Notice Board

The University of Lethbridge Anti-Racism Film Series invites you to:

Black History on the Prairies

Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 11 a.m.

Link to register for this Zoom event: https://bit.ly/BlackHistoryonthePrairies

Please join us for a Q&A on Black history on the Prairies with critically acclaimed scholars Dr. Jenna Bailey, Deborah Dobbins, Dr. David Este, and Dr. Karina Vernon. The Moderator for this event is Dr. Monetta Bailey. We ask that before joining our Q & A, audience members watch Bailey, Dobbins, and Este's We are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies ahead of time (film can be streamed here: baileyandsoda.com) and engage with Vernon’s The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology. 

Dr. Jenna Bailey

Dr. Jenna Bailey is an award winning author, oral historian, and documentary filmmaker. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Lethbridge, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT) at the University of Lethbridge. Jenna has worked on numerous community oral history projects including the multi-award winning Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots Project and the Coyote Flats Pioneer Village project, both of which won the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming (2015, 2018). Jenna is also the author of the best-selling book Can Any Mother Help Me? (Faber).

Dr. Monetta Bailey

Dr. Monetta Bailey is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Behavioural Science Department at Ambrose University, Calgary, Alberta. She has served there as a faculty member since 2014, prior to which she was a sessional instructor. Her teaching load covers fundamental sociological courses as well as courses related to race, crime and deviance.

Deborah Dobbins

Deborah Dobbins, a cultural and special education consultant, is a 3rd generation African American Albertan whose parents were born and raised in Wildwood, Alberta and whose grandparents immigrated in the early 1900’s from Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, Texas. She is the President and CEO of Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots (SCMR), a not-for-profit society founded in 2010 that is grounded in a mosaic of rich, inclusive African American Canadian heritage dating as far back as pre-1910.

Dr. David Este

Dr. David Este, Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. Dr. David (Dave) Este joined the Faculty of Social Work in 1992. Prior to obtaining his doctorate, he was employed as a medical social worker and a researcher. He has taught at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels, including courses in social work practice with immigrants and refugees, management of human service organizations, qualitative research methods and mental health. Este is involved in several studies such as "Anti-Black Racism at the University of Calgary" (University of Calgary): "promoting mental health equity for Canada's Black refugees: A pilot intervention with Rwandan and South Sudanese in Edmonton and Calgary" (PHAC); "Reviving anti-racism pedagogy: Exploring the experiences of social work educators and students in post-secondary education (Government of Alberta) and : Diversity in social work groups" (SSHRC). In 2018, he was lead editor of the volume entitled " Racism and Anti-Racism in Canada" and is an editor of "Africentric Social Work" that will be released later this year.

Dr. Karina Vernon

Dr. Karina Vernon is Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto Scarborough where she researches and teaches in the areas of Canadian and Black Canadian literature, Black aesthetics, archives, critical pedagogy, and Black-Indigenous solidarities. She is editor of The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology, published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 2020 and a companion volume, Critical Readings in the Black Prairie Archives, which is forthcoming 

Thank you to the following for their support of  the University of Lethbridge Anti-Racism Film Series: The Department of Sociology and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Financial support provided by: the Office of the President, Office of the Dean in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT) at the University of Lethbridge.