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In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight and Samira Schultz are joined by Dr. Monetta Bailey for a conversation about race, ethnicity, immigrant status, crime, Critical Race Theory, public discourse, and institutional systems. The episode focuses on how Black, racialized, and immigrant youth are governed, represented, and positioned within institutions such as criminal justice, education, immigration, public policy, and Canadian society more broadly. Dr. Bailey’s work helps frame racism not only as individual prejudice, but as something built into language, social knowledge, institutional assumptions, policies, and everyday practices. The conversation also explores her forthcoming book, The Violence of Words: The Conditions, Construction and Consequences of Racist Public Discourse, and asks how racist public discourse can shape harm, fear, belonging, punishment, and the ways young people come to understand themselves. Dr. Monetta Bailey is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Ambrose University. Her research examines race, ethnicity, immigrant status, crime, Critical Race Theory, racist public discourse, youth criminalization, and institutional systems. Her scholarship focuses especially on how racialized and immigrant youth are represented, governed, and treated within systems such as criminal justice, education, immigration, and public policy. Dr. Bailey’s work also examines how racist language and public narratives produce real social and institutional consequences, including shaping who is seen as innocent, threatening, deserving, criminal, or belonging. Her forthcoming book, The Violence of Words: The Conditions, Construction and Consequences of Racist Public Discourse, further develops this work by examining how racist public discourse causes harm and how Canada understands racism, hate speech, and institutional accountability.

In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight and Samira Schultz speak with Siv Ngesi about creativity, identity, visibility, and what it means to build a life and career in post-apartheid South Africa. The conversation explores how Siv’s work across acting, comedy, presenting, producing, performance, and public life reflects larger questions about overcoming, representation, and building something from scratch in systems that were not designed equally for Black people. Through Siv’s story, the episode considers what Black Canadian youth can learn from South African experiences of resilience, self-making, humour, cultural confidence, and public visibility. It also asks how creativity can become a way of claiming space, challenging limits, and imagining futures beyond the barriers that young Black people inherit. Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi is a South African actor, comedian, television presenter, producer, MC, performer, and public personality. He has built a wide-ranging career across film, television, theatre, comedy, live performance, and media. Siv has appeared in productions including Invictus, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and The Woman King, and is also known for his work as a presenter and entertainer in South Africa. His career reflects a broad creative range, from comedy and acting to producing and public engagement. Across his work, Siv brings a strong perspective on representation, resilience, masculinity, identity, and the role of creativity in opening space for Black stories and Black possibility.

In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight is joined by Dr. Handel Wright. Their conversation begins with a clear and necessary discussion of anti-Blackness: what it means, how it operates, and how it appears not only in individual encounters, but also through institutions, education, public life, and history. They also discuss the denial, erasure, and forgetting of Black presence in British Columbia, the challenges facing Black youth in Canada, and the responsibilities that often come with Black leadership. This episode asks us to think seriously about what it means to build communities where Black young people can thrive. Not only through representation, but through history, belonging, solidarity, and a willingness to learn from Black youth themselves. Professor Handel K. Wright, Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity, and Education at the University of British Columbia, specializes in cultural studies, anti-racism, and multicultural education. He co-edits the African and Diasporic Cultural Studies book series and serves on several editorial boards. A former Canada Research Chair, he has published extensively on African cultural studies, anti-racist education, and qualitative research and is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.

In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight and Samira Schultz speak with Dr. Bukola Salami, who is leading major national work on Black child and youth well-being, including the SSHRC-funded Transforming Black Lives partnership project, which focuses on how systems such as education, health, justice, child welfare, and immigration and settlement shape the lives of Black children and youth in Canada. Dr. Salami’s research has made major contributions to the study of Black health, migrant and refugee well-being, Black youth mental health, and the structural conditions that shape access to care, opportunity, and belonging. Professor Bukola Salami is a Registered Nurse, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized People’s Health, and a Full Professor at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the well-being of Black, immigrant, and racialized groups, with involvement in over 90 funded studies worth $230 million. Salami founded the African Child and Youth Migration Network and the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program, aimed at empowering Black high school students in Western Canada. She has contributed to the creation of the first mental health clinic for Black Canadians in the region and has trained over 100 students, many now in academic roles. Salami is Vice President of the Canadian Nurses Association and serves on multiple boards, including the Black Opportunity Fund and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The new season of BlackTalk is here. This season, we centre Black children and youth, while also widening the lens to the histories, communities, and public lives that shape them. The first episodes of the new season drop on July 1st, Canada Day. Because Black history is Canadian history. Black voices are Canadian voices.

The new season of BlackTalk is here. This season, we centre Black children and youth, while also widening the lens to the histories, communities, and public lives that shape them. This season is connected to a SSHRC-funded research project led by Dr. Bukola Salami, titled Transforming the Lives of Black Children and Youth in Canada, bringing together scholars, community partners, and institutions working to identify and address the barriers Black children and youth face across Canada. The first episodes of the new season drop on July 1st, Canada Day. Because Black history is Canadian history. Black voices are Canadian voices.

