Dr. Arig al Shaibah is McMaster’s inaugural Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion. In addition to overseeing the Equity and Inclusion Office, she is currently responsible for championing inclusive excellence and leading the development and implementation of institution-wide strategic equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) priorities at McMaster.

Arig has worked in higher education for over 20 years, bringing EDI principles and practices to bear in all of her accountabilities. Prior to arriving at McMaster, Arig held the roles of Vice-Provost (Student Affairs) and Acting Executive Director (Human Rights & Equity) at Dalhousie University, and, before that, Assistant Dean (Student Life and Learning) at Queen’s University.

Arig holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a PhD in Education (Cultural and Policy Studies). Her doctoral research involved a study of the perspectives of senior-most administrators with respect to the barriers to and enablers of equity in higher education.

Arig is an interdisciplinary EDI scholar-practitioner and administrator who has held active teaching appointments in Interdisciplinary Studies, Gender Studies, Public Administration, and Sociology, and she has been actively engaged in EDI action research to elevate the efficacy of her various EDI leadership practice. Her areas of academic and professional interest are intergroup relations, race and racism, social inequality, as well as questions of how to foster inclusive leadership and mobilize organizational EDI change.

Arig currently sits on several EDI Advisory Committees at the local, provincial, and national levels. More information on her work to advance EDI at McMaster can be found below.