Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy: Teaching, Learning, and Researching while Black

487 Pages·2022·6.822 MB·English

by  Awad Ibrahim (editor), Tamari Kitossa (editor), Malinda S. Smith (editor), Handel Kashope Wright (editor)

NUANCES OF BLACKNESS IN THE CANADIAN ACADEMY
Teaching, Learning, and Researching While Black
Edited by Awad Ibrahim, Tamari Kitossa, Malinda S. Smith, and
Handel K. Wright
The essays in Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy make visible
the submerged stories of Black life in academia. They offer fresh his-
torical, 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 con-
front 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 per-
meate the dominant idea of Blackness in the white colonial imagination.
Operating at the intersections of discourse and experience, contrib-
utors reflect on how Blackness shapes academic pathways, ignites com-
plicated and often difficult conversations, and reimagines Black pasts,
presents, and futures. This unique collection contributes to the articu-
lation 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.
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 Cul-
ture, Identity, and Education; and a professor in the Department of Ed-
ucational Studies at the University of British Columbia.
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Nuances of Blackness in the
Canadian Academy
Teaching, Learning, and Researching
While Black
EDITED BY AWAD IBRAHIM, TAMARI KITOSSA,
MALINDA S. SMITH, AND HANDEL K. WRIGHT
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2022
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4875-2869-0 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4875-2872-0 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-1-4875-2870-6 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4875-2871-3 (PDF)
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian academy : teaching, learning,
and researching while Black / edited by Awad Ibrahim, Tamari Kitossa,
Malinda S. Smith, and Handel K. Wright.
Names: Ibrahim, Awad, editor. | Kitossa, Tamari, editor. | Smith, Malinda S.,
1962–, editor. | Wright, Handel Kashope, 1959–, editor.
Description: Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2021035125X | Canadiana (ebook) 20210351284 |
ISBN 9781487528690 (cloth) | ISBN 9781487528706 (paper) |
ISBN 9781487528720 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781487528713 (PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: College teachers, Black – Canada. | LCSH: Blacks –
Education (Higher) – Canada. | LCSH: Blacks – Race identity – Canada. |
LCSH: Discrimination in higher education – Canada.
Classification: LCC LC2804 .N83 2022 | DDC 378.1/208996071 – dc23
We wish to acknowledge the land on which the University of Toronto Press operates. This
land is the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, the
Métis, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the
Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program,
using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of
Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the
Government of Ontario, for its publishing activities.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Preface: The Nuances of Blackness – A Genesis and Outline xi
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction: A Meditation on the Nuances of Blackness in the
Canadian Academy 3
awad ibrahim, tamari kitossa, malinda s. smith,
and handel kashope wright
Part One: Blackness: What’s in a Name?
Commentary on Part One: Why the Study of Blackness Is Critical at
This Historical Juncture 17
george j. sefa dei (nana adusei sefa tweneboah)
1 The Awkward Presence of Blackness in the Canadian Academy 23
handel kashope wright
2 Exposed! The Ivory Tower’s Code Noir 45
delia d. douglas
3 The Precariat African-Canadian Academic: Problematic Historical
Constructions, Perpetual Struggles for Recognition 63
ali a. abdi
4 What Have Deleuze and Guattari Got to Do with Blackness?
A Rhizomatic Analysis of Blackness 77
awad ibrahim
vi Contents
5 Dancing with the Invisibility/Inaudibility: Nuances of Blackness in a
Francophone Context 88
gina thésée
Part Two: Blackness and Academic Pathways
Commentary on Part Two: Blackness in the Canadian Academy:
Challenges, Contestations, and Contradictions 111
wisdom j. tettey
6 Hidden Figures: Black Scholars in the Early Canadian Academy 123
malinda s. smith
7 Committed to Employment Equity? Impediments to Obtaining
University Appointments 153
carl e. james
8 Black Gay Scholar and the Provocation of Promotion 168
wesley crichlow
9 “Certain Uncertainty”: Phenomenology of an African Canadian
Professor 181
tamari kitossa
10 Socio-Cultural Obligations and the Academic Career: The Dual
Expectations Facing Black Canadian Academics 204
kay-ann williams and gervan fearon
Part Three: Blackness: A Complicated Canadian Conversation
Commentary on Part Three: “Killing Us Softly” – with Questions 225
annette henry
11 Fitting [Out-Fitting] In 231
henry daniel
12 The Caged Bird Still Sings in Harmony: The Academy, Spoken
Word Poetry, and the Making of Community 244
emmanuel tabi
13 States of Being: The Poet & Scholar as a Black, African, & Diasporic
Woman 255
juliane okot bitek
Contents vii
14 Intersectionality in Blackface: When Post-racial Nationalism Meets
Black Feminism 272
délice mugabo
15 Re-spatializing the Boundaries of Belonging: The Subversive
Blackness of Muslim Women 291
jan-therese mendes
Part Four: Black Pasts, Black Futurity
Commentary on Part Four: Surviving Anti-Blackness: Vulnerability,
Speaking Back, and Building Black Futurity 311
shirley anne tate
16 (Re)situating Black Studies at York University: Unsilencing the Past,
Locating the Present, Routing Futures 319
the york university black graduate students’ collective
17 Community Service Learning and Anti-Blackness: The Cost of
Playing with Fire on the Black Female Body 345
delores v. mullings
18 Blackness and the Limits of Institutional Goodwill 372
omisoore h. dryden
19 Leadership in Neoliberal Times: A Road to Nowhere 386
jennifer r. kelly
20 Vocation of the Black Scholar in the Neoliberal Academy:
A Love Story 401
adelle blackett
21 The Changing Same: Black Lives Matter, the Work of History,
and the Historian’s Craft 417
barrington walker
22 Charting Black Presence and Futures in the Canadian
Academy 431
malinda s. smith
Contributors 461
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Figures and Tables
Figures
16.1 Sycorax Scene II, by Charmaine Lurch, 2020 324
16.2 Affair 1969, by Charmaine Lurch, 2015 326
16.3 Mystic Warrior, by Mosa McNeilly, 1989 328
16.4 Digital still of Charmaine Lurch from Refusing the Imaginary of
Fungibility: The Black Female Body in Flux, by Charmaine Lurch and
Mosa McNeilly, 2014 330
16.5 Digital still of Mosa McNeilly from Refusing the Imaginary of
Fungibility: The Black Female Body in Flux, by Charmaine Lurch and
Mosa McNeilly, 2014 331
16.6 Digital still of Mosa McNeilly and Charmaine Lurch from
Refusing the Imaginary of Fungibility: The Black Female Body in Flux,
by Charmaine Lurch and Mosa McNeilly, 2014 332
18.1 Toronto Star, 13 March 1992 376
18.2 Toronto Star, 12 March 1992 377
22.1 Educational Attainment of Black Scholars by Gender, 2016 443
22.2 Representation of Black Students in Canadian Universities 444
22.3 The Black Academic Pipeline in Canadian Universities,
2019 451
Tables
5.1 Conjugation of Wounded Identities and Wounded Citizenships
within My Own Blackness 102
22.1 The Growth of Black Students Associations and Networks at
Canadian Universities 438