Equity Team

Equity Team is composed of staff and students interested in issues connected to equity and social justice at and beyond JYU.
puzzle pieces

Table of contents

Research group type
Research network
Core fields of research
Languages, culture and society
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Research group description

What is the Equity Team?

The Equity Team is a Language Campus initiative that brings together almost 60 members from KiVi (Department of Language and Communication Studies), Solki (Centre for Applied Language Studies), KTL (Finnish Institute for Educational Research), Movi (The Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication), and OKL (The Department of Teacher Education). The Equity Team also actively collaborates with Kantti (Gender research network at JYU) and the FORTHEM network.

We are members of the JYU community from across the different units/departments of the Language Campus who are interested in working on issues related to equity, social justice, language, communication, and/or education. We meet as a big group about once a month and have small group meetings in between as needed. We organize events, workshops, initiatives and learning groups for ourselves, our colleagues, and the whole Language Campus/JYU community. Currently, the following questions keep us busy:

  • How can our workplace become more inclusive and welcoming of diversity?
  • What does culturally and linguistically sustaining/relevant teaching look like in our contexts?
  • What is institutional racism, how does it show on our campus, and what can we do to challenge it?
  • What is intersectionality and how can we account for it into our work?
  • How can we diversify our community?
  • How can we work in ways that are sustainable and equitable?
  • … and many more …

We strive to accommodate different schedules and linguistic practices to create a welcoming atmosphere for our work. For more information, please contact Johanna Ennser-Kananen at johanna.f.ennser-kananen@jyu.fi.

Selection of most recent and forthcoming events

  • April 2025 (fothcoming): Miksei täällä ole romaneja? Keskutelutilaisuus with Leif Hagert and Sanna Ryynänen
  • April 2025 (forthcoming): Lecture and discussion on Academic Boycott of Israel (Syksy Räsänen).
  • Feb 20205: Palestine solidarity event – screening the movie “Where Olive Trees Weep”
  • Jan 2025 Sámi solidarity event with:
    • a lecture: "Journalist and language revitaliser – the everyday life of a Skolt Sámi journalist at Yleisradio and in a minority community" with YLE journalist Sara Kelemeny (Wesslin)
    • a panel discussion with Marihttá Stoor-Lehtonen, Kaisa Ahvenjärvi and Johanna Turunen on the topic “Vastuullinen etnopolitiikka ja hyvät saamelaissuomalaiset suhteet”

Selection of past events

  • 2 December 2024: Workshop on linguistic and eco-social sustainability in research and teaching at JYU
  • 26 November 2024: Neurodiversity workshop
  • 2.-8.9.2024: Pride-week
  • 31 May 2024: Antiracism Workshop
  • April 2024: Roma History Month
  • 24 January 2024: Education without Walls. Experiences and stories of life under occupation and war in Palestine. In Ruusupuisto and online. Jointly organized by Olive Cafe, JyU Language Campus, Equity Team and GloseNet Network. 
  • 1 November 2023: Anti-racism workshop with Mona Eid (THL)
  • 26 October 2023: Networking and research fair for Gender Studies (organized with Kantti)
  • 3 October 2023: Workshop on teaching “sensitive” issues
  • September 2023: Recommendations to change heteronormative/ ableist PhD defense etiquette/rules

Materials from the Equity Team

The Equity Team has initiated several awareness campaigns at JYU and stored materials here.

Research group