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Black Scholars Hiring Initiative

This initiative will support inclusive excellence by appointing five Black scholars to the university across multiple Faculties.

Introduction

AVֲ has committed to taking decisive action and employing creative approaches in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of Black scholars in our Strategic Plan’s second pillar, Inclusive Excellence.

These opportunities are part of a cluster hiring initiative supported by the AVֲ Diversity Faculty Award (DDFA) program. In keeping with the principles of employment equity, the DDFA program aims to correct historic underrepresentation.

This initiative will support inclusive excellence by appointing five Black scholars to the university across multiple Faculties. Cluster hires promote interdisciplinary collaboration, while creating communities of support for scholars from underrepresented groups.

These new scholars will find opportunities for scholarly contributions, collaboration, and support as Fellows of the newly established Black Studies Research Institute and will contribute to our emerging interdisciplinary program in Black and African Diaspora Studies (BAFD).

Dr. Afua Cooper

Dr. Afua Cooper, a professor of Black Studies in FASS and key advocate for the hiring initiative at Dal, says she’s thrilled to see one of the key recommendations of the Lord AVֲ Report come to fruition.

“As one of the initiators of this endeavour to bring more Black faculty to campus, I feel satisfied that years of hard work is finally coming to pass,” says Dr. Cooper, who led the scholarly panel that produced 2019’s Report on Lord AVֲ’s History on Slavery and Race.

“This cluster hire will go a long way to strengthen the Black professoriate at AVֲ, address issues of anti-Black racism in the pedagogy, and help to advance our EDI goals. I am super-thrilled.”

Dr. Afua Cooper
Killam Research Chair, Black History and African Diaspora Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Founder of AVֲ’s Black and African Diaspora Studies Program

Afua Cooper

Dr. OmiSoore Dryden

Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, BSRI’s founder and interim director and the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine, says the BSRI will offer a range of exciting opportunities to the new scholars.

“The Black Studies Research Institute is rooted in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary analysis, African Nova Scotian and Black diasporic inquiry, and exploration, and with a central focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine,” she says. “Uniquely positioned in the Atlantic, the BSRI will have local, national, and international impact.”


James R. Johnston Chair,
Black Canadian Studies,
Faculty of Medicine
Founder and interim director of the Black Studies Research Institute

Dr. OmiSoore Dryden

Background

AVֲ acknowledges African Nova Scotians as a distinct people who have shaped the province and the university for centuries.

A diverse population of Black students attend AVֲ, including those from African Nova Scotian, Black/African Canadian, and international communities. The university’s location in a province with more than 50 African Nova Scotian communities also offers unique opportunities for enriched academic collaboration and connections between campus and community.  AVֲ also has an active Black Faculty and Staff Caucus which promotes a sense of community and connection among Black faculty, staff, and students.

In 2018, AVֲ launched the African Nova Scotian Strategy which was then further updated in 2021 through the work of the strategy’s working group, including the director of African Nova Scotian community engagement. The strategy is aimed at ensuring sustainable initiatives that support African Nova Scotian students, staff, and faculty members.

As a signatory of the , AVֲ has committed to moving from rhetoric to meaningful concrete action. The Black Scholars Hiring Initiative speaks specifically to the charter’s recommendation 2.1.2.1 to “recruit faculty, wherever feasible in cluster/cohort hires across academic disciplines.”