Dr. Sam Tecle

Sam Tecle’s research and scholarly work spans across the areas of Black and Diaspora Studies, Urban Studies, and Sociology of Education. His work focuses on the analysis of diverse experiences, trajectories and expressions of Blackness, grounded in particular histories of  racialization, colonialism, community formation and resistance. His forthcoming work Black Grammars: On Difference and Belonging explores the experiences and perspectives relating to blackness and Black identification of East African Diasporas across the UK, Canada and the US. More broadly, Sam is interested in questions of Black Sociality, Black cultural production and its expressions across the diaspora.

His research and teaching draws on his deep experience in community-engaged work, focussed largely on Blackness and educational settings in Toronto. This community-engaged work has been conducted in partnership with organizations to create new supports and opportunities for Black students at the secondary level and in the transition to post-secondary education, in the face of a variety of systemic barriers they encounter. He has particularly prioritized work with Success Beyond Limits, a program serving students in the Jane and Finch community.

“I am excited to join Toronto Metropolitan University’s Sociology department. I am particularly enthusiastic because of the ways the Department prioritizes questions of justice, power which aligns my work in exploring how resistance gets expressed and animated by Black communities. My work is grounded in the belief that a new world is not only possible but indeed necessary so that we might all live better together. I believe the Sociology Department at TMU is a space from which I can explore these questions with like-minded faculty and student body. I look forward to doing the work here.

I chose to accept the position with the Sociology Department because of the department’s focus on resistance and social change which align with my research interests. I am enthusiastic to work alongside faculty members who share a deep interest in not only understanding the world, but also have a shared interest in changing it. Most importantly, I look very forward to working with students who come from very diverse backgrounds and from whom I am also interested in learning from.”