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Deja Leonard (She/Her): Hi, and welcome to Big Ideas. I’m your host, and Mount Royal University journalism alum, Déjà Leonard. Big Ideas explores the diverse perspectives, timely research, lived experiences, and hopeful aspirations of MRU alumni, faculty, and students as solutions-focused leaders addressing local challenges.
This season we’re digging deep into wellness in the 21st Century. From aging to technology to our finances, how do the complexities of modern life impact our well-being - for better or for worse? Let’s check out what we’re talking about in today's episode…
“You know, working with QriTical, I really have, have had a good sense of belonging. It feels nice to be included in things, and have my lived experience, know, be, be meaningful, not, not just as a trans person, but an, an, a Mount Royal alum. And, uh, it's been really neat to go back to campus and see like, oh, there's a, you know, a gender inclusive washroom. And, oh, there's a, uh, LGBTQ, uh, archive in, in the library now. Like, this is so cool. Things are changing.”
That was Eva Legare, an MRU Alum and a proud trans-femme healthcare professional, advocate, speaker, and consultant. Her professional background includes addictions medicine, and more recently, transgender heath.
As you just heard, one of the topics Eva speaks on is this idea of belonging. Having a sense of belonging is so important when we think about someone’s overall wellness.
Whether it’s in the classroom, or in our community, feeling like you belong can have a huge impact on your everyday life and wellness. And for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, feeling that sense of belonging and having those safe spaces can be really challenging.
This is especially true here in Alberta, with provincial legislation further excluding and targeting the transgender community.
In January 2024, Premiere Danielle Smith announced three anti-trans policy proposals that look to target transgender youth in particular. These proposals were then introduced as official bills on October 31st, 2024.
With similar legislation popping up across Canada, queer and trans folks are recognizing the need for more educational and welcoming spaces that are built by their community, rather than trying to mold into existing cis-heteronormative spaces.
And here at MRU, one of those spaces is the QriTical Hub. The hub, or known as just “QriTical”, was founded by Corinne Mason and Celeste Pang, and serves as a connector and intellectual hub for queer and trans faculty, students, and the broader community at Mount Royal University.
In this episode, I met up virtually with Eva, Corinne, and Celeste, to talk more about QriTical and why having spaces like this are so important when it comes to belonging and wellness.
Let’s jump into the conversation...
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Deja Leonard (She/Her): Okay, so wellness is this really huge kind of overarching topic that touches on so many different parts of our lives. And we all want to achieve it, but those in the LGBTQ+ community face unique challenges in getting there, especially when our world isn't necessarily set up for them to thrive. I'd love to just set some context for our conversation. I think belonging can be quite underrated when it comes to wellness. I think sometimes, folks can walk into a, some folks can walk into a room and feel like they generally belong just by kind of looking around. But that's not everyone's, uh, experience. So why is belonging itself important and really core to wellness?
Celeste (She/They): When I think about belonging for myself, I think about ease, and I think about being among people where I don't feel the need to have to over-explain aspects of myself or what I'm doing. And I think that that is really core, uh, for my own sense of feeling grounded and feeling valuable, but also feeling like, there are spaces where there's not so much friction because there can be so much friction when you're going through a day and you're encountering different institutions, or you're encountering random people in the street or at the grocery store. So, belonging to me again, I think would be summed up by by that sense of ease and familiarity, which doesn't have to look like anything in particular. You know, it doesn't have to look like necessarily being celebrated by an institution, and it doesn't have to look like a particular form of relation. But I think it's kind of like a space of being, that I really need. And I know that many other people really, really need, uh, given that we are living in a cis-heteronormative, racist, ableist society, having, having these spaces, where we can take a little bit of a break, is something that belonging brings.
Corinne (They/Them): I would say that one of the things that I think about in relationship to belonging is that often in institutional settings, there's a sense of, like, needing to assimilate to the culture that already exists. So you need to belong to us. The table is set for you, have a seat.
Um, for minoritized folks, we're often on the menu in addition to being right at the seat, and so if we're given a seat at all, but we're rarely able to create our own tables or to walk away from tables altogether and, and do otherwise.
And so I think the question of wellness is not like, how do I fit myself into this location? But how has this location or how's this institution opening up, um, possibilities of being in those spaces without having to like manipulate and transform ourselves and, and sometimes hide ourselves, um, or try to act and be seen or perceived in a particular way. And I think what queer and trans folks often do to these kind of cis-normative, heteronormative spaces is really ruffle feathers is really to kind of like come in and take up space and, um, to create new spaces in doing so. And I think the question is not how do we belong to the institution, but how does the institution open up space for us to belong to one another in a way that allows for our communities to thrive within an institution where there are a lot of minoritized, minoritized communities, of course, at intersections, um, who also deserve to thrive.
