Upcoming STLHE Equity Committee Webinar
Natalie Speth
Join us on December 2 from 2:00-3:00 PM EST for the next session in STLHE's Equity Committee Webinar Series:
A Coalitional Model of the Classroom: Pedagogical Approaches for Contentious Times
This free session, presented by Natalie Kouri-Towe, explores how coalitional approaches can help transform classrooms into spaces for constructive engagement with power, conflict, and difference.
Register: https://stlhe.ca/events/equity-committee-webinar-series/
Abstract: The contemporary post-secondary classroom has become a flashpoint in public debate over academic freedom and censorship. Controversy over gender-inclusive policies, "trigger warnings," "cancel culture," and geopolitical conflicts have led many institutions to restrict or discourage discussion of potentially contentious topics in higher education. Whether directly or indirectly, the message many instructors receive is to avoid "heated" moments in the classroom or in activities on campus. Conversely, this session considers how classrooms can provide a constructive and transformative environment for grappling with power, conflict, discomfort, and safety in ways that strengthen our capacity to navigate these challenges. Drawing on insights from the conclusion to the edited collection, Reading the Room: Lessons on Pedagogy and Curriculum from the Gender and Sexuality Studies Classroom <https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/reading-the-room> (Concordia University Press, 2024) and research on feminist and transformative pedagogies, this session discusses a coalitional approach to the classroom. Coalitions, which provide temporary convergence, alliance, or collaboration across differences, offer insights into strategies for potentially contentious classrooms. Rather than normative models of debate, which rely on competition for dealing with contentious issues and risk reinforcing social hierarchies, a coalition model offers a way to hold sometimes contradictory conditions for classroom encounters. The session will introduce the concept of a coalitional model of the classroom and share practical strategies for how to apply this approach in the higher education context.
Natalie Kouri-Towe is an Associate Professor of feminism and sexuality at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. Her research investigates the politics of solidarity under neoliberalism, with areas of focus ranging across responses to war in the Middle East, refugee crises, queer activism, and gender and sexuality pedagogies. In October 2025, she launched the Transformative Pedagogies Lab at Concordia University, a research space for three projects: Transformative Encounters: Gender and Sexuality Pedagogies in Canada, a SSHRC Insight-funded study on post-secondary learning experiences; The Transformation Hub: Gender and Sexuality-Based Violence Prevention Through Transformative Education, a community-based partnership with Project 10 and Éduconnexion to develop popular education tools for violence prevention; and Better Practices in the Classroom: A Teaching Guidebook for Sustainable, Inclusive, and Equitable Learning from a Gender and Sexuality Studies Framework <https://opentextbooks.concordia.ca/teachingresource/>, an open educational resource published in 2021 and revised and republished in 2024.