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Upcoming Events

“Somali Studies in Canada: Resilience and Resistance”
with

Professor Nimo Bokore
School of Social Work, Carleton University

Date: Wednesday,January 23, 2019 | 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: Discovery Centre, MacOdrum Library, Carleton University.

See more details here

Book Launch! “Such a Lonely, Lovely Road” by Kagiso Lesego Molope

Date: January 24, 2019 |1:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: 433 Paterson Hall (History Lounge), Carleton University

See more details here

Understanding the everyday politics of the global refugee regime: Collective action in a time of populism?

By James Milner
Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science

In the aftermath of World War Two, states created a global refugee regime to facilitate collective action to ensure protection for refugees and to find a solution to their plight. Today, the regime seems unable to reliably deliver on this objective: refugees face perilous protection environments in the global North and South, and the average duration of a refugee situation is now 20 years. At first glance, the recent experience of developing a Global Compact on Refugees within the UN system would seem to suggest that the prospect of future cooperation may be further constrained given the rise of populist leadership in states central to the regime’s functioning. Drawing on a more detailed understanding of the development of the Global Compact on Refugees and the early results of a 7-year collaboration with partners in Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania, however, this lecture will argue that a more nuanced understanding of the everyday politics of the global refugee regime, as observed through the making and implementation of global refugee policy, sheds new light on the preconditions for cooperation and collective action This insight raises important questions for the refugee regime and potentially other areas of multilateral cooperation.

James Milner is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton University. He is also currently Project Director of LERRN: the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network, a 7-year, SSHRC-funded partnership between researchers and civil society actors in Canada, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania focused on supporting the engagement of local actors in the work of the global refugee regime. He has been a researcher, practitioner and policy advisor on issues relating to the global refugee regime, global refugee policy and the politics of asylum in the global South.

Date: ThursdayJanuary 31, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: A602 Loeb Building, Carleton University

Admission is FREE

See more details here

Rethinking the Power of Silence in Insecure and Gendered Sites​​

Presented by the CIPS and the International Theory Network​

Join us for this talk with Jane Parpart as she previews her upcoming book “Beyond the Binary: Rethinking Silence, Voice and Agency in Contested Gendered Terrains”. The lecture will explore the power of silence in a world where voice is too often privileged as the ultimate sign of power. Inspired by the complex literature interrogating silence, challenging the assumption that silence is always a sign of disempowerment, and explore the many ways in which silence can be empowering in a complex neo-liberal and postcolonial world. The lecture aims to contribute to on-going debates about silence, voice, gender and power, with particular attention to how these debates can contribute to the burgeoning feminist security studies, global political economy and literatures.

Jane Parpart  is Research Professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at McCormack Graduate School in the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Date: TuesdayJanuary 22, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Admission is free; seating capacity is limited.

See more details here

Globalization, Trade and Development: Elements of a Sustainable Approach​

Presented by the CIPS and IPEN

Concerns around trade, migration, technological change, security and an apparent resurgence in nationalism are consistently in the headlines. Yet governments at the recent G20 Summit agreed on shared objectives of creating jobs and growth, and making the economy work for all, despite their different economic and political systems. Amidst current tensions, Jonathan T. Fried will share his perspective on the G20 outcomes, and on the path Canada is taking to support sustainable growth both at home and internationally.

Jonathan T. Fried is the Personal Representative of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the G20. He served as Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO; Canada’s Ambassador to Japan; Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the IMF; Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister; and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance. Mr. Fried has also served as Associate Deputy Minister; Assistant Deputy Minister for Trade, Economic and Environmental Policy; Chief Negotiator on China’s WTO accession; Director General for Trade Policy; and chief counsel for NAFTA.

Date: MondayJanuary 28, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: FSS4006, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Admission is free; seating capacity is limited.

