Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at CIRMMT

The EDI committee aims to provide guidance and solutions for CIRMMT to provide a positive, inclusive, and equitable research environment in which everyone is welcome, regardless of race, gender identity, sexuality, physical or cognitive abilities, or any other trait. It is comprised of any CIRMMT member interested in the subject, including regular members, collaborator, and students. Participation by all members other than the chair(s) can be on a regular or on an ad hoc basis.

The committee is run by a chair or two co-chairs who will serve for a minimum of one-year.

In 2023-24 & 2024-25, the co-chairs are Cynthia Tarlao and Miranda Jackson.

To contact the co-chairs, please write to edi-chairs [AT] cirmmt.org

Form to submit questions, concerns, issues or suggestions for CIRMMT

In order to support the positive, inclusive and equitable research environment, we encourage everyone to offer suggestions regarding how we can work toward achieving this goal. Any suggestions can be submitted via this form: Questions, concerns, issues or suggestions for CIRMMT

Survey on Assessing barriers and needs to CIRMMT membership, events, and facilities

The following survey aims to discover any barriers members may have encountered, as well as collecting some basic demographic data on CIRMMT's membership: Assessing barriers and needs to CIRMMT membership, events, and facilities 

Barriers may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• joining CIRMMT
• accessibility in the facilities (physically or otherwise)
• participation or inclusion in CIRMMT activities
• equitable access to funding
• access to relevant information regarding CIRMMT operations

General communications and questions can either be sent to the EDI committee chair(s) at edi-chairs [AT] cirmmt.org or by completing the form regarding questions, concerns and suggestions, which can be done anonymously if you wish. 

We strongly suggest that those who experience issues talk to someone who is specifically qualified to help in such cases and who is impartial.

• At McGill, this can be an Equity Advisor, such as those found at the Schulich School of Music.
• You can enquire at your particular faculty if there is someone in a similar role.
• Alternatively, for other issues, McGill has a variety of resources and offices that may be able to help you with specific concerns. Please refer to the section on this page labelled 'Resources'.
• For those members who are from other institutions, we strongly suggest you approach your faculty and institution departments for help.

If your problem is directly related to CIRMMT, please reach out the CIRMMT administration, if you feel comfortable to do so. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can also reach out to a Schulich School of Music Equity Advisor.

Anyone seeking to meet with the chair(s) or a representative of the CIRMMT EDI committee for help with, or to highlight, an issue, will remain anonymous in any documentation of the meeting. Notes will only be taken with consent of the person raising the issue, but may be needed to document any solution to the issue that may impact or be relevant to the CIRMMT community. CIRMMT will help to find resources or solutions within the ability of CIRMMT EDI committee members and CIRMMT staff, which may include, with the consent of the person raising the matter, being redirected to an appropriate university department or office. We will take every measure possible to protect the privacy of anyone presenting an issue.

The next meeting of the EDI committee will happen on Wednesday 4th December 2024. 

To view the agenda: 2025-02-28 Agenda

If you have any suggestions for topics, or if you would like to join the next meeting, please contact the EDI chair(s) at edi-chairs [AT] cirmmt.org

2024-2025

The following changes have been made:

• Following a meeting in January 2025, CIRMMT will, as much as possible, use the inclusive form of French writing on its site and communications. An additional section on the EDI webpage regarding the language the centre will use has been included. 
• Inclusive language in French will be requested for all titles, abstracts and biographies for any internal and external events and speakers. For those who do not provide a translation, a suggestion will be provided by CIRMMT, as resources allow. The information found at the following link can be used as a reference: https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/cles-de-la-redaction/ecriture-inclusive-lignes-directrices-ressources

2023-2024

• To publicity.
• The creation of a new anonymous ‘Suggestion box’ form available to all members at all times: https://forms.office.com/r/FQ4PrSQFaH
• The bylaws have been simplified in order to make them more accessible to all (see Useful Information webpage)
• The creation of a statement on the website, to inform all that the Centre is working on incorporating EDI principles.
• An email going out to all members and students of CIRMMT to update them on the creation of the committee and to encourage their participation.
• The creation of an anonymous survey to assess barriers and needs to CIRMMT membership, events and facilities: https://forms.office.com/r/DC2bPjYqMt
• Requesting members to update their website profiles to help aid collaborations.

CIRMMT’s EDI committee agreed on 28th February 2025 that the Centre will use inclusive French language as much as possible going forward.

