CELEBRATING 'BLACK LIKE WHO?...' AND MORE EVENTS, INCLUDING CONGRATULATIONS

Rinaldo Walcott in conversation with former Ontario premier, Bob Rae, at the African Canadian Achievement Awards of Excellence at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto.

Rinaldo Walcott and his partner, Abdi Osman, at the African Canadian Achievement Awards of Excellence.

Black Like…

Conversations on the Writings of Rinaldo Walcott

May 18 at 9:30 a.m. to May 19 at 7:00 p.m.

Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., Toronto (University of Toronto)

In 1997, Insomniac Press published “Black Like Who?: Writing Black Canada” by Rinaldo Walcott.

These conversations will celebrate 20 years of the book and Walcott’s “oeuvre of writings on black studies, queer theory, diaspora studies.”

On February 25, 2017, he received an African Canadian Achievement Award of Excellence in education.

Rinaldo Walcott is an interdisciplinary black studies scholar whose work is widely published in journals, books, newspapers and magazines.

Radio, television and print media across Canada seek him out to get his critical analysis of matters pertaining to black cultural life.

Dr. Walcott is an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto and the director of Women and Gender Studies Institute. He is a member of the Department of Social Justice Education at OISE, as well as the Graduate Program in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto.

His teaching and research is in the area of black diaspora cultural studies and postcolonial studies with an emphasis on questions of sexuality, gender, nation, citizenship and multiculturalism.

From 2002-2007, Professor Walcott held the Canada Research Chair of Social Justice and Cultural Studies where his research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust.

He was the senior research fellow at the Warfield Center for African American Studies and the Department of African Diaspora and African Studies at the University of Texas at Austin from January to June in 2010.

Before going to OISE, Dr. Walcott was associate professor in the Division of Humanities at York University.

While there, he was the Graduate Program director of Interdisciplinary Studies, a member of the executive of York University Faculty Association, as well as the director of affirmative action for tenure stream appointments.

The public intellectual is the author of Black Like Who?: Writing Black Canada,

published by Insomniac Press in 1997 with a second revised edition in 2003. He is also the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism also published by Insomniac in 2000.

These two editions are credited with opening up the question of Black Canadian Studies beyond the field of history.

Professor Walcott is also the co-editor with Roy Moodley of Counselling Across and Beyond Cultures: Exploring the Work of Clemment Vontress in Clinical Practice (University of Toronto Press, 2010).

Additionally, he is co-editor with Dina Georgis and Katherine McKittrick of No Language Is Neutral: Essays on Dionne Brand in Topia: The Journal of Canadian Cultural Studies.

On May 3, he launched his new book, Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies, at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.

Currently, he is completing another book, The Long Emancipation: Moving Towards (Black) Freedom, An Essay.

Walcott, who is from Barbados, received his PhD from OISE of the University of Toronto in 1996.

La’ Riatsila Dance Theater presents “INFUSED” on Sunday, May 21, 5:30 p.m. at Dancemakers Studio Theater, 313, 9 Trinity St., Toronto.

Tickets: $30

Facebook: La’ Riatsila La’ Riatsila

Email: la.riatsila@gmail.com

Telephone: 647-466-6812

Diaspora African Muslim Association (DAMA) presents the 3^rd annual Malcolm X Day Event on Sunday, May 21, 4pm at A Different Booklist, 779 Bathurst St., Toronto.

Join us in celebrating the birthday of our Shining Black Prince, Martyr for the Cause, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.

Keynote speakers: Nene Kwasi Kafele, Sheikh Abdur Rashid Taylor. Also featuring: Pruf Rock, Waleed Abdulhamid, Djanet Sears, Baro Dunanba and more!

The Canadian Society for the History of Medicine & Canadian Association for the History of Nursing present their annual conference May 27-29 at Ryerson University in Toronto. Keynote lectures: Professor Evelyn Hammonds (Harvard University), "The Physician's Negro": The Racialization of Medicine, and Professor Karen Flynn, (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) "Hotel Refuse Negro Nurse": Gloria Clarke Baylis And The Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

Karen Flynn, right, and Lillie Johnson, founder of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario.

All are invited to the launch of Burnley “Rocky” Jones REVOLUTIONARY, an autobiography by Burnley “Rocky” Jones & James St. G. Walker.

Special guest: George Elliott Clarke on Tuesday, May 30, 6:30pm at A Different Booklist, 777 Bathurst St., Toronto.

CONGRATULATIONS, ANDREA DAVIS!

Carolyn Cooper, left, and Andrea Davis at York University.

Congratulations to Andrea Davis, Chair of the Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University who is the 2017 recipient of the President’s University-Wide teaching award in the Senior Full-Time category.

The award will be presented during the Spring Convocation on Tuesday, June 20 at 10:30 a.m.

Here is the information from York University’s website about the awards:

The President's University-wide Teaching Awards recognize the accomplishments of York's great instructors. The annual awards are presented in four categories:

• Members of the senior full time faculty;
• Full-time faculty members who have been at York for less than ten years;
• Contract faculty; and
• Teaching Assistants.

The purpose of the awards is to provide significant recognition for such excellence, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching and recognizes those who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning by York students. The recipients are selected by the Senate Committee on Awards. Recipients of the awards have their names engraved on the President's University-Wide Teaching Award plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at Convocation ceremonies.