Response to Proposed Institutional Impartiality Policy
The Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (FIST) strongly objects to the proposed Institutional Impartiality Policy and calls on the University to retract this proposal immediately. The policy would undermine the autonomy of academic units and erode our academic freedom. Academic units are intellectual communities whose credibility rests on their ability to engage with the world critically and transparently. The work that we do as scholars requires us to think together, debate complex ideas, and take positions on the realities of our world. We do not take this responsibility lightly.
At FIST, we acknowledge that teaching at the intersections of feminist, sexuality, disability, and critical race content in a white settler state is inherently a political act that cannot be compromised by so called institutional impartiality. Impartiality is not neutral. Impartiality itself is political choice, one that refuses academic freedom, curiosity, analysis, empathy, and engagement. The proposed policy jeopardizes the important political and activist work that we do at FIST. The policy impedes our ability to teach and learn in a context where difficult conversations about gender, sexuality, disability, and race are central to world making. We refuse policies that depoliticize lived struggle or that discipline critical voices.
FIST calls on Carleton University to reject this policy and instead affirm its responsibility to support and protect the scholars whose work makes genuine academic freedom possible.
Welcome to the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation
The Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (FIST) at Carleton University is an interdisciplinary academic unit committed to advancing feminist scholarship, social justice, and transformative change. Offering programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Women’s and Gender Studies and in Feminist and Gender Studies, FIST is a dynamic and inclusive intellectual community where students and faculty engage with critical issues related to gender, race, sexuality, disability, colonialism, and other intersecting structures of power. Our programs are rooted in feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial approaches to research, learning, and community collaboration.
FIST is also home to the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, a prestigious position shared between Carleton University and the University of Ottawa that supports public-facing scholarship and community-engaged programming. Our interdisciplinary curriculum includes core and cross-listed courses from across the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and offers students opportunities for hands-on learning, activist research, and applied feminist praxis. Through our teaching, mentorship, and partnerships, FIST fosters a learning environment that connects theory to action and builds toward more just and equitable futures.
