The MSVU Black and Indigenous Speaker Series highlights the scholarly work of Black and Indigenous scholars from across Turtle Island. The purpose of this series is to initiate important conversation by inviting Black and Indigenous scholars to share their knowledge, worldviews, and their contributions to their respective academic field.
Black and Indigenous Speaker Series
In celebration of Black Heritage Month, the MSVU Black and Indigenous Speaker Series, the Alexa McDonough Institute for Women, Gender, and Social Justice (AMI), in partnership with the Nancy’s Chair, MSVU Library, and the MSVU Office of People and Culture are pleased to present Dr. Afua Cooper’s talk “Black Women and Cultural Production: The Case of Concert Singer Portia White” with Delvina Bernard, MSVU Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility Advisor, as moderator.
Event Details:
Doors open: 4:30 pm
Dr. Cooper’s Talk: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Reception: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Event Location:
McCain Atrium
Mount Saint Vincent University166 Bedford Hwy, Halifax NS B3M 2J6
This event is offered in-person or virtually.
While at the Mount, please visit the MSVU Art Gallery presenting the exhibit From Africville: The Paintings of Edith MacDonald-Brown (1886-1954). For more information, please visit msvuart.ca
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.
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