Month: November 2024

Introducing Saba Safdar, New SOPR Program Director

Saba Safdar is an Iranian-born scholar whose formative years in Tehran were shaped by the turbulence of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, before she and her family made Canada home. Having lived most of her life in the Great White North, she embraces her Canadian identity, though she’ll admit her winter wardrobe is always a little too optimistic for the climate. Still, she secretly marvels at the breathtaking beauty of a Canadian winter.

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Decolonizing the place narrative of Guelph: A PhD student’s experience

In my city of Guelph, Indigenous histories and presence have long been erased from public landmarks and heritage markers. The story of Guelph’s founding is that upon a ceremonial felling of a maple tree on April 23rd, 1827, John Galt, the first superintendent of the Canada Company established Guelph as a city. While he did not spend much time in Guelph, John Galt’s name is prominent in city spaces. Often untold are the histories of the Neutral, who were the first known Indigenous people to live in what is now Guelph, and the Mississaugas, who stewarded the land after the Neutrals dispersed due to wars. The Haudenosaunee also shared this land prior to Guelph’s founding. In learning and sharing about these histories of my city, I seek to recognize Indigenous presence in the current day.

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