See more details here

“The Global Compact on Refugees: Challenges and opportunities for Canadian Leadership in Africa”
by Professor James Milner of Carleton 

The UN General Assembly endorsed the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in December 2018. (Note that it also approved a separate Global Compact on Migration.) The GCR is the result of consultations with many stakeholders and pilot efforts at implementation in more than a dozen countries, many of them African. The GCR’s objectives are to enhance support to refugee-hosting states, the majority of whom are in the global South, through better collaboration between humanitarian and development actors, support for host communities, enhanced support for refugee self-reliance, and more efforts to find permanent solutions for refugees. With 85% of the world’s refugees in the global South, spending an average of 20 years as a refugee,  and with the number of forcibly displaced persons in the world at the highest levels since World War Two, finding solutions for the world’s refugees could not be more timely. Canada played a significant leadership role in the GCR’s development. With the GCR in place, what are the challenges and opportunities for Canada in supporting implementation, especially in the African context? 

James Milner is Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton and Project Director of LERRN: the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network, a partnership between researchers and civil society actors in Canada and developing countries, focused on supporting local actors who engage with the global refugee regime. He has worked on the global refugee regime, global refugee policy and the politics of asylum in the global South. In recent years, he has done field research in en Afrique et en Asie, and has presented his findings to stakeholders around the world. He has been a Consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He is the author of Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), co-author (with Alexander Betts and Gil Loescher) of UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection (Routledge, 2012), and co-editor of Protracted Refugee Situations: Political, Human Rights and Security Implications (UN University Press, 2008)

Date: Thursday January 31, 2019 
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: Richmond room, Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave West

Call for Papers | Somali Studies in Canada Colloquium: Identity and Belonging
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
October 18 – 19, 2019

Carleton University is happy to announce its second Somali Studies in Canada Colloquium, taking place on October 18 and 19, 2019. This year’s theme, Identity and Belonging, will focus on the thematic priorities that emerged from the roundtable discussions at the first Somali Studies in Canada Colloquium in 2017.

This second conference is designed to play a key role in facilitating dialogue and partnerships among the Somali Studies academic community at local, regional, and national levels. We are interested in papers that address issues of identity for Somalis in Canada such as: identity conflict, historical trauma, the influence of less-studied periods of Somali history, cultural resurgence and practice, systemic barriers including access to higher education, economy and labour market integration, the promotion of wellbeing and social justice.
Interested academics, researchers, educators, and health and social work practitioners are invited to submit their work. We ask applicants to submit a 200-word abstract describing their proposed paper, their academic/professional biography (100 words) and a full paper (approximately 5000-7000 words, including references).

Application deadline: March 15, 2019.
Please send your papers, abstracts and biographies to Dr. Nimo Bokore  somalicanadianstudies2@gmail.com

See more information here

Call for papers | Africa: Connections and Disruptions

ECAS 2019 invited panel proposals addressing the theme of Africa: Connections and Disruptions. 250 such panels have been selected representing all disciplines and methodological approaches of the social sciences and humanities.

Before you propose a paper or roundtable contribution, please read the theme of the congress, the information below, and then browse the list of panels.

The accepted panels of ECAS 2019 have been divided into thematic streams: Arts and Culture, Economy and Development, Environment and Geography , Health, History, Language and Literature, Law, Politics & International Relations, Religion, Social Anthropology, Sociology. When browsing through the list of panels, you can alternate between the All panels view that shows all the panels in one list, regardless of the stream and the All streams view that shows the list of streams.

CFP rules: only one paper/contribution per person!

Please note that an individual must not make more than one solo-authored paper proposal or roundtable contribution (although they may also convene one panel/roundtable; or be a discussant or chair in one panel).

All paper proposals must consist of:

• a paper title
• name/s and email address/es of author/s
• a short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
• a long abstract of fewer than 250 words

The main conference language being English, this information should be submitted in either English or French.
 
Application closes at 11pm (CET) on 21st January.

See website for more information.

