By Elaine Smith

“Education will get you to the station, but can you get on the train and will you know where to get off?” says Professor Carl James, �첥��Ƶ Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, building on a quote by a Ghanaian refugee, Kofi, that refers to the experiences of first-generation students attending university. In other words, being admitted to university is only the first step; the next is navigating the terrain. 

A book written by James and Leanne Taylor, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, profiles York alumni who participated in a 2002 pilot project, or, as Taylor calls it, “an intervention,” as incoming undergraduates. The project was designed to support first-generation university students during their undergraduate years, recognizing that they didn’t have parents who could offer them insights into the world of post-secondary education. 

“The barriers that they face in accessing higher education don’t go away once they’re on campus,” Taylor says.

 catches up with a selection of these students 20 years later and profiles their experiences prior to university, during university and in the years afterward. It is subtitled Counterstories “as a way of pushing back on ideas of the ideal student,” Taylor said. The book highlights the students’ successes and challenges and offers insights into the types of supports that first-generation students find most useful. 

The participating students faced barriers due to race, community, class, gender and/or sexual orientation. 

“We wanted to see how we could assist them when they got to university,” James says. “We as professors don’t necessarily realize that they have no idea how to negotiate university or the campus.” 

The “intervention” 

The pilot project required each participant to take part in an entrance life history interview and follow-up interviews and to keep journals of their experiences. They interviewed family members to learn more about their perceptions and expectation and also had work placements. In addition, Taylor ran a weekly group session, referred to as the ”common hour,” where students could discuss their experiences, goals and aspirations. 

“We worked with two cohorts of students over three years and there was a weekly group meeting, a common hour, where we discussed their experiences, goals and aspirations,” says Taylor, who served as the research assistant for the project while working toward her PhD at York. Combining those sessions with all the other information, “We had a rich, rounded idea of what they needed.”  

During the course of their weekly sessions, Taylor became friends with many of the students, who weren’t much younger than she was. These strong ties made it easy to reconnect with them after many years and arrange further interviews. 

“It was something special to go back and see where their lives have shifted,” she says. 

Many of the students said the weekly common hour was pivotal in their success in navigating the subtleties of university culture and in helping them balance peer and parental expectations with their actual university experiences. They were able to identify the existing conflicts and the areas where there was a lack of support – a gap that parents didn’t always know how to fill. 

“The students also challenged the idea that people from marginalized backgrounds are always behind,” Taylor adds. “They drew on other types of capital, such as community, to help them succeed. They also framed themselves as belonging, but were aware that others saw them as students who were admitted as part of an access program.” 

Taylor says the book challenges the idea that all first-generation students are similar; they are complex and “understood the intersectional pieces of their lives.” She believes universities and schools need to understand from where students draw support and how to help support and mentor them. 

“We also see the counterstories as telling us how students resisted and challenged the university structure and pushed back on the dominant narrative,” she says. “We have to realize that there are inequities in the institution itself.” 

Practical applications 

These discoveries should help inform the ways universities and individual faculty members work with first-generation students and how they address the students’ needs. 

“The book is a useful teaching tool,” James says. “I have used it with teachers and assigned various teachers a student in the book so they could compare their own stories, and participants identified with different stories. Many of them talked of having similar students in their classes.” 

He has also used the book with graduate students when teaching Education in the Urban Context. 

“They liked the book and were able to identify with some of the experiences, and they pointed out that some of the students didn’t always see their own privileges.” The book also dovetails nicely with York’s academic priority, from access to success, as set forth in the University Academic Plan. 

Article originally published on May 18, 2023 on YFile.

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�첥��Ƶ will honour two esteemed faculty members during its 2023 Spring Convocation with a Distinguished Research Professorship and a University Professorship.

A Distinguished Research Professor is a member of faculty who has made outstanding contributions to the University through research and whose work is recognized within and outside of the University, and this year will recognize Professor Carl James. He will receive the honour during the Faculty of Education convocation ceremony on Friday, June 16.

A University Professor is a member of faculty recognized for extraordinary contributions to scholarship and teaching and participation in university life, and this year will celebrate the work of Professor Marcia Annisette. She will receive the honour during the Schulich School of Business convocation ceremony on Friday, June 23.

In accordance with the Senate Policy on Honorific Professorships, the committee may select up to two recipients each year up to a maximum of 30 active University Professors and 30 active Distinguished Research Professors.

