Apathy to Empathy: Curriculum Project
Apathy to Empathy is an interdisciplinary curriculum-based project that was first piloted for several undergraduate courses in civil engineering, chemistry, geography, and social sciences in the Fall 2021 semester. The project provided students and faculty with the opportunity to better understand multiple facets of the First Nations water crisis.
To commemorate the pilot, a four-part video series and repository have been created to showcase the student projects and learnings!
Project Partners: Office of Social Innovation, Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching, and the Urban Water Research Centre.
Video Interviews
Watch the four-part video series featuring interviews with faculty, staff and students who took part in the Apathy to Empathy pilot project.
Project Repository
Check out some of the student projects from the Apathy to Empathy Curriculum Project! Hosted on the Toronto Metropolitan University's online repository.
Participating courses:
- CVL 913: Water Supply Engineering
- GEO 555: Colonial Infrastructures of North America
- SOC 540: Indigenous Feminisms
- CHY 422: Environmental Chemistry
A special thank you to Joanne Okimawininew Dallaire, Angela Murphy, Anne Spice, Dr. Eva Jewell, Dr. Darko Joksimovic and Dr. Roxana Sühring.
Remembering Nick Reid
Nicholas "Nick" Reid was a champion of environmental stewardship and Indigenous access to clean drinking water. Nick worked with Elder Joanne Dallaire to form a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Steering Committee on Indigenous Water Access Issues which was named the Apathy to Empathy Steering Committee. The Committee had the goal to bring attention to Indigenous water access issues.
The Committee’s first deliverable was the creation of a course for TMU students on basic education about Indigenous people in Canada and their challenge to attain safe drinking water. The course was named Apathy to Empathy: Indigenous Water Challenges and offered as a cross-disciplinary course in Fall 2021.
The course highlighted the stories and knowledge of indigenous community members and students sought to incorporate their learnings into team projects on water in civil engineering, chemistry, social sciences, and geography. The course will be expanded and offered to a broader TMU community in Fall 2022.
This course is one of the enduring legacies of Nick Reid. Nick had great compassion and a belief that the Urban Water Research Centre could be a vehicle for change. Nick believed that the Centre had a role and responsibility to educate and engender understanding in Indigenous water challenges.
