Reimagining Community Safety | Adina Radosh Sverdlin, Roxy Shlapak, and Sara Fruchtman

Join us for "Reimagining Community Safety," the first seminar in the 2024-2025 Seminar Series presented by the CrimSL Research Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality.

The safety and well-being of a community goes far beyond on-the-street policing. Doctoral students Sara Fruchtman, Roxy Shlapak, and Adina Radosh Sverdlin present their current research in health, self-administered-policing, and police families with particular communities in Northern Ontario, the Akwesasne Mohawk community, and in Mexico, discussing the implications of re-imagining community safety.

Sara Ali will moderate.

This is a free event, however, registration is required.

Prior to the seminar, join us for a light lunch from noon to 12:30 pm in the Centre Lounge. Please indicate your lunch RSVP for catering purposes when you register.

Presentations

Adina Radosh Sverdlin - Ciucad Civil Housing Project: Affordable housing for police families in Mexico
Roxy Shlapak - A Critical Understanding of Indigenous Policing in Mohawk Nation Territory, Akwesasne.
Sara Fruchtman - From Punishment to Public Health: Addressing the Toxic Drug Crisis in Northern Ontario

About the speakers

Adina Radosh Sverdlin

Adina Radosh Sverdlin is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies. Currently, she has three lines of research: 1) working conditions and institution-family dynamics among the Mexican police, 2) how the Mexican police deal with uncertainty, and 3) police collective action through unions and associations in Latin America. Previously, she worked as a research coordinator in the project “Building Effective, Resilient, and Trusted Police Organizations in Mexico” (PI: Rodrigo Canales, Boston University), where she conducted comparative research about police reform in Mexico and designed a study about the response of Mexican municipal and state police departments to the COVID19 pandemic. For her master’s thesis, she inquired about local political practices, the spatial dimension of gang formation, and the life trajectories of former gang members in Western Mexico City. Before her master’s studies, she worked as a researcher, workshop facilitator, and trainer in an action-research project on food and community health. 

Roxy Shlapak

Roxy Shlapak is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto, majoring in Sociology, Political Science, and Criminology, and later pursued a Master’s degree in Criminology.

Roxy is dedicated to collaborative knowledge building and sharing about First Nations policing in Canada, with a current focus on the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service (AMPS). She hopes to advance evidence-based and informed policymaking in the realm of First Nations policing through research partnerships with First Nations police leaders and community stakeholders. Supported by multiple academic institutions and scholarships, including the Intersecting Institutions of Criminal Justice and Injustice Partnership at the University of Alberta’s Centre for Criminological Research and the CrimSL Research Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality at the University of Toronto, Roxy strives to increase actionable knowledge of First Nations policing in Canada, and to work towards positive change and a more equitable criminal justice landscape.

Sara Fruchtman

Sara Fruchtman is a PhD student at CrimSL studying the intersections of health, law and justice. She currently works a policy analyst at the Canadian Mental Health Association - Ontario and is the vice-chair of the Board of Directors at Sistering, a Toronto-based multi-service agency that supports women and gender-diverse people. 

About the moderator

Sara Ali

CrimSL PhD student Sara Ali is a Black, queer scholar whose primary research interest lies in examining how Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) can be reconceptualized in a way that can be applied beyond organizational settings, and how EDI can be deployed as a framework for fostering effective methods of coexistence. For her doctoral work, she will be using gender identity as a point of departure for exploring the mechanisms that facilitate forms of belonging and identity negotiation that go beyond inclusion.
 
Sara graduated with a BA in Social Development Studies from the University of Waterloo and an MA in Political Science from Carleton University.

About events from the CrimSL Research Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality

This event is presented by the CrimSL Research Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality.

Accessibility

Please note that our Centre Lounge and CG 265 seminar room are on the second floor of the Canadiana Gallery building, with stair access only as there is no elevator. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your participation in this session, please email crimsl.communications@utoronto.ca and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

Notice of photography and videography

Photography, audio and video recording may occur throughout this event. Therefore, by attending, you hereby authorize the University of Toronto to take your photograph, video and/or record your voice and grant the university all rights to these sounds, still or moving images in any medium for educational, promotional, marketing, advertising or other such purposes that support the mission of the university. If you do not consent to this, please speak with a university representative upon your arrival.

Health & Safety

We are following health and safety measures outlined by the University of Toronto and the Government of Ontario. Should there be changes in protocols related to health and safety of our guests and community, registrants will be advised.