Dr. Sevan Beukian (she/her/ան/هي) is the inaugural Director (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility), Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Calgary. Prior to that, she was the Senior Executive Advisor on Anti-Racism and Intersectionality at the City of Edmonton. She has worked in provincial and municipal governments to incorporate GBA+, anti-racism and intersectionality into policies, programs, and systems change.
Beukian’s experience spans over a decade in teaching, research, and public policy across government, university, non-profit and community-based work. Her approach combines (non-Western) intersectional feminism, queer theory, anti-racism, trauma-informed approach, and anti-oppressive framework with a strong commitment to reconciliation and decolonization. These are shaped by her lived experience and identity as an immigrant and racialized woman from the SWANA region. Sevan respectfully acknowledges that she is a visitor in Treaty 7 Territory and in Métis Nation of Alberta Region 3.
Beukian holds a PhD in political science from the University of Alberta and a Master of Arts in political studies from the American University of Beirut from Lebanon. Her current research focuses on the way trauma and memory shape national identity discourses. It examines the impact of intergenerational traumatic memories (of genocide) and post-war experiences on national identity constructions, focusing on the Canadian and Armenian context. Beukian’s publications have appeared in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Armenian Review, Routledge, Demeter Press, Palgrave Macmillan, among others.
