On February 8, 2022, the Union hosted Dr. Funké Aladejebi, a faculty member from the University of Toronto, to lead a virtual session on Anti-Blackness in Higher Education as part of its Breaking Bread discussion series. Breaking Bread is a project from the TRU Students’ Union that connects students with community leaders through small group discussions around shared topics of interest. 

Dr. Funké Aladejebi is a history professor whose work frequently explores how legacies of race, gender, and migration influence the contemporary educational encounters of Black Canadian communities. This work has a particular focus on oral history, the history of education in Canada, Black Canadian women’s history, and transnationalism.

Questions considered by the group included: 

• How have post-secondary institutions been responding since the Black Lives Matter movement has come back into the forefront of popular culture?
• What is the history of anti-blackness in higher education broadly and what has that looked like specifically in the Canadian context?
• How can professors become adequate and resourceful allies during the current climate?
• How have post-secondary institutions been incorporating black history into their curriculums?

Keep an eye on our upcoming posts to join our next Breaking Bread discussion.