2024 Update

• Continued to contribute to regular meetings of U of T’s tri-campus English committee on anti-racism and equity.
• Revised PTR policy to match the values of our department’s anti-racism statement and goals.
  • Shared the updated policy with UTM’s vice-dean, faculty, who has used it with other departments as a model of successful equity-centered PTR revisions.

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2022 Update

• Re-assessing PTR guidelines to match the values of the department’s anti-racism statement and goals.
• Supporting progress on the tri-campus graduate department’s committee for anti-racism and equity.

2024 Update

• Completed work by our anti-oppression task force on Theatre and Drama, implementing its recommendations, including by creating an advisory council to support equity work going forward.
• Expanded and revised the department’s curriculum, continuing to add new courses in Black literature and Black studies, along with first-ever courses in Caribbean literature and Black British literature.
• Continued to provide financial support for the BIPOC Student Association in Theatre and Drama.
• Enabled growth of Literature is Alive!, our department-based group focused on literature and social justice.
• Continued to prioritize funding for departmental events that promote anti-racist scholarship.
• Focusing on inclusive excellence in faculty and sessional hiring.

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2022 Update

• Continuing to fund an association for Black, Indigenous, and racialized theatre students; planning to support a similar group for English students, which will build on the track record of Black editors for the student journal.
• Continuing to fund an anti-oppression task force in Theatre and Drama, comprised of racialized graduates who help inform the program’s selection process and organize mentorship panels and events.
• Changed the English curriculum to require specialists to take at least two courses in race, Indigeneity, and diaspora, including courses in Black literature and Black studies.
• Continuing to fund events that promote anti-racist scholarship, including this year’s Conference on Race Before Race, organized by Profs. Liza Blake and Urvashi Chakravarty from UTM and UTSC.

2024 Update

• Focused on inclusive excellence in faculty hires, including by hiring two Black scholars in tenure-track positions.
  • Nominated Professor Leticia Ridley for a Canada Research Chair.
  • Made use of the Chair’s Postdoctoral Fellowship as a pathway to the professoriate for Black and racialized researchers, including for Professor Signy Lynch in 2023.

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2022 Update

• Continuing to focus on equity and anti-racism in faculty hires, including in our four most recent searches, all of which hired a Black, Indigenous, or racialized candidate.
• Leading an international job search in 2022 for a new assistant professor in Black and Diasporic Theatre; actively lobbying for more faculty positions for Black, Indigenous, and racialized candidates.
• Using our postdoctoral fellowship program to promote anti-racist scholarship—e.g., the 21 Black Futures Project—and create a pipeline to the tenure-track for racialized scholars.
• Expanding curriculum to include more courses in Black literature and Black studies, including the new Caribbean Literature; African American Literature; Black Feminist Poetics; and Black Women’s Writing.