The academic community is in shock after a triple stabbing in a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo left two students and a professor in the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Multiple charges have since been laid against 24-year-old Geovanny Villalba-Aleman in what police are calling a hate-motivated attack against gender expression and identity.
For students and faculty at the University of Guelph, it hit a little too close to home.
“Waterloo is right next door, it could have happened here,” said Kimberly Francis, a University of Guelph professor and the director of the Sexualities, Genders and Social Change program.
Francis said since then, she’s been hearing from faculty that they feel vulnerable.
“We’ve worked so hard to create this new program, we just launched it last year. And it is meant to be a space for exploring a bunch of different issues that are pressing and sensitive and deeply personal to people. And then hearing about this, it shakes you. It makes you worry about everyone’s safety.”
Yesterday, Professor Katy Fulfer and two students in her Gender Studies course were attacked because they were exploring society and gender. That this hate-filled attack due to gender expression and identity happened at the end of Pride Month is even more painful. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/i1MgjAuHb3
— Vivek Goel (@UWaterlooPres) June 29, 2023
One such faculty member is Adam Davies, a non-binary professor who taught introduction to sexualities and genders as part of the Sexualities, Genders and Social Change program this fall.
Davies said that while they were shocked and upset by the attack, it’s “one of numerous ongoing attacks against those who engage in conversations of gender equity and gender diversity.”
“I feel unsafe all the time, because of who I am and what I teach,” Davies said. “This violence is everyday for so many of us.”
Oftentimes the violence is psychological and emotional, they said, like being misgendered.
But it's especially terrifying when that psychological or emotional violence becomes physical, said Malissa Bryan, a PhD student at U of G who founded the Rainbow Diversity Institute, which does work around LGBTQIA+ advocacy and gender inclusion.
“This incident definitely does not make me feel safe in the classroom. Not that I wouldn't go but I think I'll look over my shoulder a little bit more,” Bryan said.
She said it can discourage people from wanting to be allies, or wanting to learn more about gender ideology and the queer community, “because now it’s become dangerous.”
She said the classroom setting is a place where you’re supposed to be safe and able to openly share your thoughts and have discussion, but this brings some uncertainty to it.
“You don’t know who’s watching, who’s hearing,” Bryan said. “That uncertainty can cause a lot of disruption (for) education and a sense of well-being.”
Still, Francis said they are committed to making sure their work continues.
“We all go in every day knowing there's that risk,” she said. “My number one priority is making sure that my faculty that I have to put in the classroom in the fall feel safe, and feel supported, and to make sure the students feel safe and supported.”
If anything, she said an attack like this emphasizes how important gender studies classes are.
But it’s also important to speak up when faced with any homophobic or transphobic language, because it can turn into something more, Bryan said.
“Hate speech and intolerance are not just opinions. They are one step away from turning into action that can physically harm someone,” she said. “When we see any type of intolerance brewing, we have to really be stomping it out every single time and speak up every single time.”
“We can't let the actions of one person erode and counteract all the goodwill that is out there and growing,” Francis said.
