Students
Anti-Racism SymposiumUnlearning silence, confronting racism, and collectively building anti-racist institutions
Thompson Rivers University, Campus Activity Center — Grand Hall
Hosted by the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism
May 5, 2026 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Anti-racism symposium
The Office of EDI and Anti-Racism and the TRU Faculty Association (TRUFA) invite you to join us this year for TRU's annual EDI conference on May 5th, 2026.
This year, the conference's focus on racism and anti-racism, hopes to create a space for speakers, facilitators, and attendees to name and confront racism in holistic and systemic ways. Throughout the day, participants will be asked to learn, share, and build through guided, trauma-informed conversations, activities, and an action-planning exercise.
We will look to initiatives such as the Scarborough Charter and the TRC Calls to Action, as guiding lights, as we discuss topics such as anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism and what is means to be an "anti-racist".
Please join us for a day filled with networking, connecting, learning, and listening, ending with some concrete action planning to take back to our institutions, departments, classrooms, and community spaces.
Meet our keynote speakers
Tanya Manning-Lewis
Dr. Tanya Manning-Lewis is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Education, Graduate Programs at Thompson Rivers University, Canada. With over two decades of experience as a secondary educator, teacher educator, and community-engaged researcher, she has a record of work grounded in anti-racist, equity-focused education and transformative social change. As a racialized scholar and educator, she brings a justice-oriented lens to her teaching and research, centring the experiences, knowledge, and resistance of historically marginalized communities. Her scholarship critically examines how systemic inequities and racialized structures shape educational policies, institutions, and student experiences across local, multicultural, and international contexts. Her research explores anti-racist pedagogies, equity, diversity and inclusion, language and socialization, gender, Caribbean identity, and decolonial approaches to teaching and learning. Through collaborative work with educators, community partners, and graduate students, she seeks to challenge dominant narratives in education and advance practices that address the intersections of race, gender, class, and power.
Dr. Roxane Letterlough
Dr. Roxane Letterlough (Dr. mixalhíts̓a7) is a St’at’imc scholar and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University, where she holds a tripartite role in teaching, research, and service. She has worked in Indigenous education and community contexts for over two decades, supporting relational, land-based, and culturally grounded approaches to learning.
She is an anti-racism advocate whose work is shaped by her lived experience as a mother of Black and Indigenous children who have faced systemic and extreme racism within the public school system. Her scholarship focuses on Indigenous resurgence and the transformation of educational spaces through accountability, relationality, and community-engaged practice. She is committed to advancing equity through Indigenous knowledge systems and the protection of future generations.
To be announced
Contact Us
Email: edi@tru.ca
Phone: 250-852-7662
Office: Administration Building, 3rd floor
Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism - Thompson Rivers University
