This conference will detail the multifaceted nature of the Black students’ experience in academia by providing a platform for students at all post-secondary levels of study to present academic, community-based, or other work related to the outlined theme . The presentations will depict universities as institutions that exist at the intersection of educational and social practice – a place that can both constrain and enable social transformation. More importantly, the conference will acknowledge students’ role as change agents actively involved in achieving this transformation, in collaboration with university leaders, researchers and educational practitioners.
The goals of this conference include but are not limited to:
- Highlighting the dynamic challenges and opportunities that the current climate creates for the advancement of Black scholars and knowledge production in Canadian post-secondary institutions.
- Initiating dialogue around anti-Black racism and racial consciousness in academic spaces.
- Acknowledging the work of the various student/community-based groups advocating for the advancement of Black student interests in higher education.
- Providing a discursive space to re-imagine how academia can spearhead efforts towards achieving broader goals of social transformation.