Professor Barrington’s talk is about the challenges that members of historical community face when writing difficult histories in difficult times and the academic, institutional, and bureaucratic challenges these histories present.

Focused primarily on Canadian context, Dr. Barrington uses case studies and discusses the overlapping histories of the COVID-19 pandemic, the killing of George Floyd in the United States and the discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children at former residential school sites in Canada.
This important lecture is in preparation for the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) annual meeting themed “Difficult Histories in a Global Context,” hosted by #YorkUniversity as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in May 2023.

ABOUT BARRINGTON WALKER

Barrington Walker, (PhD Toronto) is the inaugural Associate Vice President Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research and teaching interests are in histories of Black Canada, race, immigration, and the law. He is also currently a member of the Board of the Federation for the Social Sciences and Humanities and Chair of its standing committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization.

He has published three books. Race On Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858-1958 (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2010); The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2012) and The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings (Canadian Scholars Press, 2008).

Connect with LA&PS!
Twitter:   / yorkulaps  
Facebook:   / yorkulaps  
Instagram:   / yorkulaps  
LinkedIn:   / york-university-laps