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Learn more about our Symposium, its goals, past, present and future

Precedents & Overview

In 2015, the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign that began in Cape Town initiated calls for decolonization of Universities’ curricula. While there have been post-colonial and ethnic studies at many universities, most universities in Canada, including the University of Alberta, offer an overwhelmingly Euro-centric curriculum. There is, in fact, very little teaching and research on Black History, Black Studies, and Black Lived Experience in Canadian institutions.  


On 25 March 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis who knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 Minutes and 46 seconds until the last breath left his body. This racist incident of anti-Black violence touched off nationwide and global protests, including igniting the already existing Black Lives Matter movement in Canada. It also impacted Black faculty members at the University of Alberta who began to organize against the growing white supremacist ideologies and realized that they had to speak out against not only individual acts of racism but also, more importantly, structural and institutional racism. Immediately following the George Floyd Moment, the Black Faculty Collective (BFC) was formed at the University of Alberta. This informal coalition advocated not only for the targeted hiring of more Black faculty, but also for the decolonizing of the institution’s curriculum.


By the summer of 2020, the podcast Blacktalk was conceived by Dr. Andy Knight, Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, and its first season was launched on 25 March 2021, the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. The podcast, funded largely by the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) focuses on Black history, the personal experiences of Black global experts and Black Canadians contextualized within the historical experience of being Black. Ethnic, modern, inclusive and informative, Blacktalk leaves listeners with new perspectives about anti-Black racism and Black achievement. The podcast is conversational, non-judgmental and provides a unique take on the Black lived experience that helps people of all backgrounds and ethnicities open their eyes to individual and systemic racism. In effect, Blacktalk, now in its 3rd season, fills a void in Black studies at UAlberta and has amassed a large and popular following on social media. The growing need for more Black studies content within our UAlberta curriculum has resulted in the planning of a new Black Studies Certificate.

 

On 1 July 2023, Dr. Andy Knight, in collaboration with an academic and professional team, began to develop the “Black Canadians: History, Presence, and Anti-Racist Futures” Online and On-demand Micro-course. Mainly supported by the University of Alberta’s Office of the Provost & Vice-President (Academic) through the Vice-Provost (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) portfolio, this Micro-course is focused on 1) filling gaps of knowledge about black history and the black lived experience, 2) assisting the process of decolonizing the University’s curriculum by adding content of black (Pan-African) scholarship and 3) exposing the University and the wider community to the perpetuation and perils of white supremacist ideology and to the ways in which Black people have been overcoming major obstacles placed in their way of progress.


Rationale

All the efforts and initiatives mentioned so far take us to a point where a hybrid event (in-person and online) is necessary. By doing so, we will promote a coalition space where diverse Black thinkers, professionals, academics, and enthusiasts can share their views, thoughts, and concepts concerning anti-Black racism. The main goal of such a space is to facilitate the mobilization and promotion of an inclusive Black community into our University system, a first step towards decolonization of the institutional curriculum.

2024 is the tenth and last year of the commemoration of the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent. Our goal is to release our Countering Anti-Black Racism” Online and On-demand Micro-course during this Pan African Symposium: Decolonizing the University Curriculum at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), on February 28th and 29th, 2024 during the celebration of the now established Black History Month.

Bearing in mind the caliber of the speakers we have invited, this will be a multidisciplinary Pan-Africanist event that will attract not only students, professors, and researchers but also engaged audiences, private and public institutions, and the press.


Goals

The main objectives of this Symposium is to: