Your Custom Text Here
Source: Unsplash
Between the years 1997 and 2000, the web was, for many, the site of the future of global commerce. New dotcom companies entered the market at an exponential rate and confidence in the ‘New Economy’ was at an unprecedented high. Although the epicenter of web activity was the US, like the growth of the web itself, the web industry boom was global.
Read moreWhen searching library or archival databases, folks usually complain that “they can’t find anything on their topic.” The process can feel confusing, it can sometimes “take too long” and/or not yield accurate results. A lot of people today also think — why even do this work yourself when there are artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini that can “help” you find what you’re looking for? And this is true.
Read moreThere are so many different ways to approach a research problem. Some approach it theoretically, while others take a practical approach. Others use a disciplinary lens or an interdisciplinary lens. I cannot cover all the different approaches here, but what I can do is explain how to approach problem solving with an intersectional lens. This involves understanding two concepts — critical inquiry and critical praxis. While interrelated, each concept is unique.
Read moreQuestions are fundamental to research. Writing is fundamental to research. In my opinion, there is a very not-so-good trend in graduate programs where students are being encouraged to submit their dissertations to professional editors to “help” with finalizing their work. There are even websites now that tell students “you can hire professional academic proofreaders and copyeditors.” I have tried to discourage this practice with my graduate students (some listen to the advice, others do not) for one major reason.
Read moreThis topic can elicit two reactions out of people. Either it strikes fear or it confuses. After taking a graduate class on this topic, some even feel like they don’t like research at all. I completely understand where all these perspectives are coming from. But here’s the reality, understanding your research philosophy and the two concepts that underpin it — epistemology and ontology — are like learning the fundamentals of driving.
Read moreDefining a research problem has to be one of the most difficult parts of the research process. How do you determine if your topic is “researchable?” What makes a project a research project? What does it mean to define a research problem? It doesn’t matter your level of training — from students to faculty, organizations to governments — defining a problem is difficult, but like scaling a mountain, it is not impossible.
Read moreI’m not going to lie, I love theory. But I’ve always understood theory, and the reasons why it matters to any research project. Without a theoretical point of view, “research” is not really research in terms of problem solving, critical inquiry, or scholarly study. Without theory, your “research” should be called an investigation. So, for example, if you wake up one morning and your pinky toe is swollen, you might declare “I need to research this symptom.” What you are really saying is, you are going to Google “swollen toe” and then read a bunch of stuff to confirm or rule out possible issues.
Read moreThe first permanent English settlement in the North Americas was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Several scholars have noted that when the first slave ships arrived in Jamestown in 1619, black people served no differently than white bondservants and, consequently, the markers of slavery were not immediately linked to a bodily difference. Further, the word slave initially held no meaning in the English legal system; black subjects were regarded merely as servants.
Read moreDuring the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries enslaved men, women, and children were culled from West African ethnocultural communities of the Wolof, Mandingo, Mende and Yoruba. In his examination of Africa before the transatlantic slave trade John Thornton points out that there existed a bustling economic exchange between Africa and Europe.
Read moreBetween 1900 and 1930 blacks in North America were venturing into new territories in terms of migration, education, employment, and the arts. The United States witnessed a massive internal migration of African Americans out of the South and into northern cities; in particular, New York and Chicago grew exponentially.
Read moreErnest Withers’s photograph of the sanitation strike in Memphis in 1968 is similarly well known today. It is often interpreted as an imagined future. It records Black workers’ mass walkout in February 1968 and their infamous placards that read “I AM A MAN” in protest against discriminatory treatment and life-threatening working conditions. With their disparate clothing and physiques, the men were united by their race and their declaration of shared identity – as men.
Read moreThe fields of digital humanities, media studies, journalism, image and visual culture studies, and communication studies often ignore Black Canadian perspectives. In many instances, engagement with race, digital technologies, media production, culture, and history is also absent.
Read moreDuring Black History Month in 2023, Montreal-based artist Franck Sylvestre performed a puppet show geared toward Black children. The show included a puppet named “Max” who appeared with coal black skin, jagged teeth, bright red lips, wide eyes, and an ape-like nose.
Read moreAs a Black Canadian scholar, writer, and public speaker, I participate in Black History Month every year. At the end of 2023, I started to receive invites to speak at 2024 events. Some I agreed to, and some inviters declined once I presented my fee — an issue I address later.
Read moreI completely understand the logic of Black Excellence — Black people, especially students, are underrepresented, under acknowledged, and often feel like outsiders at universities, especially in Canada where campuses are still predominantly White.
Read moreOn September 21 and 22, 2023 the Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives (MOBA) Team co-produced Artists and Archivists in Dialogue (AAD), a Social Sciences Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant-funded two-day speaker series and creative showcase that was held at Toronto Metropolitan University’s ILC and Toronto’s Tranzac Club.
Read moreAs a Black woman academic, I’ve never been paid what I know I am worth, and that’s compared to faculty of my rank — I’ve checked and that math ain’t mathing. But there are few faculty of my rank at any school who can write the way I do, give lectures the way that I do, and just make this work look as easy as I do, even though it is not easy at all.
Read moreIn 1997, the Asian avian influenza (H5N1) commonly referred to as “bird flu” circulated around the globe but affected few people, even when it reemerged in 2003. In 2009, a new H1N1 influenza virus also emerged. But it too, like the 1957 and 1968 H1N1 influenza viruses did not shut down the entire world.
Read moreIn 1989, Quaker Oats Company, in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Aunt Jemima trademark, made extensive alterations to her face and body. Her image was ‘updated by removing her headband and giving her pearl earrings and a lace collar.’ Aunt Jemima, the commodified version of a Southern mammy, has always been a heavy-set, dark-skinned, bandanna-wearing black woman with a broad, teethy smile.
Read more