BlackTalk host Dr. Andy Knight talks with Dr. Adekeye Adebajo of the University of Pretoria, and Lula Adam of the University of Alberta, discussing their experiences at the Pan-African Symposium held at the University of Alberta in February 2024. All three speakers reflect on the ideas presented in the symposium, especially ideas of intellectual reparations, African scholarship, the publishing gap between Euro-North American and African journals, and practical, constructive paths forward for working to decolonize the University curriculum. Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria's (UP) Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS). Professor Adebajo holds a doctorate from Oxford University in England, and served with United Nations (UN) missions in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq. Lula Adam is the Student Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Co-Ordinator with the Dean of Students Office at the University of Alberta, and the host of the upcoming podcast "You, Me, and Us: Equity and Belonging"

BlackTalk producer Nicolás Arnáez chats with Dr. Andy Knight, creator and usual host of the BlackTalk podcast, and with multidisciplinary storyteller Brandon Wint, about the new Black Studies microcourse they have developed, "Black Canadians: History, Presence, and Anti-Racist Futures", soon to be available for the public to attend through Coursera. More course information will be found at the end of the month here: https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-learning.html Brandon Wint is an Ontario born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joy and devastation and inequity associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world making, world altering and world breaking. For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violence futures for himself and the world he has inherited. W. Andy Knight is Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department, University of Alberta, and past Chair of the Department. He is Provost Fellow for Black Leadership and Excellence. He is the former Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago, and co-founder and the former head of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC). Professor Knight serves as Co-editor in Chief of both African Security journal and International Journal -- two globally prestigious peer-reviewed academic publications. During his secondment in the Caribbean, Knight established the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy and he was co-editor of a highly regarded and award-winning journal -- Global Governance from 2000 to 2005.

Dr. Abi Williams is a scholar and international affairs practitioner who has held leadership positions in academia, think tanks, and the United Nations. He is Professor of the Practice of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. He has also served as Director of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University and President of The Hague Institute for Global Justice. Prior to these appointments, Dr. Williams served at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) first as Vice President of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, and later as Senior Vice President of the Center for Conflict Management. He led USIP's work on prevention and in major conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Libya. From 2001 to 2007, Dr. Williams served as Director of Strategic Planning for UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon. As an academic, he has served as Associate Dean of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., and held faculty appointments at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the University of Rochester. He was Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), and a member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Justice, the U.S.-Netherlands Fulbright Commission, the Lester Pearson College UWC Board of Trustees, and the International Board of Directors of the United World Colleges. He is currently a professor of international politics at Tisch College, Tufts University. In this episode, Dr. Williams speaks to the role of race in international justice institutions, unpacks personal lessons learned from his extensive career as diplomat and academic practitioner, and explains his role as a mentor and community builder, among other topics.

In this episode, Amb. Ward discusses his upbringing in Jamaica and his influences, his thoughts on colonial reparations and justice in the African continent and the Caribbean, and building democracies in post-colonial societies, among other topics. Ambassador Curtis Ward is an Attorney-at-Law and International Consultant, and former Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations with Special Responsibility for Security Council Affairs, serving on the UN Security Council from 2000 to 2001. He has extensive knowledge and experience in national and international legal and policy frameworks for effective implementation of UN and other international anti-terrorism mandates, including countering and preventing violent extremism. Ambassador Ward traveled to over 30 countries representing the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee for meetings and discussions with government leaders and high-level officials, on counter-terrorism capacity building and related issues; and has provided advisory services to the UN, regional organizations, governments, and NGOs. He has participated as a keynote speaker at various forums, and has lectured globally on a number of security and related issues. Ambassador Ward holds a Master of Laws from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (Economics and Political Science) from Howard as well. As an academic, he is also an Adjunct Professor in the Homeland Security Graduate Program at the University of the District of Columbia (since 2012); and is a former Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University – Elliott School of International Affairs (2010-14). He has given a series of lectures at the National Defense University; at the NATO School (SHAPE), Oberammergau, Germany; the Kofi Anan International Peacekeeping Centre, Accra, Ghana; and lectures on WMDs at the Caribbean Maritime University, Kingston, Jamaica.

