The UBC Faculty of Education Global Speaker Series on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Inclusion is an annual event that addresses some of society’s most pressing priorities by sharing and learning from stories from around the world.
Host
Join Dean Hare, an advocate for inclusive education, as she hosts Dr. Dennis Francis, a scholar, activist, and disruptor of cisheteronormativity. This event is made possible with the generous support of esteemed donor Dr. Robert Quartermain.
Distinguished Speaker
Dr. Dennis Francis (he/him) is a renowned scholar from South Africa and activist specializing in the sociology of education with a focus on gender, sexualities, and educational practices. He is a former dean of education and currently serves as a professor at the University of Glasgow, UK. His research critically examines how educational structures, discourses, and practices reproduce and resist cisheteronormativity and social inequality in education, and how these are also resisted and challenged. Informed by queer feminist, critical, and poststructuralist theories, his recent books are Troubling the Teaching and Learning of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in South African Education and Queer Activism in South African Education: Disrupting Cis(hetero)normativity in Schools.
Q&A Moderator
Dr. Julia Sinclair-Palm (she/they), Director of the forthcoming Robert Quartermain Centre for SOGI-inclusive Excellence in Education (RQCSIEE), will moderate the Q&A. Her research explores how young people forge new identities, imagine futures, and navigate structural inequalities within restrictive narratives about childhood and youth, providing a rich backdrop for this event’s dialogue.
Accessibility
The event will include a sign language interpreter.
Please contact communications.educ@ubc.ca for any additional accessibility needs.
Date and Time
Thursday, February 13, 2025
4:30 pm PST: Doors open
5:30 pm PST: Program begins
7:00 pm PST: Event concludes
Location
Marine Drive Ballroom
2205 Lower Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
V6T 1Z4
Event Recording
A cisgender person is someone whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth.
A heterosexual person is romantically / physically attracted to members of the opposite sex.
