Workshop 6 - Anti-oppressive strategies and solidarity in and out the classroom (Presented by the Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples And Politics Section)

W605 - Workshop 6 - Black Studies and Black Experiences in Higher Education

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Celia Romulus (University of Ottawa)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Debra Thompson (McGill University)

Black Studies and Everyday Praxis: Tari Ajadi (McGill University)
Abstract: This paper interrogates the practice of teaching and learning as it applies to Black Canadian Studies programs and classes. Despite a proliferation of programs and classes in institutions across the country since the so-called ‘racial reckoning’ in 2020, and despite the establishment of teaching and learning as a pillar of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education, precious little attention or resources have been devoted to the experience of teaching Black Studies in academic spaces that summarily reject the premises upon which Black Studies are founded. I argue that there are three causes behind this absence: an academic establishment seeking descriptive rather than substantive representation to rebuff calls of racism; a lack of spaces for teachers and learners to convene and partner to develop new approaches to the classroom; and a lack of clarity about the purpose and trajectory of these programs. I then articulate what I dream of for Black Canadian Studies as a teacher and as a learner: a (re)turn to the radical and to the everyday. I draw upon Josh Meyers’ definition of Black Study as “a refusal of the blessings of liberal humanism and its variants, the philosophy of life and living that is really only about the political same, a violent reanimation of the status quo” to describe the transformative pedagogical approaches I seek to develop in my practice (2023, 23).

Démasculiniser les études noires : perspectives féministe noire et transnationale de la décolonisation des savoirs.: Rose Ndengue (York University)
Abstract: Les projets de decolonisation des savoirs consistant a institutionnaliser les etudes africaines et les etudes noires, portes par differentes communautes noires en Afrique et dans la diaspora, ont abouti a une production androcentree des savoirs sur les geographies noires, qu’il est necessaire de remettre en question. Telle est l’objectif de cette communication, qui vise a nourrir la reflexion sur les cadres de pensee et les experiences a partir desquels on pense les etudes noires. Elle s’appuie sur une demarche portee a partir d’une position particuliere. Celle d’une universitaire africaine francophone, qui se definit comme feministe noire de l’espace transatlantique, vivant en diaspora dans un espace occidental bilingue majoritairement anglophone. En effet, j’apprehende la production et la diffusion des etudes noires a travers ma trajectoire, ou se melent experiences africaine, europeenne et nord-americaine, d’une part, et un engagement feministe antiraciste articule a mon travail d’enseignante-chercheuse d’autre part.

Race, Gender, and Knowledge Institutions: Black Women's Narratives in Higher Education: Dalia Elsayed (Concordia University), David Waddington (Concordia)
Abstract: This study seeks to understand how the Canadian higher education institution contributes to the construction of blackness. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Black women enrolled in graduate programs at two predominantly white Quebec universities, I examine the narratives that Black women share as they reflect on their individual and collective identity formation within university campuses. I employ a Black feminist framework to interrogate the concept of blackness; what it means and its implication on the experiences of Black women in academia. Additionally, this project aims to raise societal awareness of the unique experiences faced by Black women in Quebec, laying the groundwork for future research.

“America just always seems on fire”: Race and Black International Students’ Mobility Intentions: Prof-Collins Ifeonu (Simon Fraser University)
Abstract: My presentation discusses how race shapes the international study decisions of Black international students from sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Based on 40 semi-structured interviews, I highlight how these students evaluate race relations in host countries like Canada and the U.S. While many viewed Canada as more racially tolerant than other competitor nations, their post-migration encounters with racism and reckoning with Canada’s settler-colonial structure complicated this assumption. By entering race as a critical factor in International Student Mobility (ISM), my presentation illuminates the socio-cultural factors shaping how international students negotiate their sense of belonging and cultivate a locally-grounded political consciousness in host nations.