And so I think that question of wellness is really a question of maybe not belonging to the, to the institutional culture, but the institutional culture realizing that they need to. They belong to us, I guess, in a way that they, they need to reshape, they need to reshape and transform and manipulate and, um, do all of that kind of work in order for us to feel well.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Wow, you both put that very beautifully. I really appreciate that. Eva, did you have anything that you wanted to add?
Eva (She/Her): Um, yeah, when I, when I hear, you know, the institution, you know, needing to change itself and be a, a chameleon, you know, and, and hide parts of itself and work around others, like that, calls to mind for me, accountability. Um, that's a good way to put it. And yeah, when I think of belonging and wellness, I think of belonging as like a basic psychological need, um, and one that's really fundamental to higher level things like, having self esteem even, or um, being able to love or self actualize, um, think that, you know, it's the most fundamental part of our experience in society is to have this sense of belonging. So yeah, I think it's of “QriTical” importance in academia, pun intended.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Um, are there any cool examples of like projects that you know of that MRU has been working on in particular that you might be proud of or that you know any research or data that you think is interesting.
Celeste (She/They): Um, so I just got back from a weekend of meetings in Montreal with a kind of really large group of research collaborators in all sorts of different projects to do with 2SLGBTQIA+ health and still buzzing from that weekend.
Two things that are really exciting to me right now is one, what I sense, um, is an increase in interest around aging related issues and the health and welfare and well-being of older adults and elders in our community. I heard that's part of where my research focuses, so I've done work on dementia and unpaid caregiving. I'm looking more closely at issues of consent and capacity right now, and I've worked on larger scale projects, um, creating educational materials and resources for health care and social service providers who serve, even if they don't think that they serve, 2SLGBTQIA+ older adults. So that's an area of work that I'm really excited about, um, that I think is growing.
And another thing that I'm still buzzing about from those meetings, um, is the peer based research models that are going on across the country. Um, and what I think are some really important and meaningful collaborations that are happening between, um, university based researchers and community based researchers, um, which, you know, comes with a lot of different dynamics in terms of who has power and who's paid what and who has what resources, but knowing that there are great examples of that working well and knowing that there are great examples of people like us as faculty leveraging our resources to help support pure research programs that run in the community so that really, truly, we are the people who are exploring the issues our communities face, and we're involving a broader group of people in interpreting those research findings and sharing them out in ways that are useful. That's also very exciting to me right now.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Well thanks for sharing some of that and I feel like those experiences are like, they fill your tank, you know, you're like, okay, I can keep going when I, when I feel empowered. And I know that there's other people that are just excited about the same thing that you are. Um and when you think about staff and faculty, uh, coming together to drive positive change, one excellent example of that is the QriTical Research Hub. So can someone tell me more about how it came to be and then what the current mission is.
Corinne (They/Them): Sure so, um, the QriTical Hub was, and maybe continues to be, a little bit of a brainchild for Celeste and myself. Um, I had the privilege of hiring Celeste a year ago now, um, into the Women's and Gender Studies program. And Celeste came with both a ton of, um, incredible research experience and expertise, but also had expertise of running a and launching a research hub, a center, um, for global disability at the University of Toronto. And my own intentions and motivation to create some kind of a center was matched with the experience and expertise that Celeste had bringing, um, coming into MRU as a new faculty member.
And so, um, I really benefited from the experience that they have. And we were able to kind of sit together and think about what we thought was missing at MRU and what we had maybe seen in other locations and what our own desires were in terms of like putting together a group of people to collaborate with and spend time with and build solidarities and community with and also ways of locating and kind of anchoring our own research projects into MRU into, um, more of a concrete way.
So one thing that happens at institutions all over the place is that we often get siloed. It means like queer and trans people are all over the university and we don't necessarily know each other and we don't know how to connect with each other and there's no pathways for that connection.
And I think that's also true of connecting with queer and trans staff members and with students. They don't know how to find us. We don't know how to find them. And there's not really an encouragement of, of kind of like breaking those, those barriers of different kinds of ways in which we're located at the university. We kind of keep to ourselves. And I think as two people and more, right, the rest of our team and the folks that we're connected to are really driven, I think, by connection. And by wanting to spend time and build relations with one another as a way to support one another and also to grab as many of the folks as we can who are at MRU who are looking for that kind of a space to come together in community and to do what it is that we're meant to do at the university which is to research and to teach and to think about pedagogy and also to serve our communities, um, as scholar activists.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Wonderful. That's the perfect explanation and I love hearing about all of the work you've already done through the hub. You know, from what I understand, there's been different types of events like speaker series, community showcases, um and I think this question can really go out to anyone is what I'd love to hear is about some of your favorite events that have gone on and how they are helping kind of build that sense of community.
