Summary: Racism, Antiracism Solidarity and Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Black Lives Matter, Idle No More and other social movements have sparked an increase in public discourse around systems of social and state violence against marginalized identities. The calls for solidarity emphasize an urgency and overlapping set of experiences and interests among differently racialized and situated peoples. Yet collaboration is not readily achieved, precisely because of the diverse manifestations and experiences of racism. These diverse forms of racism(s) are reflected in various expressions of violence, marginalization, exploitation and containment through stereotypes like the angry Black woman, the model minority and the ‘barbaric’ terrorist. Racialized experiences also take the form of individual prejudice, microaggressions, racial profiling, and systemic discrimination, among others. This complexity has led to ambiguities in the meaning and definition of racism. In this context, collective antiracist challenges, then, are difficult to mount. Additionally, challenging, antiracism scholars are fragmented by disciplinary boundaries, identity affiliations, and their various objects of study.

Antiracism scholarship at the University of Windsor particularly has been rendered invisible by the lack of dedicated concentration on the study of racism, disciplinary boundaries and a siloed approach to research, and a relative absence of comprehensive support for teaching and collaboration in the area.

Our project revitalizes the University of Windsor as a center where research, discovery, and dialogue are fundamental to the anti-racist endeavour in the larger community. Through a series of workshops and a conference with a keynote speaker and a panel of community speakers, combined with the expertise found within our university, this project contributes to establishing a collaborative space for dialogue, critique and knowledge exchange and acquisition. It provides resources for a dedicated set of activities for research community building, scholarship development, mentorship, student training, teaching and learning to enrich the University of Windsor and the lives of those within it. This project fosters collaborative scholarship by bringing together researchers at different levels of experience and rank, and across different faculties, disciplines and programs (Education, English, History, Law, Philosophy, Social Work, Sociology, Indigenous Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies) to experience and learn from each other on racism, and to position our scholarship in relation to the literature and to the invited speakers. Situated in the unique location at the Canada/US border with a history of the Underground Railroad and Indigenous struggles, the project consolidates the University and Windsor itself as a hub of antiracism scholarship while building dialogue and partnership among scholars whose research is grounded in Windsor Essex.

Institutions of higher education are not just centers of knowledge creation about the dynamics of race, but are themselves microcosms of racialized macro-systems (Henry 2015). As such, this project aims to support and promote the scholarship of racialized researchers by enhancing partnership, incubation of ideas, critique and dialogue facilitated by a combination of workshops and a larger conference that will result in an edited book collection. This project recognizes and centers the scholarship of racialized faculty to challenge racism in scholarly production and in universities, and to recognize the racialization of scholarship itself. Students will be trained through this project to imagine the possibilities of antiracism scholarship and becoming more engaged members of the scholarly community and the larger society. Students of colour will have the opportunity of working with and learning from each other, becoming familiar with antiracism literature, develop organizing and planning skills, getting to know the faculty, and developing and writing in their own voice through various open venues, and at the conference. This project enhances public antiracism discourse and outreach to support antiracism initiatives in the city; it provides Windsor’s Diversity Committee, existing currently as