First-year students at Carleton University are taking a brand new seminar course on Blackness and anti-racism this school year.
A full-year course introduced in September, Blackness and Anti-Racism is the school’s first stand-alone course on anti-Black racism. The course seeks to educate students on global racial injustices, according to the course description.
Paul Mkandawire, co-director of the human rights and social justice program offering the course, said the death of George Floyd, and Black Lives Matter protests over the summer were a “moment of reckoning.”
“[Floyd’s death] ushered in a new level of urgency. It provided us with an opportunity to reflect on how we can deepen our content, having a platform to reach out to a large number of students,” Mkandawire said.
While certain aspects of the course currently exist in other human rights courses, Mkandawire said having a course solely dedicated to further unpacking racism was necessary.
“As a program tasked with the mandate of trying to educate our students about forms of discrimination to educate them about legal and political truths, we need to develop courses that analyze and challenge racism,” he said.
Kisha McPherson, an instructor at Carleton who teaches the course, said it was designed to be a full-year credit due to the vast amount of content the course aims to cover.
“We’re looking at a number of systems, and it is broken up to look at a variety of institutional structures responsible for governing society,” McPherson said. She added that the course focuses on systems such as education, justice, and health care.
McPherson said the program has been both a teaching and learning experience. On some days, select lectures are turned over to students, allowing them to access lectures based on their understanding and interpretation of the material.
“It’s such a rich way to provide the information … and it has been very positive for me as well,” she said.
Sophie Long, a first-year human rights and social justice student currently taking the course, describes McPherson as someone passionate and excited, who is able to elicit the same emotions from her students.
Long said the course is delivered in a variety of mediums, which helps keep students engaged. This includes a mix of academic readings, memoirs, podcasts and documentaries.
“You can’t understand the current context [of racism] without knowing where it all comes from, but the course is very current. There’s a focus on current events, and we always have chances to reflect on these current events in the lecture,” Long said.
A chance to reflect is precisely the type of outcome the course is built for, and Mkandawire said the course’s purpose is education and advocacy.
Julia McManaman, a first-year human rights and social justice student, said she felt compelled to enrol in the course for exactly that reason.
“I wanted to educate myself so that I can do my best to use my platform and position to be an ally to people who are experiencing injustices because they’re Black. I have opportunities with my peers to be a (sounding board) for some people,” she said.
McManaman said the knowledge learned in class is “a tool to support Black lives,” allowing her to be an informed advocate.
Looking to the future, Mkandawire said he hopes Carleton can offer the course year after year and that once face-to-face classes resume, the school can lift the cap on seminar enrolment.
Although this is the department’s first stand-alone course on anti-Black racism, Mkandawire said a minor in critical race studies will soon be introduced in Carleton’s women’s and gender studies program. Mkandawire added the human rights and social justice department hopes a wide range of courses about race will soon be available.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