Celeste (She/They): Um, one event that actually turned out to be our first event was the Alberta Trans Studies Teach In, which was Corinne's idea, and they, with some assistance, rapidly brought a group of trans studies scholars and experts together to address misinformation that was part of our Premier's anti-trans policy proposals, end of January, early February [2024], if I'm remembering correctly. That event was really outstanding to me because of the tremendous response from the people that we reached out to and saying, “yes, I can be available”. Um, the tremendous number of people and researchers and people with very important thoughts to share that are living in Alberta and the tremendous uptake from people across the country. We had more than 800 people attend that. And I think that was a shining example of what can happen quickly, although maybe, maybe not always so quickly, but also of the value of having something like QriTical because one thing that I've experienced since is then people are associating the type of work, with QriTical as a group embedded MRU.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): When we think about the hub and the resources that it's offering to students in terms of building that community and that sense of belonging and that sense of empowerment, you know, why is that so important now when we think about what’s going on in, in Alberta, but also the world for queer and trans rights. Um, and the challenges that are so high level, but also impacting people on the daily. Um, yeah. Why is it important to have a resource like the hub?
Corinne (They/Them): I was going to say that I think the Qritical Hub is really important in this sociopolitical moment in Alberta because one of the things that's happening is that trans people and queer people are not being included in conversations that are relevant to our lives, and we have both lived experience, but also, academic research expertise, and I think that in the conversations that are happening,
there's a real anti-intellectualism, and anti-evidence and anti-science, um, and anti-expertise framework where there's a lot of feelings being passed around and there's a lot of emotions, not a lot of facts, a whole lot of fear.
And I think what, for me, having a research hub in this moment reminds us, or should remind us all, is that there are people with answers, none of them are at the table, uh, with this Alberta government, uh, not enough of us are at the table having these conversations, but we do have a path forward when we know that we hold knowledge and that we share that knowledge with each other and we come together to remind each other that what is happening in this context is is not truth. It's not based in evidence. It's not based in intellectual curiosity. It's not based on lived experience. It's not based on community knowledge.
What it is doing is speaking to a very small minority who have the loudest voice for now. And I do mean for now, in this moment, not forever. And I think coming together in all the spaces where we can come together, whether that's at the QriTical Hub at MRU and a variety of contexts, whether that's at Pride, these are really good moments to remind ourselves that, like, we're a big group and that we've been through some really hard stuff historically, and our elders are here to point a pathway forward because they've been through so much, and youth have the energy to keep going when some of us who are kind of like middle aged feel a bit tired and a bit burnt out. And so I think these are really good moments to be together across, intergenerationally, across difference, in solidarity with one another, um, because it can be really, really difficult, but it's less difficult when we're together.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Yeah, excellent. I love that. And you're right. There's so many different kinds of grassroots movements going on and when you look at them all from like you zoom out it's quite incredible. Um, but when we think about you know, the hub specifically, how can the university help to really amplify that work so that uh, everyone in that community knows that you exist and that they can get involved?
Corinne (They/Them): I think that the best decision MRU makes as an institution is in its hiring process. Which means when folks are hiring um, for the, for the professorial, but also I would say, in terms of staff and administrative leadership, a real focus on EDI and paying attention to who's represented at all levels of the university, but specifically those who are in positions of power is the most important way that MRU can take a step forward. And I think that the example of folks that we have on our QriTical team, so thinking about the researchers who are queer and trans, and also who are researching at other intersections of identities and really, um, paying attention to and unsettling relations of power at the university is the, I think the enactment of a commitment towards both EDI, I think as a measure, but to ensure that there are researchers who are, um, people who identify within communities and who have a connection to these communities who are also researching within the community, um, to ensure or maybe mitigate the concerns that many of us have with extractive kinds of research. Where people who are not queer or trans and who are not, um, part of our larger communities may come into our communities and seek our knowledge, our expertise, our resources, um, sometimes, sometimes without us and sometimes at the expense of us.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Yeah, that's a really great point. Um, we have Eva here, uh, who's an alumni who kind of reconnected with MRU through the QriTical Hub, from what I understand. So I'm just going to really pass the mic to you because I, I don't know where to begin with it or where you want to begin with this story, but I'd love to hear how you ended up connecting with the hub, what that looked like, and what it meant for you.
