The Black Professors Podcast started in a Zoom room as a conversation between two strangers who had been introduced to one another by a mutual colleague and mentor (Prof. Bukola Salami) in the summer of 2023. Since this initial meeting, the founders and executive producers of the podcast, Dr. Selina Mudavanhu (Communication Studies & Media Arts, McMaster University) & Dr. Motilola Akinfemisoye-Adejare (African Studies Program, University of Calgary) have become well acquainted as they interviewed several senior Black professors in Canada with the support of students working as research and production assistants. The podcast has received immense support from colleagues in the Pulse Lab at McMaster University and the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship, McMaster Library. The podcast has also received generous funding from the Arts Research Board, McMaster University.
Through interviews with Black professors across Canada, the podcast:
- Actively contests assumptions that were rampant on social media during the cohort hiring of Black professors by some Canadian institutions after 2020. With negligible information, many social media users assumed that the aforementioned academics were not “excellent scholars” and that employing them was synonymous with lowering standards of excellence at universities that implemented targeted hiring policies (Mudavanhu and Batisai 2023).
- Provides a rich resource for those who want to familiarize with and educate themselves about the work of Black professors in Canada beyond Black History Month celebrations in February.
- Offers a centralized space that publicizes the incredible accomplishments of Black academics, information that is often only known by a few members of hiring committees when these professors are interviewed and offered jobs.
- Complements information about these scholars that is captured in profiles about them that are strewn across many different university departmental websites of postsecondary institutions in the country.
- Enriches and diversifies narratives in extant scholarship about Black faculty in Canadian postsecondary institutions in ways that move beyond a focus on the struggles and pain they contend with to a more comprehensive understanding of these academics and their career trajectories. The podcast foregrounds the unique and inspirational journeys, successes, joys and passions of Black professors.
- Creates a virtual space for young Black Canadians to see, hear and get inspired by relatable role models.
- Contributes to mentoring early career Black faculty. Among many nuggets the academics on the podcast share, they also provide advice on strategies that have ensured their success in the areas of teaching, research and service.
- Establishes a virtual community for Black faculty in Canada in a manner that contributes to reducing feelings of isolation, enhances networking and presents opportunities for professors to collaborate with one another on interdisciplinary projects.
- Provides high-quality research and podcast production training for students through involving them in all aspects of the project.
- Curates an archive that foregrounds the unique and inspirational journeys, successes, joys and contributions of and by Black professors to the Canadian academy.