Distinguished Research Professor – Carl James, Faculty of Education

Carl James is a professor in the Faculty of Education with cross-appointments in the graduate programs in sociology, social and political thought, and social work. He holds the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora and is also senior advisor on equity and representation in the Office of the Vice-President of Equity, People and Culture.

Nominator Lisa Farley, associate dean, research in the Faculty of Education, wrote that James is “an outstanding, highly sought-after scholar by a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside of York: national and international scholarly associations, community partners, graduate students, public media and universities that regard his expert knowledge as paramount to actioning their own objectives.”

James is widely recognized for his research contributions in the areas of intersectionality of race with ethnicity, gender, class and citizenship as they shape identification/identity; the ways in which accessible and equitable opportunities in education and employment account for the lived experiences of marginalized community members; and the complementary and contradictory nature of sports in the schooling and educational attainments of racialized students. In advocating on education for change, James documents the struggles, contradictions and paradoxes in the experiences of racialized students at all levels of the education system. In doing so, he seeks to address and move us beyond the essentialist, generalized and homogenizing discourses that account for the representation and achievements of racialized people – particularly Black Canadians – in educational institutions, workplaces, and society generally.

“I am very appreciative of this honour and for the recognition that all have shown – especially Lisa Farley – for my contributions over the years,” said James of receiving the honour. “And as I have always said, I am grateful to everyone – colleagues, students, family members, friends, research respondents and community members – for supporting me over the years. For afterall, through these supports, I have attained these accomplishments.”

His contributions to the field and the high quality of his work are underlined by his strong publication record, with 12 authored or co-authored books, 12 edited books, 81 book chapters, 40 referred journal articles, 32 reports, and a good number of policy interventions over the past 30 years. Many of these works are recognized as groundbreaking and continue to be relevant today. James has had immense success in securing external research funding from a diversity of funding agencies, and, in the last six years alone, he has secured over $6 million in funding as the principal investigator (PI), co-PI or project lead.

James is the recipient of numerous institutional, national and international awards, including the Killam Prize in the Social Sciences in 2022, the President’s Research Impact Award in 2021, and Fellow, Royal Society of Canada – Academy of Social Sciences in 2012. James has also been recognized with many community awards, including Outstanding Service to Canadian Black Scientists in 2023, Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence from the Ontario Alliance of Black Educators in 2019, and the Professional Excellence Award, Harry Jerome Award from Black Business & Professional Association in 2013.

University Professor – Marcia Annisette, Schulich School of Business

Marcia Annisette is a professor of accounting at �첥��Ƶ’s Schulich School of Business. She previously served as associate dean, students and director of Schulich’s Master of Accounting program, and was previously the School’s associate dean, academic. Nominated by Schulich Dean Detlev Zwick, Annisette is noted for having made extraordinary contributions to the University through her service, teaching and research.

With contributions dating back more than 15 years, Annisette is noted for her role as area coordinator (equivalent to department Chair) in the accounting area from 2007 to 2010, where she played an active role in curriculum development, recruitment and mentoring of junior faculty and staffing of courses. Following her term as area coordinator, Annisette began to work on developing the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program and became its director in 2013 with the official launch of the program.

“Her effectiveness in leading and reshaping Schulich’s activities in accounting is one of the many reasons why I consider her so worthy of the University Professorship,” says Zwick in his nomination letter.

With respect to the service roles she has taken on at the faculty level – including associate dean, students and associate dean, academic – Zwick notes that Annisette “has demonstrated an ability to be a constructive and creative administrator who consistently goes well beyond the basic requirements of the role.”

“It is an honour to be awarded the University Professorship. Academic service has given me the privilege to work with the most talented and committed faculty and staff at Schulich and across the University,” says Annisette. “This rich variety of high-quality encounters has only served to enhance my own effectiveness as a teacher and as a scholar. I am particularly indebted to Schulich Dean Emeritus Dezso Horvath and Dean Detlev Zwick for giving me the opportunity and privilege to serve.”

The nomination was supported by Faculty of Education Professor Carl James, who noted her participation as a faculty associate of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education Community & Diaspora and as an administration representative of the Joint Committee of Affirmative Action (JCAA). She has also served as a senator and a member of the Senate Executive Committee.

