Events

In commemoration of African Heritage/Black History Month, Dr. Afua Cooper presents the World Premiere of Portia White: A Vibrant Presence, honouring the life and legacy of Portia White, a trailblazing Black Canadian opera singer. The video screening and panel dicussion with White’s great nephew Dr. George Elliott Clarke, her niece Sheila White, Dr. Afua Cooper, … Continue reading Dr. Afua Cooper presents the World Premiere of Portia White: A Vibrant Presence

A Black People’s History of Canada (BPHC) is a three-year project initiated and funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and Dalhousie University in 2021. Its purpose is to conduct new research into our nation’s rich African Canadian heritage. Partnering with African Canadian groups and government agencies responsible for education, BPHC will help create new … Continue reading Past/Future: African Canadian History, Arts and Culture in STEM Education

The 2022 Toronto Book Awards jury has selected 13 titles for this year’s longlist and one of the nominees is The Underground Railroad, Next Stop by Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper, Karolyn Smardz Frost (Dundurn). A shortlist of five finalists will be announced in early September with the authors featured at a Word on the Street … Continue reading 2022 Toronto Book Award Nomination!

Dr. Afua Cooper, a Black studies professor at Dalhousie University, shares the history of broken promises and unbreakable spirits of nearly 1,200 Black Loyalists who sailed for Sierra Leone in January 1792. Click to listen to Mainstreet NS with Jeff Douglas (aired on January 13, 2022) or read full article at CBC News.  

An impassioned and informative presentation that puts Black Canadians at the centre of the telling of Canadian history. For organizations committed to improving racial and ethnic justice in the workplace, learn how an understanding and appreciation of Black history can lead to the fulfillment of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals in your organization. For … Continue reading Black History Month Speaks

Online event hosted on Zoom by the Library Wednesday, July 28, 2021 |   6:00PM – 8:00PM In 1834, the British government passed the Emancipation Act which gave legal freedom to hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans throughout the British Empire, including Canada. This Act was not entirely a result of British beneficence. It was also … Continue reading Emancipation and Liberation: Where do we go from here?

  Dr. Afua Cooper wins the 2021 J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award! The winners of the Atlantic Book Awards were announced on Friday, May 13th at a virtual ceremony.  The Atlantic Poetry Prize was established in 1998 through the combined efforts of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, poets, publishers, and post-secondary institutions, who raised … Continue reading 2021 J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award goes to Afua Cooper

Since my time as a graduate student to my present appointment as professor at Dalhousie University, I have been involved with championing and developing Black studies in universities and beyond. Previously, within Canadian universities, not many scholars who work in creating knowledge about Black people called it Black studies. For many, “Black studies” was something … Continue reading My 30‑year effort to bring Black studies to Canadian universities is still an upward battle

On March 10th, 2021 at 6:00 pm, Dr. Afua Cooper presented a lecture, Chloe Cooley: Enslavement in Ontario, Settler Colonialism, Objectification, and Resistance at the Women & Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto in honour of the International Women’s Day.

February 25, 2021  |   3:00 PM AST (1:00 PM MST)… A Conversation with Afua Cooper at Simon Fraser University’s President’s Dream Colloquium.Celebrating Black History Month, join us for a poetry reading and conversation with Dr. Afua Cooper as the first instalment in the President’s Dream Colloquium for Spring 2021 – From Conversations to Action: Creating … Continue reading Black History Month Events with Dr. Afua Cooper