“The homeland will be when all of us will be strangers”
— from a poem by Francesco Nappo (translated from the Italian)*
Dear EDST Members, students, staff, and faculty:
Greetings and hope the long weekend has been restful and re-invigorating.
Today, Monday, September 2nd, 2025, we embark on a new academic year, 2025-2026. Welcome to all EDST members on campus, students, staff and faculty. Welcome all particularly to new colleagues and incoming students who join us for their first year on this campus.
We embark on a new academic year in the midst of a world in full turmoil; a world characterized by major geopolitical regional and global power shifts. It is good to recall: this large world is here, in our midst, with EDST members originating from its various regions; EDST is part of this world. How we engage the current turmoil and its challenges; what lessons we learn from them; and how do we think through the challenges we face – all these are central to our mission as a Department concerned with educational policies and practices. Let this encounter be one of renewed commitment to furthering our contributions to a worth-wanting education, whether the reference is to K-12 schooling, informal and lifelong learning, or to higher education.
EDST’s mission statement captures the values we seek to pursue and uphold:
- “EDST’s mission is multi-disciplinary scholarship, teaching, service and community engagement that advances knowledge about critical education issues, and transformative learning that supports students’ goals. Faculty, staff, and students in EDST value equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, social justice, and decolonization. Respect, criticality, and integrity guide our relationships.”
In our work, we deploy various instruments to further this broad mission, to name but a few: the Doctoral Colloquium, Research Day, GAA-led activities and initiatives, guest lectures and presentations, as well as campus-wide engagements and funded research projects, among other. Let us focus on upholding the mission statement as we take part in these initiatives and activities. Let us not forget that such instruments are central to our ability to build an EDST worth-wanting, conducive of personal and collective growth, as a home — i.e., a shared space — in which all feel affiliated without giving up on their voice. The capacity to listen, to build shared spaces of reflection and action is therefore core in making EDST a place of significance for us all and for each other.
The world does not seem to spare us its complexities and its share of suffering and pain. In many ways, thinking about education — broadly understood — entails touching on the wounds of a suffering humanity; a humanity in which the questions of justice, inclusion, and equity stand at the centre of our work. The complexity of contexts should not make us shy away from exploring how best to address the challenges facing our work and the knowledge and practices we wish to promote. Let EDST be a vibrant hub of courageous intellectual and praxis-led experimentation with new ideas, initiatives, and relationships towards the building of a just world.
Wishing everyone a fulfilling and solidary academic year,
André
* Francesco Nappo, born in 1949 in Naples (Italy), teaches Italian and history in an elementary school.
Graffiti on a wall in Venice, Italy, depicting a line from Nappo’s poem.