Annisette regularly publishes in top-tier journals in her field and several of her papers have won awards. Her major research interest is in the social organization of the accountancy profession. In particular, her research seeks to understand the strategies deployed by professional accounting bodies to differentiate themselves and achieve monopoly or elite status in the market for expert accounting labour. Her research has an international breath and includes studies of the profession in Ireland, England, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada. Her research is also historically and sociological informed and specifically looks at the manner in which national bases of social exclusion such as religion, social class, race, nationality or immigration status, interact with professional structures to achieve professional closure.

In 2018 she was appointed editor-in-chief of Accounting Organizations and Society, the top tier academic journal for interdisciplinary research in accounting, and serves on the editorial board of 13 other academic accounting journals.

For a full list of convocation ceremonies, visit this website.

Article originally published in the June 14, 2023 issue of 

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Annette Henry, a professor of language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, knows Black students in Canada feel alienated by post-secondary institutions because they tell her about it.

“They’re racially profiled, they don’t have access to sources of information, funding, opportunities, scholarships, bursaries in the same way,” Henry said, adding she recently completed a study on Black graduate students’ experiences. Students, Henry added, especially those who come from African countries, are assumed by many professors to have no knowledge base of their own, but rather arrive as blank slates.

“For example, a student who was an A student, a couple of professors made assumptions that because she’s a single mother of three children, that this was not the place for her, that she wouldn’t succeed.”

This alienation can lead to low confidence in university success for Black youth in Canada. Data from the last census found that although 94% of Black youth wanted a university degree, only 60% thought they would achieve it. In contrast, only 82% of non-Black Canadian youth wanted a university degree, but nearly 80% believed they would achieve it.

A new program spread across five Canadian universities is examining how post-secondary institutions can provide support and security to Black students, while also collecting much-needed research on the social and academic experiences and outcomes of Black high school and undergraduate students.

The program, called Securing Black Futures, has received $1.2 million in funding from the Royal Bank of Canada’s Future Launch. The program will be run by Carl James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at �첥��Ƶ, in collaboration with project leads Henry at UBC; Juliet Daniel, associate dean of research and international relations at McMaster University; Jennifer Adams, Canada Research Chair in Creativity and STEM and Kevin Hewitt, professor in the physics and atmospheric science department at Dalhousie University.

Read the full story in .

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Funds laid out in the federal government’s spring budget will guarantee long-term support for research and other initiatives at �첥��Ƶ that create pathways to education for Black youth and future Black scholars.

Released April 7, Budget 2022 “proposes to provide $1.5 million in 2022-23 to the Department of Canadian Heritage for a federal contribution towards an endowment which would support the ongoing activities of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora.”

Held by �첥��Ƶ Professor Carl E. James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora focuses on addressing the systemic barriers and racial inequities in the Canadian education system to improve educational and social outcomes for Black students.

“This federal contribution will ensure the longevity of the Chair and hence the opportunities and pathways that are being created now through the research, educational and community activities for Black youth and future Black scholars,” said James, who is also the senior advisor on equity and representation in the Office of the Vice-President of Equity, People and Culture at �첥��Ƶ. “It’s rewarding to know the work of the Chair to support Black youth across the country is being recognized and given this important boost by the Canadian government.”

The Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora was launched in 2008 by Jean Augustine, the first Black Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons, and the first Black Canadian to be appointed to the Federal Cabinet. It is one of only two endowed university Chairs in Canada dedicated to research and knowledge mobilization endeavours on Black and African-descended communities.

 The Chair seeks to:

• foster an understanding of the diverse cultural and educational needs of students;
• facilitate leadership on matters of access, equity, inclusivity and social justice;
• strengthen university-community partnerships and engagement; and
• build educational and social capacity among students, junior scholars and community members.

“The funding proposed by the federal government will enable the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora to continue to build on and advance the excellent work being undertaken at �첥��Ƶ to support Black scholars and address systemic barriers in education,” said Amir Asif, vice-president, research and innovation. “The research being undertaken by Professor James is driving positive change for Black youth in Canada, and I’m pleased that the government has decided to support the work of the Chair.”

Learn more about the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora and the current Chair Carl E. James.

Article from the April 12, 2022 issue of

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The system for granting federal research funding in Canada fails to give Black scientists the support they need to optimize their work, professors and researchers say. Not providing that stability for researchers may result in a brain drain to other countries, says Lawrence Goodridge, who has worked in the U.S. and Canada. He said one common criterion for determining who gets grant funding in Canada is if a candidate demonstrates leadership or has received grants before.

