The Growth of Canada’s Black Studies Courses

Academic study opportunities devoted to Canada’s Black experience and history is now experiencing a relative period of growth.

For many years, the study of the Canadian Black experience at higher level institutions (HEIs) has languished in relation to the comparatively expansive field of African American studies conducted in the United States.

The history of the Black experience of course differs between these two nations. However, the roots these communities often share; of vibrant African community origins, the legal practice of slavery for over 200 years, and great civic struggles, waves of migration, and artistic richness over the past century, underline their common significance.

As we conclude our coverage related to Black History Month 2021, we aim to shine some light on the educational options being afforded about the Black Canadian experience.

1. A trailblazing course

   Canadian universities have begun to offer dedicated courses focusing on the Canadian Black experience and studies in the last decade. Prior to this, focus on the topic was largely limited to individual history, social studies, and African studies courses that touched upon this history. Dalhousie University, one of Canada’s top public research universities and located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, began to offer a Black African Diaspora (Minor) course in 2016. This full minor option, essentially the first of its kind in the country, offers students an opportunity to discover “often ignored” African-Canadian society, thought, and culture as part of a broader Bachelor degree. Delivered with a critical focus, the minor encompasses African Nova Scotian history, the legacy of colonialism and the body, and the idea of race as presented in philosophy and art.  A highly popular course, course coordinators have indicated a healthy waiting list for spots to attend.

2. An emerging centre for black canadian studies

   Another Canadian university that has taken up the mantle of dedicated Canadian Black history studies is York University. Located in Toronto, York is one of Canada’s largest universities in terms of enrolled students. In 2018, the institution, situated in a city which is home to the country’s biggest community of Black Canadians, began to offer a certificate in Black Canadian Studies, as part of a raft of initiatives to better represent and service Black students attending the college. Falling under the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, the certificate aims to learn from and explore the multiple cultures, experiences, and histories of Black Canada, with additional focus on race and social policy, as well as community resistance, literature and music. The adoption of the certificate program has opened up a stream of public access to this subject in Canada’s most populous province and marks a considerable landmark for activists who have been pushing for better academic representation of the subject in Canada’s top universities.

3. Studies supporting a route to the academic sphere

   While these breakthroughs in Canada’s universities are noteworthy, the landmark year for Black communities in 2020 has prompted other initiatives. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and founded in the wake of George Floyd’s death, the African Nova Scotian Freedom School is an example of a new, vibrant, and independent educational organization that seeks to inform and educate Black Canadian youth as to their collective leadership, culture, and history. Founded by seasoned Canadian academics, the school celebrated its first graduation class of students last August, aiming to focus on education beyond the ordinary, including a strong focus on activism. With Black professors involved in instruction, it speaks to groundswell in the broader community to put further focus on these educational topics. By concentrating on teenage students, the initiative could spark awareness and engagement in youth who may then choose to further their understanding at a Higher Education institution in Canada – nourishing an educational transition that would have been impossible even a decade ago.

4. Further potential growth

   While the availability of Canadian Black Studies courses remains nascent and limited, there are signs of green shoots in other locations. These include ongoing representations at other universities, including an ongoing, collective effort at establishing a dedicated option at Concordia University in Montreal. One major goal for those pushing for Black studies in Canada is to expand possibilities in the western half of the country, with no course of this kind yet being offered at universities west of Ontario. One of the most engaged activists on this issue is Andrea A. Davis, an Associate Professor and Special Advisor on Anti-Black Racism Strategy at York University. In a recent virtual talk entitled ‘The Potential for Black Studies in Canada’, she touched upon the struggle that is involved in encouraging this kind of academic growth. “The question is asked, why are these programs needed?” she noted. “They are meant to shift the discourse of knowledge and power beyond the academic – to make evident the deep ruptures in the social fabric, and to make possible what (Canadian poet) Dionne Brand called “A grammar in which Black existence might be the thought, not the unthought.”