A collection of articles in the Canadian Review of Sociology (CRS) on “Sociology and Black Liberation” includes contributions from three York University faculty members.
The collection, which features seven articles, includes a contribution from co-editor Elaine Coburn (director, Centre for Feminist Research at York University), together with co-editor Wesley Crichlow (Ontario Tech), under the “Committing Sociology” section of the CRS, Canada’s top-ranked sociology journal.
Gertrude Mianda (director, Tubman Institute, York University) writes about sociology from the margins from the perspective of an African francophone woman, and Carl James (senior advisor on equity and representation, York University) describes how Black scholars investigating anti-Black racisms have their scholarly expertise challenged for supposed “bias,” diverting attention away from the reproduction of anti-Black racisms being investigated.
“This contribution is about the urgent need to listen to diverse Black voices about the importance of change in the social sciences, moving Black scholarship from the margins to the centre of our work,” said Coburn.
The journal also includes contributions from:
- Rinaldo Walcott (University of Toronto), who argues that in university, too often, Black people as data and Black people in the institution are both threats that must be managed, and calls for the end of sociology, for Black people to thrive.
- Erica Lawson (University of Western), who questions the usefulness of “equity, diversity and inclusion” initiatives for challenging the specificities of anti-Black racisms.
- Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika (University of Alberta), who describes how Black academics are made to feel they are strangers in their own academic workplaces, which elevates a few token Black scholars for broad recognition.
- Amal Madibbo (University of Calgary), who observes: “There is no contradiction, essential or otherwise, between francophone Black existence and humanism, or between Canadian, Black and francophone identities. Sociology as a discipline, the university as a whole, and the society of which we are a part, holds promise if it is willing to be transformed by this insight.”
To read the journal visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cars.12294.
Watch for an upcoming podcast on CRStal Radio, the podcast for the Canadian Review of Sociology: https://www.csa-scs.ca/canadian-review/2020/07/08/crstal-radio-podcast-feature/.