Another University is Possible? : A Study of Indigenizing and Internationalizing Initiatives in Two Canadian Postsecondary Institutions

The aspirational postsecondary strategies of Indigenizing and internationalization claim to address pressing political questions such as racism and systemic inequities in the university. Through close examination of these initiatives in two key postsecondary institutions in Toronto, Canada, we show how these priorities instead betray strategic investment in diversity in three specific ways: First, universities are positioned as a horizontal ‘community of changemakers’ that are themselves disarticulated from global relations of inequities. Next, international and Indigenous students’ welcome is made conditional and contingent on their becoming ‘diversity informants’ for the university and its normative membership. Related to that, the claims of curricular diversity remain ‘performative’ and thereby reify established epistemic hierarchies. Finally, while the university is cast as a ‘fraternal community’ these various strategic priorities are managed and executed separately, thereby foreclosing opportunities for robust conversations across the university communities. &nbsp