So I am going to definitely sound like a proud father (which I am). Sean our oldest son is graduating from Ontario Tech University this spring and he was recently awarded the Faculty Medal award for Social Sciences. This award is given to the student with the highest GPA in the faculty of social sciences. Congrats Sean, amazing, really well done. At the online ceremony, the university recently held (they are still planning an in-person ceremony next spring)
Sean was asked to give a speech while accepting the award. What follows is is his speech which I also thought was great (proud father again). Sean is off to York University this fall to begin his Masters in Political Science. Hope you enjoy the attached, here is it is:
Thank you. I’m both surprised and honored to win this award, not least of which because up until my time at Ontario Tech, my experience in formal education was not enjoyable. I spent the majority of my twenties engaged in social justice activism, through which I was introduced to critical political thinkers. I developed my own political positions through both action and theory and I brought these with me when I began my university career at the age of 30. I decided to return to post-secondary education as part of a personal project to improve my mental health, but I chose Political Science specifically because I feel that politics is important both to my own personal life and in a broader sense of understanding the world that I live in. At first, I was unsure how I would fit my politics into a university setting. However, I quickly found that there are courses and professors here that not only provide space for critical perspectives but helped to develop this way of thinking with us as students. Through my time here, I was able to express my own thoughts in discussions and writings, as well as develop new understandings of institutional and structural power during lectures and conversations with classmates.
I think that if universities have value as institutions, and I think that they do, it is in the openness that it presents to those who enter. It is a space for discussion, learning, and development of analyses that don’t just reinforce the logic of existing institutions and structures but question them and their role in perpetuating the social and political issues that affect the world we live in. In the context of current events, when we see yet another Black person murdered by the police, it is insufficient to claim that this is just another individual incident, another bad apple. When we see protesting and rioting in the streets, we should not condemn them, rather we should try to understand why people and communities are expressing their anger at a class and racial system of exploitation and oppression. When we hear state officials in the U.S. and Canada claiming that structural racism doesn’t exist, we should be questioning their institutional role in perpetuating these systems. As an institution with the ability to be more
autonomous and more open than others, universities such as this should continue to provide space for critical perspectives that question the role that state and capitalist institutions play in these events, and how they are tied to structural forms of power. Not just for its own sake, but in order to develop ways of understanding and intervening in the world, to engage with these issues that affect us and others, and to perhaps make some type of difference.
I’m not claiming that everyone needs to fight the system, but I do think that understanding how individuals, institutions, and structures interact to produce outcomes that benefit some over others changes the way one interacts with the world in their daily life. Through this process, I believe that it is more likely that we will speak out against systems of exploitation and oppression and attempt to intervene where we can, and that this process can be part of a fulfilling life project. To bring it back to this university, I have had interactions in this space with professors and students that impacted my worldview in a meaningful way and inspired me to continue to engage in projects that point towards a different, and hopefully, better world. I hope some of you feel the same. Thank you.
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