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Educational resources

Workshops

Human Rights and Equity Services is pleased to offer diversity and inclusion related workshops to the Dalhousie community. These open sessions will create opportunities for discussion, growth, and community engagement.

To request a presentation, workshop, or education-based trainings please email HRES@dal.ca.  Please note that we do our best to accommodate all requests, however, due to the high volume received at certain times of year and availability of resources, we cannot guarantee confirmation of all requests.

Anti-Racism 101 Module  

The asynchronous Anti-Racism Module (login required) provides a foundational overview of the ways in which anti-racism manifests within us, on our campuses, and in our communities. It explores concepts such as microaggressions, unconscious bias, Anti-Black and Anti-Indigenous racism, accountability, and more. The workshop provides avenues of learning but most importantly implores as all to commit to changing our behaviours, attitudes, and actions today. 

Dalhousie faculty, staff, and students can register and access the module via Brightspace; once registered, the module will appear in your Courses. Please let us know if you have any questions or difficulty accessing the material by emailing HRES@dal.ca.

Days of acknowledgement, awareness, and action

Members within our community observe, reflect and celebrate a vast array of  important cultural and religious days of significance. This calendar is a non-exhaustive list of commemorative days, weeks and months that we have compiled for greater community acknowledgement, awareness and action.

Download the 2024 calendar

Looking for definitions and clarification on social justice terminology?

Learn your social justice terms
Dal group marches in Pride Parade

Educational resources list

Please note this is a non-exhaustive list of resources that we have compiled. We will be updating this list regularly. If you are aware of additional resources not included here, please contact us via HRES@dal.ca  

Anti-Black racism

Black Canadian Authors:

  • Burnley "Rocky" Jones Revolutionary by Burnley "Rocky" Jones & James St. G. Walker
  • There's Something in the Water by Ingrid Waldron
  • Live from the Afrikan Resistance by El Jones
  • The Hanging of Angelique by Afua Cooper
  • Black Like Who? by Rinaldo Walcott
  • The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole
  • Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard
  • Riot by Andrew Moodie
  • Bluesprint by Wayde Compton
  • Dear Philomena by Mugabi Byenkya
  • Black Canadians by Joseph Mensah
  • Sister to Courage by Wanda Robson
  • Ma-Ka Diasporic Juks by Debbie Douglas, Courtnay Mcfarlane, Makeda Silvera, Douglas Stewart (eds.)
  • Coloured Zion by Donna Byard Sealey
  • Theorizing Empowerment by Njoki Nathani Wane and Notisha Massaquoi
  • Black Life: Post BLM and the Struggle for Freedom by Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi
  • Until We are Free by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, Syrus Marcus Ware (eds.)
  • Hood Feminism by Mikki endall

Abolitionist Books

  • Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis 
  • Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
  • Carceral Capitalism by Jackie Wang
  • Blood in My Eye by George L. Jackson
  • Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex edited by Nat Smith, Eric A. Stanley
  • The End of Policing by Alex Vitale 
  • Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
  • Beyond Survival edited by Ejeris Dixon, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
  • Fumbling Towards Repair by Mariame Kaba, Shira Hassan 
  • As Black as Resistance by Zoe Samudzi, William C. Anderson 
  • Abolition Now! 10 Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex by Critical Resistance  

Black Marxist Books

  • Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson

African Heritage Month Books

Poetry

  • She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks by M. NourbeSe Philip, 2015
  • Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou, 2015 
  • The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, 1995 

Memoirs

  • Invisible Shadows: A Black Woman's Life in Nova Scotia by Verna Thoma, 2002
  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, 1853; 2013 edition 

Historical Fiction

  • Africville by Shauntay Grant, illustrated by Eva Campbell, 2018  

Problematic Books

  • White Fragility by Robin Dangelo 

Why it's problematic: The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility article in The Atlantic

Films that are problematic, and that follow 'white saviour' narratives:

  • The Help (2011) dir. Tate Taylor
  • Green Book (2018) dir. Peter Farrelly 

Queer Black Films:

