Black and Indigenous Speaker Series
Dr. Afua Cooper is a multidisciplinary scholar, author, and artist. Her 13 books range across such genres as history, poetry, fiction, and children’s literature.
Afua Cooper recently joined the University of Toronto Scarborough from Dalhousie University where she held a Killam Research Chair in Black Canadian and African Diaspora Studies. She has put Black Studies on the map in Canada by ensuring the infrastructural development of Black studies by founding and launching the Black Canadian Studies Association. She founded and co-ordinated the Black Studies program at Dalhousie University. Afua’s engagement with Black studies, anti-racism, EDI, and epistemic disruptions in the Canadian academy has made her not only a national figure but an international one as well.
In 2021, Dr. Cooper received over one-million dollar in funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to research Black Canadian history across time and space. As the PI for this project A Black People’s History of Canada, Afua led a team of researchers and curriculum developers to explore and mobilize knowledge about Black people’s history in Canada and the African Diaspora.
She is the acknowledged authority on Black Canadian history and a leading expert in Black Canadian studies. Her book on Canadian slavery, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada and the Burning of Old Montreal broke new ground in the study of Canadian and Atlantic slavery, and women’s history. Dr. Cooper has curated and co-curated ten exhibits on Black history and culture. The most recent, “A History Exposed: The Enslavement of Black People in Canada” is the first national exhibit of slavery in Canada and opened at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 on 1 August 2024.
Dr. Cooper was part of the collaborative team that recently won the SSHRC Impact Connection Award (2024) for Outstanding Research Collaboration: Trans-Atlantic Pilgrimage: African Histories, Poetry, Music.
Afua Cooper was a Fellow at the Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, where she conducted research on slavery and higher education, and was part of an international cohort of scholars engaged in similar work. In 2021, Prof. Cooper was appointed as the Canadian representative for UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee Slave Route Project.
A celebrated poet, Afua is a founder of the Dub Poetry Movement in Canada. In 2020 she was Awarded the Portia White Prize, Nova Scotia’s highest recognition for the arts, and was nominated for the Premier of Ontario’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Her latest book of poetry, The Halifax Explosion, was recently released to wide acclaim.
In addition, Dr. Cooper earned the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award for her contribution to education, the Bob Marley Prize from the City of Toronto, the Harry Jerome Award, and was acknowledged by Maclean’s magazine as one of the 50 most influential Canadians. Moreover, Afua was conferred with honorary doctorates by Simon Fraser University and the University of Ottawa. She also earned Canada’s most prestigious history award, the Royal Society of Canada J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal for outstanding contribution to Canadian history. Afua Cooper’s papers are housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, University of Toronto.
Most Recent
Wednesday, November 6th 2024 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm via MS Teams, Unpacking the Underrepresentation of Black Students in Research at MSVU with Randy Headley.
Randy Headley is an exceptional individual dedicated to building a sense of community and advancing crucial research areas. He founded the MSVU Afrocentric Support Group, creating a space at Mount Saint Vincent University that champions and aids the Afrocentric viewpoint. The BSSO office at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) acknowledges the crucial need to address and rectify the underrepresentation of Black students in research. To this end, tailored programs and initiatives, such as Black Students in Research Support Group, The Elder’s Circle and the Baobab Project, were developed to reignite interest in research among this demographic.
In Randy’s presentation, he intends to underscore the underrepresentation of Black students in research within post-secondary settings such as MSVU and explain its repercussions on the academic sphere. Drawing from personal interactions with Black students, he will propose a comprehensive strategy to bridge this gap. By amalgamating scholarly literature, institutional data, and proven methodologies, he will describe a roadmap to cultivate an inclusive research atmosphere at MSVU.
RSVP to speakerseries@msvu.ca
Nominations for future Black and Indigenous Speaker Series will continue to be accepted.
Speakers nominated for the series should:
- Identify as Black, Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) or Aboriginal.
- Be an active contributor to an academic discipline or professional field.
- Affiliated with an academic institution, research institution, or college.
Complete the Nomination Form! Any related questions can be directed to speakerseries@msvu.ca