Ingrid Waldron

Ingrid R. G Waldron is a Canadian social scientist who is the HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program in the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University. She co-produced the 2019 film There's Something in the Water with Elliot Page, Ian Daniel and Julia Sanderson, which is based on her book of the same name.

Early life and education Waldron was born in Montreal. Her parents are from Trinidad. She studied psychology at McGill University. Her PhD research examined the impact of inequality and oppression on the mental health of Black women, help-seeking, and African indigenous knowledge in mental health. She started the project after hearing about how a landfill in Lincolnville, Nova Scotia was impacting residents' health. ENRICH uses community engagement, multi-disciplinary partnerships, training and government consultations to support local people in addressing the health effects associated with environmental racism. ENRICH addresses both aspects of environmental racism; spatial (i.e. the inequitable health risks associated with living close to environmentally hazardous activities) and procedural (i.e. the mechanisms that perpetuate these activities). ENRICH developed a research team composed of members across Nova Scotia, hosted a series of workshops entitled “In Whose Backyard? – Exploring Toxic Legacies in Mi’kmaw & African Nova Scotian Communities” and consulted with communities on existing policies.

In 2015, Waldron worked with Lenore Zann to develop a bill that addressed Canadian environmental racism. The bill, An Act to Address Environmental Racism in Nova Scotia (#111) was introduced into Canadian legislature in April 2015.

Waldron's 2018 book There's Something In The Water explored environmental racism in indigenous and black communities. It considers settler colonialism as the overarching theory, and explores how environmental racism is compounded by other forms of oppression. The film had three screenings at the Atlantic International Film Festival. Variety said the film "makes a very convincing case for protections against environmental harm being applied equally to all members of society".

Waldron is Chair of the Dalhousie University Black Faculty and Staff Caucus. She is researching how women of colour in Halifax deal with mental health issues. She has identified that black women feel that white doctors and mental health practitioners do not understand how racism impacts their lived experience. 2015 Advocate of the Year Award 2018 Dalhousie University President's Excellence Research Award – Research Impact 2019 Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

Selected publications