Natalie Delia Deckard is a critical criminologist and sociologist of race and ethnicity. Her research has examined intersections of racialization, migration, and criminalization. She has published in such journals as Citizenship Studies, Latino Studies, The Journal of African American Studies, and The Sociological Quarterly. Dr. Delia Deckard serves on the Black Caucus and Mentorship Committee of the Canadian Sociological Association, as well as the Editorial Board of The Sociology of Race andEthnicity.

Who are Latinx people? Within the single ethnic group, there are a variety of racialized identities -- most numerously Black, Indigenous, and white. The existing Canadian scholarship largely understands the 650 million people of Latin America, and their approximately 500,000 descendants living in Canada, as defined by their inclusion in Latinidad. Yet the Black people of Latin America are, indeed, descendants of the same West Africans as those enslaved in Canada, the United States, and the Anglophone Caribbean. And the Indigenous Latin Americans living in the nation often speak Mixtec, Guarani, and Nahuatl as a native tongue, yet are cast as Hispanic migrants with no systematic connection to the Indigenous people of Turtle Island. I argue that the use of an ethnic identity to describe Latinx people works to invisibilize their racial identities, and systematically excludes them from Black and Indigenous claims-making against a settler colony that has yet to reckon with itself as a part of the American continent.

Renee Grozelle, Doctoral Student Sociology

Renee Grozelle is a PhD student in sociology at the University of Windsor. She is a Metis scholar who developed her research interests based on her experiences with her own self-identification and trying to find a place within Indigenous culture. Her current research focuses on political resistance among Indigenous women in Canada in relation to violence and discrimination.

Her paper will look at the efforts made to increase Indigenous solidarity and support through media in South Western Ontario. In particular, focus will be directed to looking at the media representation of Indigenous peoples in connection to the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests. This work will then look at the ways in which media can and/or has challenged Indigenous stereotypes and future challenges in addressing anti-Indigenous discourse in media.

Title of Project: “Law making through Independent Film Production” – The Price of Representation using a Commercial Law Framework.

Brief Description of Project, Including the Research Question(s)

Visual imagery through film and art is curated through a variety of modalities that seek to highlight social inequities. The unique site of research using film or visual art can often either inform law, or act as a catalyst in law reform. The proposed project will examine how Black independent film production may in fact be rooted in economic inequity. To date, the film industry has been plagued with not only underrepresentation of a specific community, but also in accessing financing, and distribution deals. The project seeks to look beyond artistic expressions of Black film makers, and examine each business decision as it relates to independent film production.

Research Questions: Whether Black Independent Film Production companies are detrimentally affected by regulatory and financial challenges? What legal reforms are needed in monetizing artistic expression through film which will remove the structural inequities?