A new weekly radio show is looking into activism, awareness, and political organization on and off campus.
The hour-long show, #WeAreUofT, airs on CIUT, which is the UTSG radio station. The show first aired on October 25 and has since aired six episodes.
The show is hosted by U of T PhD student and founder of the U of T chapter of Silence is Violence, Ellie Ade Kur. Victoria College student and former UTSU Vice-President External Lucinda Qu was a co-host for the first few episodes but is no longer involved with the show. Physics PhD student Robert Fajber and undergraduate Canadian Studies student Liam Fox co-produce the show and were organizers during the TA strike in 2015.
Guests, experts, and leaders are invited to come on the show and discuss the topic of the week.
“Our goal is to provide a platform that highlights marginalized voices in social movements,” Ade Kur told The Varsity.
At the beginning of the second episode Qu spoke about the purpose of the show: “What’s clear to us is that there’s more than one U of T: there’s U of T the institution, there’s U of T the place, but there’s also U of T the community. And that is the U of T we’re reporting on.”
Qu said that the show will focus on organizers, activists, and members of the U of T community seeking to enact change.
When asked why the show was initially created, Ade Kur said, “When people think about the University of Toronto they don’t typically think about it as a space of resistance. #WeAreUofT is about highlighting social movements and activism at the University and in the city more broadly.”
Ade Kur also stated that choosing episode-topics consists of “reaching out to communities in the city that aren’t typically highlighted by mainstream media sources.”
CIUT initially approached the hosts to “fill a gap” in their content and focus on pressing stories that are currently “missing from media both on campus and in the city.”
The first three episodes of the show comprised a series about transphobia and the trans community on campus, anti-Blackness, free speech politics, and the comments made by Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson.
At the beginning of the episode, Ade Kur said the show disagrees with an “equal sides” framework on this issue. “This is a discussion about the struggle of groups of oppressed people to gain full rights and equality on this campus — and those who would attempt to preserve historical privileges and the status quo,” she said.
The series highlighted a variety of guests from the trans community, Women and Gender Studies Professor Beverly Bain, members from newly-formed student group Students in Support of Free Speech (SSFS), the Black Liberation Collective (BLC), and more.
In their fifth episode, #WeAreUofT returned to discuss trans rights, free speech, and the recent debate held between Peterson, Law Professor Brenda Cossman, and UBC Education Professor Mary Bryson. UTSU Vice-President University Affairs, Cassandra Williams, was interviewed in this episode alongside Jassie Justice, the cultural coordinator at Toronto-based porn collective SPIT.
The show also touched on the recent US presidential election and the derogatory comments made by President-elect Donald Trump about women. Ade Kur interviewed members of Rhythms of Resistance Toronto, a “samba-inspired” social and environmental justice band. They discussed the recent anti-Trump protest, Pussy Grabs Back Toronto, which was held outside the Trump Hotel on October 24 as well as sexual violence against women in general.
#WeAreUofT’s latest episode was about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, and Ade Kur interviewed members of the U of T Graduate Student Union (GSU) ad-hoc Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions committee.
The show airs on Tuesday mornings from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on 89.5. Past episodes can be heard on SoundCloud.
Editor’s note: This article has been modified to include the names of the co-producers.