Meet Cicely Blain, a second year Modern European Studies and Russian major, who recently initiated the ‘Celebrating Women at UBC’ project in honor of the upcoming International Women’s Day. We sat down with her to discuss her motivation, history and future aspirations.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How do people often describe you?
I am a second year Arts student majoring in Modern European Studies with a minor in Russian. I really love Slavic/Eastern European literature and Scandinavian film and through my major I get to explore that. I love Russia; its people, its history, its architecture but definitely not its grammar. As an LGBT-identified person, my interest in Russia has been questioned, especially considering the recent scandals surrounding the Olympics in Sochi and the supposed anti-gay laws. However, my connection to the culture has made me much more informed about the situation and reminded me to use social media as a powerful tool for information and social justice and not believe everything I see online.
2. Where are you from and where have you grown up? Has your time in high school or the places you’ve lived in affected your outlook on this project?
I was born and raised in London, UK although my family comes partly from the Gambia, West Africa. At 16, I went to a United World College in the Netherlands which is when I really started to engage in activism, particularly around race, gender and sexuality. My school was international and very focused on dialogue, service learning and global citizenship meaning that I became aware of an abundance of human rights and social justice related issues. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to tackle them other than to have heated conversations at ridiculous hours of the night. Coming to UBC has given me some direction on how to become a more ethical witness to instances of discrimination as well as how to extend my natural desire to be involved and fight injustices beyond issues that affect only me.
3. What inspired you to undertake this project? Has it been a brainchild for sometime or was it recently inspired by something?
Every year on International Women’s Day, the Equity Ambassadors organize something to celebrate women on campus or around the world because we are a group dedicated to social justice and celebrating minorities. We also engage in issues around race, sexual orientation, ability and many more.
I really wanted to move away from the idea of critique and picking apart institutions like the media and do something more positive. The project was inspired by initiatives like Her Campus UBC, UBC Intercultural Alliance and Peer Programs that give an insight into the amazing diversity that we are fortunate to have on campus. After the recent AMS elections I also became very aware of the level of apathy on campus and I really wanted to create a project where students could passively engage with learning more about the place they live, work and learn without really having to do anything. The photographs will appear on digital signs and posters around campus and on March 7th we will give out postcards and continue to publicise our blog and Facebook Page – it’s kind of like a project that comes to you.
I personally interviewed and photographed the majority of the women, and my team helped with the rest – the more women I met, the more passionate I became about the project because I realized the amount of brilliant, passionate, exciting women that we just never hear about because we have a tendency to remain within our own faculty, cultural and social cliques.
4. Who are your personal female mentors, at UBC and outside UBC?
I try not to use the word female because I am trying to engage in a discourse that completely removes the idea of a biologically determined sex, but there are definitely many women that have inspired me. Firstly, my grandmother – she has dedicated her whole life to social justice movements – from protesting against nuclear armament to working with children with special educational needs, she was the first feminist, anti-racist, LGBT-rights supporter in my life and still remains the strongest and most passionate woman I know. My mother also inspires me in her role as a teacher – she dedicates her life to education and fighting for fairness and equality within schools as well as the appreciation of visual art.
At UBC, my main mentor is my boss, Anna White. She is the most positive and up-beat person I have ever met and is incredibly supportive of all initiatives that the Equity Ambassadors bring forward, and so this project could not have been done without her. She has taught me so much about social justice, inclusive language and respectful conduct.
5. What are you hoping this project will achieve? How has feedback been so far?
I am hoping that this project will encourage people to be grateful and appreciative of the excellent students, staff members and faculty that we have on this campus. On a larger scale, I just believe that visibility is power. We are not close to abolishing the systemic patriarchy that exists in our society, and, for now, this project won’t change the inequality in wages between men and women in Canada but it can remind us to celebrate those women who broke through glass ceilings, destroyed gender stereotypes and achieved amazing things. I am also hoping that the project will bring attention to the diversity of what it means to be a women-identified body. One of the biggest struggles in feminism currently is trying to make it intersectional (not just for white, middle class cis-gendered women) and so this project has incorporated cis- and trans-gendered women, queer women, women of colour, older women, immigrant women and many other types of diversity.
The feedback so far has been very positive – the women who were nominated feel very honoured to be involved and we are gaining a lot of virtual support on social media. This gives us the hope to extend it beyond International Women’s Day.
6. Why did you decide to put this project primarily in the form of a blog?
This project is mainly in the form of a blog because we needed somewhere accessible to post all of the biographies of the amazing women we interviewed. We wanted to remain sustainable and so did not want to print them for our booth on March 7th. Additionally, it encourages people to continually revisit and reflect on the project and draw inspiration from these women – their words are now immortalized on the blog and we can continue to add to it as we receive more nominations and expand the project. We know that we are catering to a technological age and so a blog is a logical option.
7. What do you hope to aspire to in the future? Do you have any other projects in the pipeline right now?
In the future I hope to become a teacher and a politician. I believe that education is the most powerful way to shape a generation. I hope to create a curriculum that incorporates feminism, social justice, anti-racism and education around gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual health and relationships to create wiser, more polite, more respectful, more ethical and more active young people in the future.
I also want to set up an organization that offers viable and interesting alternatives to students who don’t want to attend university to alleviate the societal pressure to obtain multiple degrees and de-stigmatize vocational careers options like childcare, construction and beauty.
Other projects I am currently working on include the UBC Intercultural Alliance which helps foster intercultural understanding on campus and set up collaborations among cultural clubs. I am also in the process of setting up the UBC British Club with some friends as we have recognized the demand to celebrate awesome things like Harry Potter, the Beatles and the Queen.
Be sure to keep up with the project by checking out the blog and their Facebook page!