2025 IGSF Public Lecture with Dr. Ingrid Waldron

Women on the Frontlines: The Fight Against Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities

Presenter: Dr. Ingrid Waldron, Ph.D.

Indigenous and Black women in Canada are disproportionately impacted by environmental racism and other forms of violence, which is rooted in a legacy of colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Gender, race, class, and other social identities render Indigenous and Black women more susceptible and vulnerable to a web of inequalities that inflict violence on their bodies, lands, and communities, including environmental racism. In response, Indigenous and Black women have been leading grassroots environmental justice movements for decades to challenge the legal, political, and corporate agendas that sanction the presence of poisons in their communities. In t his presentation, Dr. Ingrid Waldron will examine the socio-political factors that expose these women to the disproportionate social, ecological, and health impacts of environmental racism in their communities. Dr. Waldron will also call attention to the transformative human agency of these women by illuminating their legacy of grassroots mobilizing and activism against environmental racism.