Carl James, a professor at �첥��Ƶ in Toronto and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, agrees that different life and work experiences from Black and other racialized researchers don't always get the recognition they should by people who review grant applications.

"If you believe that the research is enhanced by the diversity of the people who are doing it, the entire society benefits, because of the diversity, because of the richness of the information that we're getting," James said. 

"We are trying to help Black students go on the path towards the kind of occupations that they might have interest in."

Read the full article published on .

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�첥��Ƶ has strengthened its commitment to the work of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora (JACECD) by matching community contributions up to $500,000.

Rhonda Lenton, the university’s President  & Vice-Chancellor, made the announcement at the virtual launch of a major initiative to address barriers Black youth face in Canada.

Named after the first Black woman elected to the Canadian parliament, the Chair was set up at a period when stakeholders were concerned about the state of education for marginalized youths. Relaunched eight years later in August 2016 to renew community interest in the project, an endowment goal of $3 million was set. A total of $2,044,871 has been raised so far.

With Carl James as the lead, �첥��Ƶ has embarked on a three-year national project to enhance the representation of Black youth at Canadian universities by supporting upper-year high school students in their pursuit of higher education.

It’s expected that about 900 high school and university students along with post-doctoral scholars could benefit through various projects that are part of the ‘Securing Black Futures: A National Partnership to Advance Youth Academic & Career Success’ program.

Read the full article on the .

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Students who have fallen out of the education system due to the pandemic risk forming an underclass with diminished prospects, and the Ontario government needs a major outreach effort to bring missing students back to its classrooms, says the head of a global commission for education recovery.

Carl James, a professor in the faculty of education at Toronto’s �첥��Ƶ who researches the educational inequalities affecting Black students, says it is too early to tell how many students have fallen out of the system during the pandemic.

But he says efforts to reintegrate them and otherwise rethink classroom life will require retraining teachers and rethinking the relationship between them and students.

“That reimagined education should pay attention that we live in an inequitable society with a number of things maintaining that inequity, such as sexism, racism, homophobia, and anti-Indigeneity,” he said, noting that these inequities have been exacerbated by COVID-19.

Read the full article published in the September 7, 2021 issue of Canada’s National Observer .

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Jean Augustine, the first Black woman to be elected to the parliament of Canada, is calling on the community to match a donation of $25,000 in support of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at �첥��Ƶ's Faculty of Education. 

"It is so important for us to see the work of the Chair as being important in our community," says Augustine. "We want to address marginalization. We want to talk about the barriers to an individual's achievements, and where best can we do this than in a teaching environment, a learning environment, a university setting."

The Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora aims to advance access, equity and inclusivity to education and engages in community responsive research and programs that promote equity and social justice.

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Plenty of families this December will be flipping through “T’was the Night Before Christmas," or “A Christmas Carol.” They’re often considered required seasonal entertainment, like “Home Alone” or “Die Hard.”

But two authors of colour are urging parents and children to remember to snuggle up and also read books where the main characters aren’t just white, but also Black, such as in “Grace at Christmas;” Latinx, such as in “Too Many Tamales” and “N is for Navidad;” Asian, such as in “Yoon and the Christmas Mitten;” or South Asian, such as in “The Night the Reindeer Saved Christmas” written by British South Asian author Raj Kaur Khaira.

At the height of protests against anti-Black racism this summer, there was a surge in interest of literature touching on Blackness, race and diverse perspectives. And, at the time, Carl James, professor and Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Education, told CTVNews.ca, it was vital for parents of all races to openly discuss these issues with younger generations and to start while they were constructing ideas about race.

“All of us have different histories and those histories are rooted in the stories that we tell and our relationship to the state so, therefore, it’s not one blank all-racialized group,” he said. “We have to pay attention to some of these differences because those differences inform how we see the different groups.”

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For every 100 dollars donated to a charitable organization in Canada, as little as seven cents go toward supporting Black charities, concludes a new first-of-its kind study of the country's philanthropic sector and its impact on Black communities.

The report by the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities (NABC) at �첥��Ƶ and Carleton University's Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program found Black charities are significantly underfunded in Canada. The researchers say the country's philanthropic sector has "failed" to meet the needs of Black people in Canada. 

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