Selwyn R. Cudjoe is currently a Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. He teaches courses on the African American literary tradition, African literature, black women writers, and Caribbean literature. A graduate of Fordham University where he received both a B.A. in English and an M.A. in American Literature, Professor Cudjoe also earned a Ph.D. in American Literature from Cornell University. Prior to joining the Wellesley faculty in 1986, he taught at Ithaca College and Cornell, Harvard, Brandeis, Fordham, and Ohio universities. He has been a lecturer at Auburn (N.Y.) State Prison and taught at Bedford-Stuyvesant (N.Y.) Youth-In-Action. Professor Cudjoe is the author and editor of several books, and has produced several documentaries. He has written for the New York Times; The Washington Post; Boston Globe; Harvard Educational Review; International Herald Tribune; New Left Review; Baltimore Sun; the Amsterdam News; Trinidad Guardian; and Trinidad Express. As president of NAEAP, Prof Cudjoe significantly raised the level of consciousness and activism of peoples of African descent living in the Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago. In this episode, Dr. Cudjoe addresses the importance of knowing our literary history, building solidarity between Black American theorists and Pan African theorists, the activist legacies of Pan-African leaders, and the role of struggle and resistance in Black literature, among other topics.

Dr. Rhoda Reddock is a sociologist and development studies scholar with expertise in a range of areas including feminist and gender studies, and critical race and ethnic studies. With an academic career spanning many years she is a former deputy campus principal of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, and head of the Centre (now Institute) for Gender and Development Studies and lecturer in sociology. Among her many published works, she has written 8 books and over seventy peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. As an activist in the Caribbean Women’s movement, Dr. Reddock was a founding member and first chair of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA). Her advocacy positioned her as a pioneer of Gender and Development Studies programmes, and she continues to champion the inclusion of women and gender studies in the field. She was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association, and is the first Caribbean person elected to that role. Dr. Reddock has also served on the Council and advisory committee of the Caribbean Studies Association. In this episode, Dr. Reddock speaks to what it means to practice decolonial feminism and decolonize our academic institutions, defines pan-African feminism, points listeners to the wisdom of African and Caribbean women thought-leaders, and examines the future of the Gender and Development Studies field.

Prof Gina Awoko Higginbottom was appointed in 2015 as the Mary Seacole Professor of Ethnicity and Community Health at the University of Nottingham – the first nurse of Black and Minority Ethnic origin (BME) to hold a professorial role in a Russell Group university in England and is now Emeritus Professor. Dr. Higginbottom is formerly a Canada Research Chair in Ethnicity and Health (now renewed) for 8 years at the University Alberta, Canada. She is also the first women of colour to hold a Canada Research Chair, awarded in 2007. She holds a substantial track record of publication and grant acquisition, and Sage research textbook. Her research focuses on ethnic minority populations and immigrant health, including social exclusion and equity in healthcare and ethno-cultural diversity in care giving. Her experience as a midwife and health visitor has further informed her studies of international migration and maternity, including parenting issues, early parenthood and postnatal depression in different ethnic minority groups, and experiences of diverse ethnocultural groups in accessing and navigating maternal healthcare services. Gina is a member of the UK NHS Race and Health Observatory’s academic reference group and Maternity Action Group. Is Vice President of the Health Visitors Association and a member of the NIHR Research Professor Selection Committee. In this episode, Gina breaks down the role of race in the healthcare system, the importance of culturally congruent care and Black women’s maternal health, and the importance of health justice for migrant and ethnic minority communities.

We're back for the third season of BlackTalk, and we are excited to kick off with Professor Rinaldo Walcott! Dr. Walcott is Professor and Chair in the Department of Africana and American Studies at the University of Buffalo; there he is also the Carl V. Granger Chair in Africana and American Studies. Rinaldo’s research focuses on the cultural expression of Black life with an interest in the transnational, diasporic, and the national crosscurrents of Black creativities. Rinaldo is the author of a number of single-authored, co-authored, and co-edited books. His more recent work is The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom (Duke, 2021) and On Property: Policing, Prisons, and the Call for Abolition (Biblioasis, 2021) which was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2021. Currently, Rinaldo is working on two monographs, one on freedom and the sea, and another on Black queer expressive culture. A third work seeks to grapple with the possibilities of achieving utopia from the grips of the catastrophe that threatens to consume all of planetary life. Rinaldo was born in Barbados. He divides his time between the city of Buffalo and the city of Toronto. In this episode, Rinaldo speaks about what it means to decolonize a curriculum, campus, and country. He also examines the role of Black studies in our broader community and unpacks the meaning of “diaspora,” the “myth of multiculturalism,” and the Black Canadian experience. https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/africana-and-american-studies/faculty/faculty-directory/walcott-rinaldo.html https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-long-emancipation https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/non-fiction/cultural-criticism/on-property/

The Honourable Kojo Yankah has had a career which spans the world of journalism, government, and education. He served as editor of Ghana’s most widely circulated newspaper, the Daily Graphic, which led to his appointment as the Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. In the 1992 Ghanian parliamentary election, he won the seat for Agona East Constituency, which led to service in various ministries including Minister of State. In 2001, he established the African University College of Communications, and most recently, he founded the Pan African Heritage Museum, a multi-million dollar, state of the art repository dedicated to showcasing the history, culture, and achievements of the Pan African World. He currently serves as Executive Chairman of this project. “In terms of Pan-Africanism… I’m looking at a united family of people of African descent, knowing about themselves." - Hon. Kojo Yankah