Call for Papers | Exploring The Agency Of The Global South In International Studies (Practices)
Accra, Ghana

Global South (GS) actors have become increasingly influential in international politics, conspicuous in their role in international trade, international security and climate change negotiations, and a range of new ‘South-South’ cooperation and partnerships. Although the Global South is increasingly prominent in international relations and attracts interest from a variety of actors, on many fronts it remains entangled in the seemingly immovable structures of international inequality, high levels of poverty and underdevelopment, often fragile economies and weak political and military capacity, and recurrent instabilities.

You are invited to submit an abstract via email to; Accra2019@isanet.orgor visit https://www.isanet.org/Conferences/ISA-Accra-2019/Submissions for submission guideline.

Please note that the conference is bilingual and this means that participants can submit papers and roundtable proposals in both English and French; it also means that presentations can also be done in both languages. However, all communications and all activities involving the use of our system can only be done in English, which is the official language of the ISA.

Deadline for paper/panel submissions is 21st January 2019

See more information here

Call for Papers | The Third Biennial African Philosophy World Conference |
Building Africa’s Future on African Philosophy

October 28-30, 2019
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, College of Humanities

Seasoned and early career philosophers, humanities scholars and scientists across these disciplines, are welcome to send abstracts to share their critical insights, reflective conceptions, philosophical perspectives, reasoned prophecies about their research in the larger picture of Africans’ and the wider world’s future policies and practices, based upon Africans’ reflections upon African experiences. We welcome papers that reflect upon the foundations, history and future of knowledge practice, ethics, education, the prevailing significance of social and political relationships, sciences and technologies, jurisprudence, philosophy of medicine, bioethics, metaphysics, phenomenology, comparative religions, commercial corporate affairs, conducted in and about Africa and about the human condition worldwide, illuminated through perspectives radiating from Africa.

Deadline for paper/panel submissions is 1st April 2019

See more information here

Vacancy | Postdoctoral Position in Political Science at The Nordic Africa Institute, NAI

The Nordic Africa Institute, NAI, is a knowledge centre focused on Africa. It is jointly financed by the governments of Finland, Iceland and Sweden and is seeking a postdoctoral candidate who will be involved in the research project “The Space and Role of Political Science in the Evolving Democratic Transformation in Africa”. The Postdoctoral will work closely with Professor Liisa Laakso.

Project Description
Political science can have an impact for the legitimacy, functioning and consolidation of the political systems. The project will first analyze the profile of political science research and education in African political systems with different levels of democratization: What is studied and taught about political systems in Africa? The resources of political science? The employment of political science graduates? Secondly the project will look at the visibility of political science in Africa: Do political scientists feature in public discussion and media? Do they contribute to preparatory work on electoral laws, constitutional changes etc.? Do they cooperate with political parties?

Applications should be sent:

a) preferably by email to nai-applications@nai.uu.se. (Including publications to the extent possible or by indication of internet addresses where they might be available).

b) or in hard copy by regular post to The Nordic Africa Institute, P. O. Box 1703, SE–751 47 Uppsala, Sweden.

Closing Date for applications: 31 January 2019

See more information on how to apply here

Call for Papers | Media and Terrorism in Africa: 
Issues, Policies and Challenges
University of Toronto, Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2019

Conveners: Alexie Tcheuyap (University of Toronto) and Abdoulaye Gueye (University of Ottawa)
Guest Speaker: Francis B. Nyamnjoh (University of Cape Town)

Presentation
Media dependence on terrorist group sources is coupled with a dependence on governmental information in terrorist situations (Moeller, 2009). This element is further amplified in Africa where the media have fewer resources. Thus, they are often limited to embedded journalism (Tuosto, 2008) as a means of covering the different fronts of the fight
against terrorism. In such a context where security is a priority, the handling of information can be strongly influenced.