  • Portrait of Jason (1967) dir. Shirley Clarke
  • Looking for Langston (1989) dir. Isaac Julien
  • Tongues United (1989) dir. Marlon Riggs
  • Paris is Burning (1990) dir. Jennie Livingston
  • Young Soul Rebels (1991) dir. Isaac Julien 
  • Black is... Black Ain't (1995) dir. Marlon Riggs
  • To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) dir. Douglas Carter Beane
  • The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir. Cheryl Dunye
  • Chocolate Babies (1997) dir. Stephen Winter 
  • Venus Boyz 2002) dir. Gabrielle Baur
  • Brother to Brother (2003) dir. Rodney Evans 
  • Still Black: A Portrait of Black Trans men (2008) dir. Kortney Ryan Ziegler 
  • Pariah (2011) dir. Dees Rees
  • Blackbird (2014) dir. Patrik-Ian Polk
  • Dope (2015) dir. Rick Famuyiwa 
  • Tangerine (2015) dir. Sean Baker
  • Naz & Malik (2015) dir. Jay Dockendorf
  • Moonlight (2016) dir. Barry Jenkins
  • Rafiki (2018) dir. Wanuri Kakiu
  • Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020) dir. Sam Feder  

Documentaries:

  • First Australians: The Untold Story of Australia
  • I am not your Negro
  • The Tall Man
  • 3 1/2 Minutes. Ten Bullets
  • The House I Live In
  • We are the Giant
  • Putaparri and the Rainmakers
  • Quest
  • Do Not Resist
  • Westwind: Djalu's Legacy 

Decolonization

Idle No More

 

Courses

4 Seasons of Reconciliation course offered through Dal Libraries is an online course that provides comprehensive and decolonialized education in a multi-media format. 

Mental health

Gender and sexuality

She Coined the Term ‘Intersectionality’ Over 30 Years Ago. Here’s What It Means to Her Today

"Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination

Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" by Kimberle Crenshaw

Kimberlé Crenshaw on Twitter: @sandylocks

Rethinking Gender – Trans Inclusive Spaces and Practices 

What does it mean to create spaces and practices that are inclusive for people of various gender identities?

Nolan Pike, a writer, and community educator whom many Dal staff, faculty and leaders have benefitted from his training in the past, created an online learning program that looks specifically at what it means to be inclusive of gender diversity, and what each one of us can do to be more inclusive of the transgender community. As much as we are becoming more informed about transgender identities, there is a lot of misinformation that we are likely to have come across in our lives. This online program takes us through a journey starting with the basics of what is meant when words like transgender, gender identity, and gender expression are said, then will address some of the common misconceptions about different issues before diving deeper into the subject to explore practical actions we can take to make our workplace and our communities more inclusive for people with diverse range of gender identities and expressions.

Dalhousie HR has bought this program to be available for our community. We encourage you to take this program and cascade it internally to your faculties/departments. This course should take 2 – 3 hours to complete depending on your pace and your engagement with bonus content. We recommend you take 2 – 3 breaks while completing the course, and you can also take it on multiple occasions as your progress will be saved when you return. To access the course, please follow these steps:

1. Click on this link: Course curriculum 
2. Create an account using your Dalhousie email address. 
3. Click on Enroll Now 
4. Access the course through "My Courses" in the menu items on the top of the page.

 

Sexualized violence

  • I Still Believe Anita Hill: Three Generations Discuss the Legacy of Speaking the Truth to Power by Amy Richards and Cynthia Greenberg

  • Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality by Toni Morrison  

  • Speaking Truth to Power by Anita Hill

  • Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay  

  • Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti 

  • Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding  

  • I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass 

  • I Never Called It Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape by Robin Warshaw, Gloria Steinem, Salamishah Tillet  

  • Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence by Lisa Factora-Borchers and Aishah Shahidah Simmons

  • Ask: Building Consent Culture by Kitty Stryker, Carol Queen, and Laurie Penny  

  • Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support by Cindy Crabb

  • Consent on Campus: A Manifesto by Donna Freitas  

  • Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence by Lexie Bean, Dean Spade and Nyala Moon  

  • Promising Young Woman (2020) dir. Emerald Fennell
  • Unbelievable (2019) dir. Susannah Grant and Michael Chabon. Netflix Series 

Video

The Learning Network 

Neighbours, Friends, and Families - Ending Domestic Violence Together

Draw the Line

White Ribbon Campaign

 

Workshops

Break the Silence NS Provincial Training

Speak Up & Stay Safe(r): A Guide to Protecting Yourself from Online Harassment

This resource list is designed to inform Dalhousie University's community. It was designed in the wake of George Floyd's murder with the aim of providing social and historical context to the events of the summer of 2020 and for generations past. This resource guide provides tools and resources to unpack issues of justice, race, colonialism, sexualized violence, and other forms of oppression. This guide provides links to articles, papers, books, social media channels, and videos about racism and activism in Canada.