To do so, CIRMMT communications will use:

1. non-gendered phrasing (e.g., « les personnes intéressées »), including plural phrasing (e.g., « l’intérêt des membres » instead of « l’intérêt du·de la membre »), as much as possible
2. the interpunct, or middle dot, (« · »), except when marking the plural (e.g., « intéressé·es » instead of « intéressé·e·s »)
3. the rule of proximity for adjectives referring to nouns of different genders (e.g., « voitures et vélos garrés » or « vélos et voitures garrées »)
4. inclusive forms for definite and indefinite articles, and prepositions (e.g., « du·de la », « le·la », « un·e »)
5. neutral forms for pronouns when they are are common enough (e.g., « iel(s) » in place of « il(s)·elle(s) », or « cellui » and its plural « celleux »)
6. non-gendered titles of people (e.g., « Dr. » or « Pr. ») or the entire name of someone if feasible and known, instead of gendered titles (e.g., « M. » or « Mme »)

Please let us know if and how we can improve in the future.

Funding agencies resources:

• NFRF Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research Guide
• CIHR EDI Resources
• NSERC Guide for Applicants: Considering Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in your Application
• NSERC Considering equity, diversity and inclusion in your research design (for postgraduate scholarship applicants)
• CRC Creating an Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Research Environment: A Best Practices Guide for Recruitment, Hiring and Retention (Part 1, sections A-E includes employment equity practices that can be modified for use)
• SSHRC Guide to Addressing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Considerations in Partnership Grant Applications

McGill EDI resources for research:

• Integrating EDI in Research website
• eScholarship @ McGill

Schulich School of Music, McGill:

• For specific information on EDI at the Schulich School of Music, where CIRMMT is housed, including contact details for Equity Advisors, please visit https://www.mcgill.ca/music/about-us/equity-diversity-and-inclusion

EDI resources at CIRMMT's partner institutions:

• McGill University
• Université de Montréal
• Université de Sherbrooke
• École de Technologie Supérieure

The following are more recent examples of research and presentations with an EDI component.

To see all previous award recipients, please visit the Funding page and click on the appropriate past award recipients.

Student Awards

2024-2025

• Ninad Puranik & Travis West, Harmonium Continuum: a keyboard interface for melodic expressions in Hindustani music using traditional harmonium gestures

• Xinyi Zhang, Speech Production in Challenging Listening Conditions

2022-2023

• Meesh Fradkin & Erivan Duarte, Inclusive Performance Ensemble: Technology, Disability and Access

2021-2022

• Sara Nejati, Low-intensity ultrasound therapy for voice disorders

Travel Awards

2024-2025

• Mariane Generale, Music for emotion regulation in adulthood & Group online-music making in a later-life community band, International Society for Music Education (ISME) 36th World Conference and its Community Music Activity pre-conference in Tampere and Helsinki, Finland

• Yifan Huang, A cross-cultural comparison of the timbre-semantic space of Chinese instrumental sounds, Society for Music Perception and Cognition 2024 conference in Banff, AB

2023-2024

• Louis-Michel Tougas, Speech as model for orchestration - a comparative study between Cantonese and Québécois French, ACTOR Y5 Workshop in Strasbourg, France

2022-2023

• Martha Thomae Elias, Preserving the Musical Heritage of Colonial Guatemala through Digitization and Music Encoding Technologies, International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAM) Congress in Prague, Czechia

2021-2022

• Ky Brooks, DIY synth building workshop ; Panel: Rethinking Signal Flow: Gender, audio education and professional development in the recording arts in Canada, AUDIO+ in Victoria, BC, Canada

2019-2020

• Martha Thomae, Taking Digital Humanities to Guatemala, a Case Study in the Preservation of Colonial Musical Heritage, Digital Humanities Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands

• John Sullivan, Surveying Digital Musical Instrument Use Across Diverse Communities of Practice, 14th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research (CMMR) in Marseille, France

• Grace Brooks, Diversity, inclusion and discrimination in audio engineering: perspectives from current research, Social distinction in the 21st century recording studio in Lethbridge, AB, Canada

ResonatorTube Funding

2022-2023

• Farzad Daemi Milani, Persian-Arabic Seventeen-Tone Temperament: A Microtonal Extension to the Heptatonic Scale, the link to video will be available via the award winners webpage when ready.