Distant, Not Disengaged

We know you know: the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted everything – our institutions, our economy, our way of life.

March 2020 brought us a new physically distant reality that presented us all with massive challenges and further threats to social cohesion. As in all crises, the cracks in our systems were laid bare – in some ways, inequity had never been so clearly visible. Disruptions can either deepen these cracks or be catalysts for improving equity and empathy going forward.

In April 2020 we set out to develop a new virtual event series that would tackle some of those tough conversations. Throughout the year we co-hosted weekly, and subsequently monthly events in a series we called “Distant, Not Disengaged.”

Some of the key questions we explored were: How are we responding and what are we learning right now that can be used to strengthen the social infrastructure of our communities going forward? How can we reimagine our collective futures now that the fragile roots of ‘normalcy’ have been exposed? What must we do to ensure we don’t return to the status quo and instead create more just, sustainable, and representative systems? What’s possible when we’re unencumbered by “that’s just the ay things are”?

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This event series was developed and hosted as a collaboration with SFU Public Square and the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.