The essays in Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy make visible the submerged stories of Black life in academia. They offer fresh historical, social, and cultural insights into what it means to teach, learn, research, and work while Black.

In daring to shift from margin to centre, the book’s contributors confront two overlapping themes. First, they resist a singular construction of Blackness that masks the nuances and multiplicity of what it means to be and experience the academy as Black people. Second, they challenge the stubborn durability of anti-Black tropes, the dehumanization of Blackness, persistent deficit ideologies, and the tyranny of low expectations that permeate the dominant idea of Blackness in the white colonial imagination.

Operating at the intersections of discourse and experience, contributors reflect on how Blackness shapes academic pathways, ignites complicated and often difficult conversations, and reimagines Black pasts, presents, and futures. This unique collection contributes to the articulation of more nuanced understandings of the ways in which Blackness is made, unmade, and remade in the academy and the implications for interrelated dynamics across and within post-secondary education, Black communities in Canada, and global Black diasporas.

This path-breaking collaboration by leading Black scholars examines the complexities of Black life in Canadian post-secondary education.

  • Imprint: University of Toronto Press
  • Published: December 2021
  • Pages: 488

Awad Ibrahim is a professor and curriculum theorist in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa.

Tamari Kitossa is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Brock University.

Malinda S. Smith is the inaugural vice-provost of equity, diversity, and inclusion and a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary.

Handel K. Wright is the inaugural senior advisor to the president on anti-racism and inclusive excellence; the director of the Centre for Culture, Identity, and Education; and a professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia.

"This is undoubtedly a much-needed book in the archives of the Canadian academy. Exploring the multiplicity and complexity of the experiences of Black scholars in Canada, the authors express a common theme throughout this collection of essays – the various forms of anti-Black racism experienced by the Black scholar and the perpetual struggle against exclusion from the deeply ingrained culture of whiteness that characterizes institutions of higher learning in Canada."

Joy Mighty, Professor Emerita and Former Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), Carleton University

"Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy gathers highly respected scholars vested in critical race and feminist theories and critical pedagogy. Altogether, they have provided a very rich review of relevant literature on interconnected themes they have critically explored in their respective chapters. This volume will be perfect for those interested in critical race and ethnic studies, Black studies, sociology, sociology of education, multicultural education, postcolonial theory, and history."

Pierre W. Orelus, Associate Professor of Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation, Fairfield University

Chapters

EPUB PDF

Introduction: A Meditation on the Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy

  • AWAD IBRAHIM
  • TAMARI KITOSSA
  • MALINDA S. SMITH
  • HANDEL KASHOPE WRIGHT
pp3–14

16: (Re)situating Black Studies at York University: Unsilencing the Past, Locating the Present, Routing Futures

  • THE YORK UNIVERSITY BLACK GRADUATE STUDENTS’ COLLECTIVE
  • JAN-THERESE MENDES
  • CHARMAINE LURCH
  • MOSA MCNEILLY
  • EVELYN AMPONSAH
  • OLA MOHAMMED
pp319–344

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