The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to launch new resource hub celebrating Black Scholars and Scholarly activities
The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) Black Studies Guide aims to provide a space for research and storytelling about Black experience and history. It is designed to highlight the many ways in which Black studies is a culmination of the long, hard, and careful work of Black scholars who celebrate Black joy, curiosity, and critique within the academy.
It is with this in mind that the CELT has developed the Guide, a resource hub dedicated to deepening learning about Black history, culture, and politics. The guide is separated into four categories, and leads users through resources based on a range of desires and goals, including ‘Support Black Students’, ‘Take Action’, ‘Teach’, or ‘Celebrate Black Scholarship’.
“Over the past year, staff at the Centre have collaborated with the Presidential Implementation Committee to Confront Anti-Black Racism to find ways to enhance teaching and curriculum. Our hope is that this website is a first step in an ongoing process to center Black scholarship and provide new opportunities for both learning and relationship building.”
As Renée Ferguson, an Educational Developer at the Centre notes, this hub scratches only the surface in bringing together the hard work of the Black community within TMU as well as the larger Black community in Toronto.
“It is a living and growing curation that offers us a chance to think critically and deeply about Black experiences and life in Toronto.”
This initiative is also part of the broader context of Black flourishing that is directly linked to the Anti-Black Racism Climate Review (2020), which speaks volumes about the need for greater representation of Black faculty, as well as curricular diversification and enhancements that centre Black scholarship and studies. Additionally, this work advances the university’s objective to become a space for inclusive excellence as outlined in the Scarborough Charter, a national initiative that outlines guidelines for tackling anti-Black racism and fostering inclusion in higher education, and of which TMU is a signatory.
To mark the official launch of this new resource hub, the Centre will be hosting a special event on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the website, participate in a collective art project and view documentaries from the Akua Benjamin Legacy Project, who was the first Black director at TMU, and played a critical role in mentoring Black scholarship at the university.
For information about the Black Studies Guide as well as the March 2 event, please contact the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at teachingcentre@torontomu.ca.