The Black Student Experience in Academia
Abstract: At the UABSA, we understand that our efforts have little impact if they do not directly answer the needs of our members. That’s why this year, we sought to survey all our members and identify their specific needs and struggles. The UABSA Inquiry gave us tangible data and put in numbers what were once… Continue reading University of Alberta’s Black Students Association (UABSA)
Black Students in EducationFaculty of EducationUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Addressing Anti-Black Racism at an Institutional Level: 10 Calls to Action Raised by Black Students in the Faculty of Education In 2020, the world went through a series of events that sparked a social awakening across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic was unquestionably one of these… Continue reading Black Students in Education
Mary OlukotunMaster’s StudentUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Community as Self-Care: Sisterhood is Self-Preservation for Black Women in Graduate Study Late poet and womanist Audre Lorde is often remembered for her declaration of self-care as an act of self-preservation and political warfare. The self-care which Lorde enthused was intended to affirm her existence as a queer Black… Continue reading Mary Olukotun
Yusuf YousufMedical StudentUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Addressing Racial Disparities in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry The challenges of being Black in Canada permeate to many facets of life, including medicine. Like many other fields there are significant racial disparities within medicine. Black individuals make up approximately 6% of the Edmonton population but only represent… Continue reading Yusuf Yousuf
Joao Victor KriegerDoctoral StudentUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Eurocentrism, Academia and the Coloniality of Knowledge: an alternative For centuries, colonialism structured the symbolic and material relations in the Americas. Despite its diversity of methods and practices throughout the continent, the colonial power established a hierarchic division of power, consolidating it in the white patriarchal elites’ hands.… Continue reading Joao Victor Krieger
Evelyn AsieduPostdocUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Continuing the conversation – “The Good and Bad of Black Grad” This past summer, the reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement, expanded far beyond protests in the streets of American cities. The ripple effect initiated the #blackintheivory discussion describing how racism is present in a variety of institutions –… Continue reading Evelyn Asiedu
Alexandra DavisPostdocUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Twelve Principles Trainees, PIs, Departments, and Faculties Can Use to Reduce Bias and Discrimination in STEM There is an overwhelming amount of evidence demonstrating that people from marginalized groups, including women, racialized and Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ individuals, continue to face substantial discrimination in STEM, manifested… Continue reading Alexandra Davis
Olajide SalawuDoctoral StudentUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Racism with Small Kindness in post-Floyd America In this presentation, I reflect on my personal experience to answer the question of racism as a black academic in post-George Floyd America. As an academic outside the categories of black American and African American, the racial experience in America is another… Continue reading Olajide Salawu
Feisal KirumiraLecturer/ Doctoral StudentUniversity of Alberta Abstract: Decolonizing Black Spaces in Academia Through Anticolonial Literacies of Resilience-Resistance-Liberation To colonize Black Africa, self-imposed White saviors misrepresented Black Bodies as uncivilized but intriguing; vicious but tamable; subhuman but functional; docile but untrustworthy; or childlike but cunning. This miseducation legitimized the need to subjugate Black Bodies and spaces… Continue reading Feisal Kirumira