Eva (She/Her): Yeah, I'm not sure I would know where to begin either. It's been a journey. Um, I guess chronologically speaking, um, I graduated in 2018. Um, from the Bachelor of Nursing program at MRU. My, uh, last year of study was really the year where I felt like I could, just couldn't go on in the closet. Like I, I had to come out, I had to transition. And it was weighing on me a lot. I, uh, asked people to use my middle name. You know, because that alleviated some of the gender stuff I was feeling. And it didn't really land, uh, with anyone. And, yeah, I had a lot of friction, um, in one particular practicum, um, where I really feel like I was bullied into a different gender role.
Um, just throughout my studies I didn't feel, safe to come out. Um, I didn't really have any role models to look up to, and I wasn't really seeing very many events out there, or safe, affirming spaces. So, yeah, I, I really spent my whole program just closeted and it was like I didn't even have a shadow. Like no, no extracurricular activities, um, no friends from, from school really, except maybe one or two.
When it came time for me to convocate, um, that, that's when I had actually legally changed my name. Um, for the first time ever I walked the stage with my new name, and I'm sure my faculty were a little confused if they had caught what was going on.
So leaving Mount Royal, um, you know, I, I always promised, promised myself or thought that I would come back and, you know, try and work with like the, the, uh, some, um, SAMRU Pride Hub, you know, and it just never really, never really panned out.
And then, yeah, the way I found out about the QriTical Research Hub was, was through the Trans Teach-in, after the, uh, trans, anti-trans, uh, politics that happened in, in, I think, January (2024) in, in Alberta. and yeah, I, You know, working with QriTical, I really have, have had a good sense of belonging. It feels nice to be included in things, and have my lived experience, know, be, be meaningful, not, not just as a trans person, but an a Mount Royal alum. And, uh, it's been really neat to go back to campus and see like, oh, there's a, you know, a gender-inclusive washroom. And, oh, there's a, uh, LGBTQ, uh, archive in, in the library now. Like, this is so cool. Things are changing.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Ya, absolutely, thank you for sharing a piece of your story. Celeste, can you tell me a bit about the student response to the QriTical Resource Hub and the events that were put on?
Celeste (She/they): Sure. So, in our first year, as we've alluded to throughout the conversation, we put a lot of effort into establishing a sense of visibility and groundedness on campus. And part of the way that we did that was through more public-facing events where we intentionally invited students, staff, faculty and community. And this was everything from history with a drag queen to a queer agenda, where we had student panels and community member panels, uh, to our end of year, “Let's Get QriTical” student colloquium, which served to amplify student research and creative work that they've done throughout the year. And there's been really tremendous response from students. Students who have come to our events, students in my classes, for example, who haven't necessarily come to events, but they're just so excited to know that QriTical exists as a space, um, to have a better sense of who queer and trans faculty on campus are and how they might be connected. And I think in terms of that type of cross-functional or community building work, um, that student response and creating these spaces for students where they may feel more comfortable. We've had students come, you know, for the first time to a 2SLGBTQIA+ event on campus, which, is just so powerful and humbling and I think is one of the reasons, um, at least speaking personally, that's a key driver for me. And why do this is is for the students. You know, the students, extra to the institution.
Um, these are people who are in the world right now, and the world right now in Alberta is challenging for many different reasons, and who, you know, having access to other students, knowing who queer trans faculty are, is, is quite important, so.
Deja Leonard (She/Her): You know, and when we think about our conversation here in the context of MRU specifically as well, of course we have our staff and students and faculty, but is there anything that anyone would add that might specifically be impacting a student. I think a lot of what you said, of course, is just kind of, there's kind of a mini version of that, I think, happening on universities when we think about belonging and health care and access and maybe not feeling confident or safe to actually access those resources, but is there anything else anyone would add?
Eva (She/Her): Yeah, Um, I'm kind of thankful for my healthcare background because I, I like to define health in a specific way, which is like your personal resource to do the things in life that you find fulfilling. And yeah, that absolutely gets diminished with, you know, having not just like a 2SLGBTQ identity, but any kind of minoritized or, or marginalized identity. Um, I think intersectionality is really key. In terms of real world examples, um, like me as a trans person, um, it's very daunting to access emergency medical care. Um, it's scary for me to call an ambulance. It's scary for me to be in a position where I need to go into an emergency department, you know, let alone a walk in clinic, you know, for something. So, I think, you know, that there is a statistic of trans people avoiding health care. Um, and I know myself personally, sometimes I leave things to the last moment. You know, my threshold for actually seeking medical care is, is really high. That's one aspect, you know. The other is just, just generally integrating into society.
