Advocacy & Community Involvement
Beyond my research and teaching activities, I am an active member within my university community and advocate for increasing levels of transparency, accessibility, and inclusivity.
Fall 2024
October 2024 - Completion of Yellowhead Institute’s Land Back course
Summer 2024
June 2024 - Current Board member of Coop Cultivaction, a solidarity cooperative of urban farmers working in collaboration with community organizations in Montreal and Concordia University to ensure the transition to a more sovereign food system.
June 2024 - Urban foraging - Learning how to identify, forage, and prepare medicines from wild foods (e.g., plants, mushrooms, fruits) in the urban environment. Organized through Coop Cultivaction.
Winter 2024
February- May 2024 - Hamidou’s horticulture course - In partnership with Concordia University, this urban horticulture course focused on growing and maintaining organic production of ethnic and marginalized fruit and vegetables from the Global South in greenhouse conditions for personal or collective gardening.
March 25, 2024. EmpowerGrad Workshop: Meeting the Neighbours. Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, Concordia University (Montreal, QC). Discussion to assist current graduate students on how to to develop networks within the university community to develop future projects.
Fall 2023
November 2023 - Sustainability Action Fund Board - Elected Graduate Student Representative (2023/2024) in the Projects and Finance committees whose mission is to “build an inclusive culture of sustainability at Concordia University by enabling, supporting, and financing projects that tackle interconnected environmental, social, and economic issues.”
September 2023 - Member of the pē-kiyokētan team working within colonial and minoritized language education programs to be in solidarity with Indigenous Language Revitalization projects, using plural and land-based orientations towards language teaching and learning.
Summer 2023
June - October 2023 - City Herbal Apprentice Program - Located on Concordia University’s Loyola campus, this course involved experiential plant-based learning related to: identify, tending to, harvesting, and preparing medicinal plants in the garden, such as: tea blends, tinctures, salves, hydrosols, and adaptogen balls. For my final project, I developed The Dandelion Project, an interactive scavenger-hunt that sensitizes players to the flora in their surroundings, encouraging them to “Landguage”, understanding what plants can teach us.
February - August 2023 - Volunteering with Concordia’s Greenhouse; maintaining student gardens at Grey Nuns.
2022 - 2023
April 2023 - Co-edited Volume 7 of Concordia University Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (COPAL) where workshop leaders from the Conversations that Include series published their materials and activities. This issue supports current and future instructors in creating justice-oriented and inclusive curricula.
Summer 2022
In collaboration with Concordia ’s Department of Education Graduate Student organization (DOEIGSA) and with funding from Concordia’s Experiential Learning Grant, I organized a series of interactive workshops entitled Conversations that Include, focused on critical and inclusive pedagogies which aim to:
(a) address issues not found in mainstream teaching curricula, and
(b) encourage hands-on activities that attendees can use in their classrooms.
The workshops supported attendees in either:
(i) developing activities related to pedagogical innovations, or
(ii) creating interactive activities related to teacher reflection and professional development.
2021 - 2022
June 2022: Completion of course: Introduction to Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledges (iTEK) with biologist Dr. Teresa Newberry. Offered by: The American Indian Language Development Institute (Arizona University)
Panel Presentation. (2022, June 2). The everyday application of science: A cross-disciplinary dialogue between emerging researchers. SALTISE, Dawson College (Montreal, QC).
BILD Talks. (2022, March 31) Critical Sociolinguistics Reach out from Montreal to a Wider World. Multi-‘ōlelo Talks - Webinar Series (Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaiʻi).
PhD Representative - Department of Education’s Graduate Student Representative Council (DOEIGSA)
PhD representative - Department of Education’s Education Doctoral Committee (EDC)
· Proactively seeks out student input regarding the doctoral program, advocates for student support and mentorship, and proposes solutions to improve the student experience.
· Provides feedback to faculty and staff in the Department of Education regarding any changes made to the doctoral program.
Graduate representative - Arts and Science Faculty Curriculum Committee
· Evaluates the content and rationale of proposed curriculum changes for programs within the Faculty of Arts and Science based on priorities established by the faculty, and advocates for and supports innovative pedagogy within the faculty.
Panel Presentation (2021, April 7). PhD Talks. Department of Education - Concordia University (Montreal, QC). Panel discussion to assist current and prospective PhD students on how to navigate the academic and administrative aspects of pursuing a PhD.
Graduate representative - Department of Education’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiative
· Created, delivered, analyzed, and co-wrote a final report for faculty and staff based on survey results regarding EDI issues among graduate students within the Department. With fellow committee members, successfully advocated for the implementation of a departmental statement of values, which was unanimously passed by our department’s Steering Committee in Winter 2021.
2019
Riches, C., Chung, R., Gallante, A., De la Cruz, W., & Ortega, Y. (2019, September 28). “Dialectal input in the L2 classroom: Whose language is it, anyway?” Addressing social inequity: Local and international perspectives on how to empower and support second language teachers and learners [Paper presentation]. EducLang 2019, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Apr. 2019 Circle Facilitator - Unsettling Event Series, Concordia University
· Provided solidarity and emotional support to the Indigenous-led Circle leader during interactions with settlers during multiple self-locating exercises.
Jan. 2019 Graduate Representative - Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) - Office of the Provost
· Assisted in the development of actionable recommendations regarding the processes and practices of Concordia and their effect on graduate students with the goal of enhancing services and initiatives.
2018
Tisizi, E., Chung, R., Crump, A., Riches, C., & Sarkar, M. (2018, May 4). Bonjour/Hi: Homoglossia and heterophobia se rencontrent [Workshop presentation]. Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
2017 - currrent
Active member of the BILD - Belonging, Identity, Language and Diversity (McGill University) research group focused on critical sociolinguistics issues in language learning and teaching. Over the years, I have recruited numerous faculty members, instructors, graduate students, and artists to share their experiences and stories related to language. I also provide administrative and editorial support to the running of BILD’s blog, journal, and Soundcloud account.