On December 15, 2022, CELS hosted a celebration of its 40^th anniversary as the only endowed research centre in the Faculty of Education at SFU. The event also served as the preview screening of the film CELS produced to capture highlights from the first 40 years of the Centre’s life and work titled, CELS: Advancing a Just Society through Education since 1982.

The event offered an opportunity for the Centre to celebrate key former and current staff, research partners, faculty collaborators, and funders who have been a part of CELS through its first 40 years. Also, it was an opportunity for this community to celebrate the groundbreaking leadership of co-founder and Director, Dr. Wanda Cassidy upon whose retirement on December 31, 2022 the Centre was renamed the Cassidy Centre for Educational Justice (CCEJ).

Since January 2023, CCEJ (or “cedge”) has continued its work focused on the mandate to advance justice and an equitable society through education. Such a society requires citizens who are socially aware of the plights and privileges of themselves and others, who understand how institutions shape relationships with and responsibilities towards one another, and who are civically engaged in taking action to advocate for and foster the wellbeing of all peoples. As such, the Centre’s research and knowledge mobilization activities can be understood as the weaving together of these three areas of research and action: on expanding social awareness, developing institutional literacy, and modeling civic responsibility.

Organizationally, the Centre is led by its Director Özlem Sensoy and Associate Director Amy Parent, Noxs Ts’aawit. CCEJ receives exemplary support from its steering committee (Wanda Cassidy, Kumari Beck, and Chantal Faucher), and staff in Education, most notably among them Quincy Wang, Debbie Wilson, Rosie Peric, and Damon Pang. The Centre’s activities come to life from the dedicated work of the CCEJ research team including Sabrina Ngo (PhD candidate in eTAP/CI, Lead RA, and Centre Coordinator), Somayeh Bahrami (PhD student in GSWS), Cari Zall (PhD student in eTAP/CI), Carolyn Tinglin (PhD candidate, eTAP/CI), Sabah Ghouse (MA student, ESE), Mehtab Purewal (undergraduate student, English/GSWS), and Gloria Lin (Postdoctoral Fellow).

The new website showcases current research and a searchable library of pedagogical and research works. The website also has a detailed “About Us” section, chronicling the history of the Centre. CCEJ welcomes all opportunities to dialogue and explore collaborations on the three themes that shape the Centre mandate.