I know way back when, like they'd say one in 10 people are, are 2SLGBTQ. Um, nowadays, you know, the best research out there is pointing to a statistic of around 0. 5 to 0.6 percent of people being trans, two spirit, non binary, or other cultural identity.
It's not a lot of people in society that, that, you can relate to, you know, so it really poses challenges with, you know, having a fulfilling family life and, and finding friends that, you know, lift you up. 'cause you know, often than not, the, the people who are 2SLGBTQ are also suffering from minoritization and marginalization and themselves aren't doing well.
Um, yeah. Does, does that answer the question?
Deja Leonard (She/Her): Definitely. And you made a really great point there about intersectionality, of course. So just really paying attention to the ways different, uh, pieces of people's identities, uh, really impact their experience. Um, Celeste, was there anything you wanted to add?
Celeste (She/They): I can say a few things and try really hard not to say, like Eva said, um, but I would start by saying maybe being well can look so different. So this idea of achieving wellness may entail very different types of things. And I'm thinking about people's ability to be among their people or feel safe and secure in their familial contexts, whether that's within families of origin or within family forms that they have that may not be recognized by the state or by society. And I think that's really key when we think about wellness and safety. Um, but in terms of healthcare access, there are a lot of barriers to accessing the care that we know that we need, um, whether that's from transphobia or homophobia or good old sexism. So I think, um, there is a lot that can be done to better ensure that our communities can access desired care.
Deja Leonard(She/Her): Excellent. The hub, you know, is building community with the LGBTQ+ community, but also fostering community with allies. Why are both of these pieces kind of important?
Corinne (They/Them): I would say that first and foremost, we're building community with our community, and I think that is hard to hear sometimes when folks want to hear, that that allies are important to us. I think we need accomplices and I think we need strategic accomplices at the university and all of our spaces. And so we need to have good relationships with people because we need them and they need us sometimes. Um, and we need to build broad coalitions. I think that's super important for any kind of solidarity work. At the same time, there needs to be, like, space for folks to be together and to connect with one another from within communities, um, where we don't have outside pressures to serve, to educate, or, you know, create, like, good feelings for, for cisgender and straight people.
And so I say that because what, what queer and trans folks among other marginalized folks at universities are often called to do is, uh, is often to serve the university, right? To educate, to jump on EDI committees, to give a pronoun workshop. If I ever talk about pronouns again, I'll die. I, I think that there are certain kinds of ways in which we get kind of, uh, situated in into the university where we don't actually get to serve ourselves. Um, or we don't actually get to talk about our research or get to talk about our teaching or get to actually do activism and community because we're always trying to convince people that we exist and that we're, we're worthy of them knowing us and um, and also like treating us with respect. I think like it's a it's a wild time to continually be an institution where they're asking for the same kind of workshops, like LGBT 101, like, can you give us a workshop?
And I'm like, I've been in institutions for over 10 years, and I've, for 10 years, been asked to give an awareness workshop, like, you're aware. What's next?
And so I think the question of what's next is not a question necessarily for the Hub, um, which is what's next for the institution, but instead a redirection of our energies, our creativities, and the generative possibilities of what it means to not look at the institution, to look for allies to try and make those kinds of connections, but to look toward each other and say, okay, well, what do we need? What do we want? What conversations, um, do we want to have in this space? What's meaningful for us, for us as a community, knowing that we're all different and knowing that there are power relations and tensions and complications as there are in all kinds of communities, but I think turning away from the question of how do we make some that make the institution better and instead looking towards our community and asking, like, what is it we need to do to, like, feel better in the institution, to be well in the institution, I think, is a really powerful and meaningful kind of act that I think that the hub can provide or is, I think, hoping to provide for folks at the institution.
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Deja Leonard(She/Her): This conversation really changed the way I think about wellness, and what it means to be well as a whole. Like Celeste mentioned, being well can look so different based on each individual's lived experiences.
My Big Idea from this episode is about understanding the importance of having spaces in our community, like the QriTical Hub, and how these spaces create that sense of belonging, which can make all the difference when it comes to day-to-day wellness for people in the queer and trans community.
The Big Ideas podcast is produced by the Office of Alumni Relations at Mount Royal University. A special thanks to MRU journalism and digital media alum, Gabrielle Pyska, for her savvy editing talents.
Until next time, I’m your host, Déjà Leonard and this is Big Ideas.
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