New TMU program gives students a chance to engage with topics on a global scale
TMU's pilot for the new program, Global Justice and Change (GJC), launched in 2023. Some students were able to travel to Panema and Trinidad and Tobago; others were able to examine cultural outlets like Toronto Caribbean Carnival, closer to home.
International learning experiences at TMU aren’t new, but in the spring of 2023, the university piloted a new program called Global Justice and Change (GJC), with three course offerings that encouraged students to explore a variety of topics on a local and global scale.
The program accepted 45 undergraduate TMU students and divided them across three individual courses,15 students each. The course topics were wide-ranging, from film to migration to gender and agriculture, and each looked at its topic through an equity and social justice lens. The pilot was so successful that the program will return for the 2023-2024 academic year, and enrollment will open this September.
The pilot program saw some students travelling to Panama and Trinidad and Tobago for the courses SPS 512: Films for Change: Film Festivals and Activism in Hispanic Culture and INT 912: Repositioning Women in Caribbean Agriculture: Food Sustainability and Food Sovereignty in Trinidad and Tobago. Others, like those in English Professor Hyacinth Simpson’s reimagined ENG 620: Literatures of the Caribbean, got a chance to interact and collaborate with international partners virtually; and they looked at course topics locally too.
“I wanted my students to have a culturally immersive experience, which would allow them to better understand the histories and lives reflected in the literary texts and engage with the social justice issues of greatest relevance to Caribbean communities,” says Simpson.
“I was happy to have the opportunity to create a version of an existing upper-level liberal studies and Black Studies minor course that would take my students to various locations and institutions around the world that record, preserve and facilitate critical reflection on Caribbean histories, cultures, literary and artistic productions, and would also allow them to collaborate with international partners to create instructional tools for secondary school students in the Caribbean.”
ENG620 students working on their own TCC headpieces in the classroom.
Simpson partnered with staff at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool and at the Digital Library of the Caribbean at the University of Florida, collaborated with a professor and students at the Jamaican campus of the University of the West Indies, and worked with Allure Carnival, a Toronto carnival band, to deliver the course.
“The course was a fantastic experience,” says Elnor Walsh, a first-year Social Work student. “I was transported into the world of my ancestors and saw artifacts at the Slave Museum that I would never have seen if I hadn’t enrolled in this course. I learned how creolization came to be and how it has transformed Caribbean societies. I was able to connect history to my own social location.”
Carnival as cultural outlet
“Carnival celebrations born out of resistance to, and which mark the emancipation from, chattel slavery have long been part of the cultural experience of Caribbean peoples,” says Simpson. “In Toronto, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (TCC) is one of the biggest events on the city’s cultural calendar. But beyond the fun and sparkly costumes are some real problems around the exploitation of the culture of a community that isn’t usually represented positively in the media at other times of the year.”
For this reason, looking critically at Toronto’s Carnival was a way for her class to engage with this legacy within the course’s ‘travelling cultures’ module. And, in the context of the worldwide 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Simpson says she and her students wanted to explore TCC’s unique opportunities to address these issues and infuse the celebrations with a spirit of protest more closely aligned with carnival’s history in the Caribbean.
TCC took place this year from August 3 - August 7, and Simpson's class used the festivities to examine new possibilities for representation in Toronto.
“In Trinidad and Tobago, carnival mas and arts often engage in social critique and protests,” she says. “As someone who is part of the Caribbean diaspora in Toronto, one of the things I would like to see happen with the TCC post-BLM protests is more overt critical engagement with the forms that anti-Black racism takes in Canada.”
To explore Carnival as an opportunity for both festivity and protest, Simpson’s class spent time with Joanne Webster, band leader and co-owner of Allure Carnival. Webster and her partner led the class through the creation of their own, more simplified head pieces that masqueraders would typically wear for the Grand Parade.
“Having Joanne was also an opportunity for my students to talk directly with an active band leader about band culture – organizational structure; what goes into preparing for and playing mas; funding; costume design, creation and marketing; relationships with sponsors; training programs; and community engagement,” says Simpson.
“We looked at Carnival’s different styles of performance and costuming—namely, ole (traditional) mas and pretty mas,” says Christian Denino, a third-year Biomedical Sciences student. “Ole mas embodies the traditional essence of Carnival, with emphasis on social and political commentary, and often uses its thought-provoking costumes as tools for satirical performances that artfully parody historical/political figures or eras. Pretty mas is less concerned with sociopolitical critiques and is more focused on spectacle.”
An example of masqueraders playing ‘ole mas’ at the TCC, photo provided by Rhoma Spencer, Theatre Archipelago to Hyacinth Simpson.
Each student was able to create a headpiece in their own vision, an experience that Mandy Thomas, first-year Disability Studies student, said was really enjoyable. “In the discussion we had while we were making our headpieces, we were able to dig deeper and come up with our own ideas on how the TCC could become a more equitable event. Carnival is not all about wearing a pretty costume – it has much deeper cultural roots. I think by the end of the class, many of my classmates decided to attend their first-ever Grand Parade this year.”
This headpiece was created by ENG620 student Angie Nga Wun Lam, a second-year Criminology student. Students were tasked with creating their own pieces for the festivities.
On-going anti-Black racism in Canada today
Emancipation Day (August 1) was made official in Canada in March of 2021 in the wake of the protests, and Simpson says that since this date falls within TCC festivities, she and her class discussed the opportunity it offers Canadians to learn about and acknowledge Canada’s history of enslaving Black and Indigenous Peoples and better understand how anti-Black racism continues to impact Caribbean Canadians and other Black Canadian communities today.
“There's an opportunity going forward for the TCC to help reignite public discussion about the policing of Black communities in Toronto, and also about challenging attitudes and practices that stand in the way of proper support for Black-led and Black-focused enterprises,” says Simpson. “This was something we were able to discuss in the classroom. Most of us won’t forget any time soon the image of that officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. It was a horrific reminder that Black bodies in public space are too often seen as disruptive, threatening, criminal or of no value. The TCC’s history with Toronto police has not always been comfortable. This year, the Toronto Police chief was notably absent from the launch event, with only Black auxiliary officers seen near the stage. But there is still a lot of work to do to change policing practices, and their underlying assumptions, when it comes to Black communities.”
Simpson’s class looked at a variety of other topics related to Carnival, including its funding structures and how it does or does not give back to Caribbean communities and Black-owned businesses. “Arguably, the TCC is Toronto’s biggest and most visible Black-owned business,” says Simpson.
Some ideas the class came up with included creating structures that allow large sponsors to invest in local Black/Caribbean businesses and communities and offering more internship and mentorship opportunities during the festivities for students. “One of the points that we discussed in class is that we have so much talent within our Caribbean communities that could be harnessed during Carnival to showcase and give exposure to businesses and individuals, help them network and build their brand, and encourage them to get more involved in their communities through mentorship and training programs,” says Thomas.
“There are also young, talented people who are looking for outlets to use their talents within our communities. We could create mentorship programs where they can teach and be taught skills in their areas of interest so that they can be the future of the TCC for years to come.”
Joanne Webster's carnival workshop with Simpson’s students was supported by a Faculty of Arts Guest Speaker Grant.
Applications for the 2024 cohort of the GJC program will open in September 2023. Interested students can read more about the program on the GJC website.
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