A message from the student editors
Hello and welcome to SOPR Stories, the student-led blog for the Social Practice and Transformational Change doctoral program at the University of Guelph.
We are Nealob Kakar, Amy Kipp, and Allison Bishop, the student editors of SOPR Stories, an emerging digital space co-created with current SOPR students, alumni, and the broader SOPR community. We are so excited to introduce SOPR Stories! But first, we would like to introduce ourselves.
My Name is Nealob (she/her) and I am in the third-year of the SOPR program. Starting the SOPR program was the first time I was able to fully enter an academic space with all parts of myself fully intact, where I didn’t have to reserve certain pieces for certain audiences, and where I could authentically enter as I am. The interdisciplinary nature and social justice focus of this program has given me space to creatively and care-fully intervene, culturally connect, and to rethink normative scholarly practices that I am so thankful for and forever indebted to! Through this platform I am excited to share the collective and creative ways our community continues to provide a way out and a way forward to (re)think, (re)imagine, and (re)build. To dream of different ways of moving within and beyond the academy.
My name is Amy (she/her) and I am currently (somehow!) in the fifth-year of the SOPR program. As a community-engaged scholar in Guelph, Ontario, I work in partnership with different community organizations and community members to explore the diverse and creative practices of care people use in order to survive, resist, and flourish. It’s been so meaningful to be a part of the SOPR program from its early days and to see it take shape. I’ve especially loved witnessing how we have come together to imagine and work towards shaping SOPR into the program we want it to be. We’ve had many conversations about how we can continue to build a SOPR community that centres care and collectively, and values different ways of knowing and being in academia – and I hope that this site can be a part of that.
My name is Allison Bishop (she/her) and I am a third-year SOPR student. I am a settler-Canadian whose matrilineal family has settled in the territory of the Williams Treaty Nations for five generations. Five years ago I was invited into the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP), an Indigenous-led network that seeks to support Indigenous-led conservation and the transformation of the conservation sector in Canada. I joined the SOPR program to deepen my decolonial praxis. Through my work, I hope to partner with non-Indigenous conservation organizations to help deepen their efforts to disrupt colonial conservation and support of Indigenous self-determined conservation futures.
About SOPR Stories
This is a collaborative digital space for SOPR students and the broader community to share our stories. We will share who we are, what social practice and transformative change mean to us, how we bring life to the SOPR pillars, the embodied experience of research, and stories of what we are creating as a community of engaged researchers and practitioners. SOPR is a reflection of our bold, creative, and caring community. We are working together to do academia differently, and we can’t wait to share our journies with you!
