Black Futurities: (Re)Imagining African and Black Diasporic Studies in Canada is a one-day hybrid national conference hosted by McMaster University on May 31, 2024. This conference aims to bring together scholars and community thinkers, students, activists and artists across the country to examine the development of Black and African Diasporic Studies across Canada. In so doing, we aim to collectively think through and share research priorities, pedagogical strategies, institutional challenges, and imagine the possibilities for sustainable futures and growth for the field. The conference will build on the legacy of established scholars in this field, while centering the voices, perspectives and insights of emerging scholars in the field.
We are honoured to welcome the renown activist-scholar Dr. Abdul Alkalimat as our keynote speaker for this event. His address, titled “Black Studies, Africana Studies: Lessons for Canada“, will serve as an opportunity for intergenerational and transnational knowledge transfer and exchange.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER BIO:
Dr. Abdul Alkalimat (Gerald A. McWorter) is a founder of the field of Black Studies in the United States and author of many books and papers about Black liberation. He wrote the first college textbook for the field, Introduction to Afro-American Studies, which has seen seven editions, the last one free and online. A lifelong scholar-activist with a PhD from the University of Chicago, he has lectured, taught, and directed academic programs across the US, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and China. Two of his early contributions were serving as chair of the Chicago chapter of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-founding the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) in 1967. Raised in Chicago’s Cabrini Rowhouses, he is now professor emeritus of African American Studies and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
His most recent books are:
Much of his work is freely available at: http://www.alkalimat.org.
