Gender Equality
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Gender bias is undermining our social fabric and devalues all of us. It is not just a human rights issue; it is a tremendous waste of the world’s human potential. By denying women equal rights, we deny half the population a chance to live life at its fullest. Goal 5 is about ensuring the political, economic and social equality for women, and eradicating prejudice in all forms.
Stories
Knowledge Creation in a Safe Space
IN 2022, YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES launched the new Media Creation Lab in the Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC). The 1,700-square-foot lab provides students, faculty and researchers access to high-end audio and video recording equipment, an audio-visual media creation space, dedicated virtual reality (VR) spaces, a sound-isolated podcasting booth, portable virtual reality headsets and workstations for hands-on digital media production work. It allows users to produce podcasts, virtual reality projects, music recordings and other creative multimedia outputs.
In an effort to promote the Digital Scholarship Centre as a safe, inclusive and approachable space, York University Libraries’ librarians offered the following jointly led sessions by DSC’s Media Creation Lab and the Centre for Feminist Studies: (1) “Everything You Wanted to Know About Anti-Racist Feminist Podcasting (But Were Afraid to Ask) and (2) Listening, Resonating, Attuning: Exploring Sound as Method.
Working in consultation with York University Communications & Culture faculty members Rianka Singh and Kelly Bergstrom on best practices for a welcoming environment for all, the Media Creation Lab drafted a Safer Space policy and prepared targeted communications to reach our diverse student body.
The library is often seen as a place of consumption where you take out books, but students have always been creating in libraries. Here at the York University’s Media Creation Lab, we facilitate the discovery and the creation of knowledge using digital media. This is a place where knowledge is moved, consumed, repurposed and created.
—Kris Joseph, Librarian, Digital Scholarship Infrastructure Department, York University Libraries
We wanted the Media Creation Lab to be a place where those who don’t normally feel welcome or included in media or technology spaces to feel safe and that they belonged. For this reason our programming is particularly focus on communities that are often excluded as well as first-time users and beginners. The main impetus behind the lab was to break down barriers for students, faculty and staff so that they could create, experiment and explore new technology and media in a safe, judgement free, and accessible space.
—Sarah Coysh, Associate Dean, Digital Engagement and Strategy, York University Libraries
YUL embraces services that enhance the experience of our users and we hope and anticipate that this service will make it easier for the parents of very young children to attend York.
Facts
YUL offers a quiet, private space for parents or caregivers who are breastfeeding where they can breastfeed and other wise care for their babies. This space, called the Scott Library Family Room is available in Central Square 133B and has some soft seating, a refrigerator for storing breast milk and is a little ways away from the hustle and bustle of the library. This space is available for all those who need the space and is open when the Scott Library is open.