 23 鈥撀燞osted dialogues
- September 16 鈥� Antifragility and resilience
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Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez
WARREN GILL AWARD WINNER, 2024
Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Labour Studies at 丁香园AV. As a scholar-activist, she is an expert in community-engaged research and teaching that centers the lived experiences of marginalized people, including over 20 years of experience organizing alongside racialized migrant workers, challenging the privilege of knowledge gatekeepers and mobilizing "thick solidarity" and "empathy from below".
Dr. Encalada Grez is a recognized leader in migrant farmworker advocacy; both in Canada and transnationally, and she is co-founder of , one of the longest-standing organizations in Canada dedicated to advancing the rights of temporary foreign workers in the agricultural sector.
Dr. Encalada Grez鈥檚 commitment to student success is notable, immersing her classes in hands-on learning at farms in BC鈥檚 Okanagan region and in the highlands of Guatemala. Her Labour Studies course, , offers her students outstanding community-engaged opportunities to learn about and make impact with and in community.
In addition to her extensive advocacy and teaching, Dr. Encalada Grez is a gifted and innovative researcher who has developed a robust framework of ethical principles for conducting research with vulnerable populations. Her scholarship has produced important policy recommendations that have reached the House of Commons and the United Nations and informed legal cases, including the landmark decision, which set a precedent for holding Canadian employers accountable for sexual harassment.
Dr. Encalada Grez challenges epistemological gatekeeping by creating accessible pathways to learning through documentaries, research, and community engagement. She is known for her work behind and in front of the cameras on two feature-length documentaries, Migrant Dreams and El Contrato that are widely used in universities across Canada to teach students about migrant farmworkers鈥� precarious living and working conditions. In addition, she has led and contributed to several community-engaged research projects such as the SSHRC-funded Racial Difference by Law: Differential Racialization and Access to Justice for Migrant Farm Workers and 鈥�The Myth of Canada: The Exclusion of Internationally Trained Physicians.鈥� Her latest research examines the experiences of Indigenous migrant workers from the highlands of Guatemala working in rural Canada, exploring the intersection of gender, Indigeneity, and migrant status within a framework of settler colonialism. She currently serves on the board of the and continues to expand her program of research for the rights of migrant workers and their families.
Partnership Highlights
Women, Work, More: Migrant Women & Transnational Loving 鈥� with Evelyn Encalada Grez
On the Below the Radar Podcast
In Conversation with Below the Radar podcast, Dr. Encalada Grez explores the pains that accompany migration, from separating families to the often temporary loves that migrant women find while working within Canada. Despite these pains, Evelyn speaks about the forms of agency that migrant women enact throughout their migration 鈥� that often revolves around reasserting their power over their bodies and sexualities.
The Myth of Canada: The Exclusion of Internationally Trained Physicians
Evelyn Encalda Grez, Paloa Ardiles Gamboa & Simran Purewal
A community engaged-research report that arose from a long-standing partnership with . It explores the experiences of Internationally Trained Physicians (ITPs) 鈥� qualified physicians from non-Western regions (i.e., Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia) seeking to practice medicine in British Columbia 鈥� giving voice to this diverse and marginalized group. As the report states: 鈥溾�nclusion and equal opportunity is a Canadian myth. ITPs face systemic barriers and exclusion within the medical licensure process despite being ready to provide medical care during a time of chronic physician shortages, a public health crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health and substance use epidemic in the province of British Columbia鈥� (Grez et. al, 2023, p. 2). To amplify these voices, their team also published , which quickly (in less than two days) had more than 28,000 reads.
Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez named one of the Top 10 TLN鈥檚 most influential Hispanic Canadians for 2023
Established in 2007, the is the most distinguished and only nationally run awards program in the country. In 14 years, 140 highly distinguished recipients from 18 countries of origin in 7 provinces have been celebrated and acknowledged by Prime Ministers and government representatives, as well as by ethnic and mainstream media in Canada and internationally.
Film: Migrant Dreams (Feature Version)
A collaboration with director Min Sook Lee, this award-winning documentary follows the story of migrant workers who come to labour in Ontario greenhouses as part of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Many are women recruited by brokers who illegally charge fees upwards of $7,000, with greenhouse owners complicit in the scam. The film examines the lives of a group of strong, vibrant migrant women who resist systemic oppression and exploitation.
- about the film
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Film: El Contrato
A collaboration with director Min Sook Lee, this documentary follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.