I realize the title is confusing but I did not know what else to say.

A project for one of my semester 7 classes is requiring me to write a reflection paper on two conferences I attended. The problem? I have to have three academic sources to cite in this reflection, and the paper itself has to talk about “what impact the university has” based off these two conferences.

There were many conferences I could’ve chosen but I ended up choosing one that was about “multiculturalism, decolonization, and reconciliation through community” and the other was watching a documentary about Gay rights in Canada and then a panel was held with some of the makers of the movie.

The first conference made mentions about multiculturalism in Canada as a mere cover and not true justice, that they (the panelists, all radicalized women) were also being used in this way. One of the panelists even stated that decolonization requires a dismantling of the colonial system and a move away from capitalism, yet she did not state the alternative. When asked about China the woman, who is Taiwanese, stated that communism was a push against western imperialism but has its own form of imperialism. Another panelists talked about her experience with community gardens and how it connects people to the land and food production, this immediately reminded me of Marx’s alienation. This same panelist talked about how what they were talking about was risky as they could realistically be killed, but this was more in reference to her going back to, I believe, India.

So one of my sources is Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

The second conference was difficult due to the fact that the bulk of it was a movie and I was unable to write any notes during the film, but it was about a man who was fired from his teaching job for being gay. This prompted him to go to the courts of Canada to fight against discrimination based on sexuality as it was not protected. That is inaccurate, it was protected in all provinces except one. First he went to the provincial court but the case was immediately dismissed with as much violent homophobia as you could think. Then it was brought to the Supreme Court where the case was won and sexuality was made a protected category under the Charter.

Anyway, the main important bits was that the people involved in the case were tacked ruthlessly with severe homophobia and that it took several years. One of the lawyers even invoked the memory of the Holocaust to make the case for protecting sexual minorities. During the panel everyone there agreed that, due to the current political climate, we could realistically see a sequel documentary based around trans rights. The director of the film also talked about the cuts to USAID being an issue for LGBT organization overseas, specifically in Poland.

I am sorry for the long explanations but I felt the need to provide this information as to give you all a better idea of what I am dealing with. My mind went to the “revolutionary academic” and how that is clearly not allowed, and thus I found a source kind of about that by Henry Etzkowitz called “The Second Academic Revolution.” I am mostly going to make my own point about how the revolutions described in that paper are not what I am talking about. I am having a hard time finding any pieces on academic revolutionaries, if thats even possible. I am also struggling with linking my second conference to the main point of the paper which, again, is about impact (whatever that means).

I apologize if this is too much to ask for, even steering me in the right direction would help, no need for actual sources if that is not possible or appropriate. I honestly have no one else to consult with on this.

If its any help I was also approved of using Lenin as a source for any of my projects, so nobody is off the table regardless of how “controversial” they are.

Thank you for any guidance you can give me.