Security has also quickly become a pretext for exceptional legislation and arbitrary practices that jeopardize not only freedom and the duty to inform, but also other ethical requirements in the journalistic field. As such, it is important to move beyond security aspects and focus not only on the sometimes-excessive media coverage of terrorist acts, but also on the implications for journalism, communications and public policy.

Possible Topics and Themes

• Ethical Issues
  • To say or not to say? Challenges to the duty to inform
  • Terrorism, treatment of hate speech and hearsay
  • Terrorism: declaration, denunciation and demonstration
• Political Aspects
  • Terrorism and official media
  • New legislation on terror: issues and perspectives
  • Governmental communications and the language of violence
• Practical Challenges
  • Terrorism and social media
  • Theories and research methods on media and terrorism
  • Journalist or citizen? How to document terror?
• Islam in the media, the media of Islam
  • Surah in the media
  • Interpretations of the conditions of violent action in the Qur’an
  • Comparative analysis of the media treatment of Islamic terrorism and other forms of terrorism

Conditions for submission
The paper proposals, of maximum 500 words, should be sent to
africanmedia.french@utoronto.ca. They should be written in French or in English, and should include the following information:
• Last name
• First name
• Affiliation(s)
• Bio-bibliography

Submission deadline: April 15th, 2019
Notification of decision: June 1st, 2019

See website for more information.

Celebrating Our Warriors!

Martin Luther King Day Celebrations
with Justice Donald McLeod & Mayor Bernadette Clement

Keynote Speaker:  Bernadette Clement – Newly Elected Mayor of Cornwall and The First Black Female Mayor in Ontario

M.C. – Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey, Senior Pastor, Parkdale United Church

AWARDS
2019 Jean Augustine DreamKEEPERS Life Achievement Award

Justice Donald F. McLeod A founder of the Federation of Black Canadians & a steadfast advocate for the Black community 

DreamKEEPERS Citation for Outstanding Leadership

Eldon Holder, Jr. Municipal Activist and Founder of the Young Leaders Advisory Council 

MUSIC BY THE LONDON TRIO +    

Light Lunch Will Be Served

Date: Monday, January 21, 2019 | 12 noon
Location: Jean Pigott Place, Ottawa City Hall

You are invited to the 2019 Ottawa Black History Month Launch & Opening Ceremony! 

When: Saturday 26 January, 2019 | 2.00 – 4.00 p.m.
Where: City of Ottawa Jean Piggott Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue, Ottawa.

For the 2019 Black History Month, the people of Ottawa can look forward to several wonderful events, highlighting the many achievements and valuable contributions made by people of African descent, to science, world history, culture and civilizations. To launch the 2019 Black History Month observance in Canada’s capital, Black History Ottawa has teamed up with various associations to present the Launch & Opening Ceremony.

Theme “Our Canadian Story: Nothing About Us, Without Us!”, to advance the spirit and intention of the U.N. Decade of People of African Descent (2015-2024)., the evening’s program will reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of Ottawa’s Black community. It will include the presentation of the 2019 Black History Month proclamation by Mayor Jim Watson, the official unveiling of the 2019 Canada Post Black History Month stamp, remarks from dignitaries, as well as live performances by local artists. As well, a number of individuals will receive the Black History Ottawa Community Builder awards.

Join us to make February 2019 the most memorable Black History Month ever!

See more information here

 Who we are

• Registered Canadian charitable organization
• Recipient of the 2009 Community Partner award from the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa
• Member of Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa

 What we do

• Celebrate the contributions of people of African descent to the Canadian mosaic;
• Support local community leaders, artists, designers, writers and innovators;
• Organize child and youth-centered mentorship and leadership programs;
• Organize community centered activities.

As a non-profit organization, Black History Ottawa is volunteer-driven and relies predominantly on membership fees and donations to carry out its work.

Black History, a legacy worth preserving!

Black History Ottawa
P.O. Box 81081
111 Albert Street, Suite 108
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A5
bhottawa@yahoo.ca
www.blackhistoryottawa.org