People, Equity & Inclusion

The Windsor University Faculty Association’s Status of Women, Diversity and Equity Action Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2026 Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award.

Named in honour of the late UWindsor faculty member and former head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology, the award recognizes Mary Lou Dietz’s lasting contributions to advancing women in Canadian universities and colleges.

Marium Tolson-Murtty’s year started with an exciting email announcing her as a 2026 Top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women honouree. 

“This organization, run by trailblazers themselves, recognizes the accomplishments of Black women across Canada from various industries, whether it’s education, entrepreneurship or STEM,” says Tolson-Murtty, director of human rights, conflict resolution and mediation. 

The University of Windsor is home to unique archival collections that document elements of the Black history of Southwestern Ontario.  

Stewarded by the Archives and Special Collections Team in Leddy Library, these collections reflect a long-standing commitment to preserving histories that have shaped the region socially, culturally and intellectually.  

By Kate Hargreaves 

When Bachelor of Education students Jillian Wawrow and Jessica Mladenoski pack their suitcases this April for their trip to Tanzania, they’ll also be loading up bags of school supplies, toiletries and menstrual products. 

Wawrow and Mladenoski are two of the 16 participants in this year’s Teach Tanzania trip, which has allowed students to make the three-week trip to Tanzania each spring since 2008.  

Black History Month in Canada reaches a milestone in 2026, marking three decades of official recognition.

Looking back on generations past as well as into the future, the Canadian government has declared this year’s theme to be “30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations – From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries.”

At the University of Windsor and in the Windsor-Essex community, events throughout February are planned to celebrate Black histories and futures.

By Kate Hargreaves 

From social media to the Golden Globes, the spicy new TV show Heated Rivalry seems to be everywhere.   

The Canadian-made romance, directed by Jacob Tierney and based on the book series by Rachel Reid, centres around fictional gay and bisexual professional hockey players navigating their on-ice careers and personal lives.  

By Sara Elliott 

The new Dr. Lucjan Krause Graduate Scholarship for Physics Achievement honours the memory of a former University of Windsor physicist while supporting the next generation of researchers. 

The scholarship will be awarded annually to graduate students in the Department of Physics who strive for academic excellence. 

By Sara Meikle

When the Faculty of Nursing’s IJEDID Circle first met in 2021, there was no agenda — just shared food, open conversation and a simple but powerful question: what should equity and justice look like here?

That conversation sparked a movement.

By Sara Elliott   

The journey to becoming a leader and a researcher began when biochemistry major Nicole Vanier was in high school.    

Having learned about the Outstanding Scholars program from her older sister, Jeannette Vanier (BSc ’23), she began to consider research, unsure of what to expect but open to the opportunities the program offered.   

By Sara Elliott 

Bald eagles circled overhead as more than 50 biodiversity experts, Indigenous knowledge holders and science-policy leaders from around the world gathered at the Caldwell First Nation restoration site in the Carolinian forest of southwestern Ontario. 

The landmark international biodiversity workshop was hosted by the University of Windsor, UNESCO Paris and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).