Robson Hall presents the 13th Annual DeLloyd J. Guth Visiting Lecture in Legal History featuring Dr. Barrington Walker
Dr. Walker will be speaking on: “Inchoate Citizens: Black Canadians, Law and the Racial State.”
Abstract
This presentation draws from published work and works in progress. It explores the Canadian racial state formation, law and the Black Canadian experience over time. The talk will begin with a discussion of slavery, law and the question of freedom. It will move to a discussion of Black Canadians and citizenship in the post slavery era and the law’s role in both supporting the conditions of Black unfreedom and providing an avenue for contesting it.
About Dr. Walker
Dr. Barrington Walker is a Professor in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He is Associate Vice-President of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the Office of the Provost and VP Academic.
In his biography, Dr. Walker describes his research as follows:
“A historian of Modern Canada, my work focuses on the histories of Blacks, race immigration and the law. It seeks to illuminate the contours of Canadian modernity by exploring Canada’s emergence as racial state through its histories of white supremacy, slavery, colonization/immigration, segregation and Jim Crowism. Much of my work considers how these practices were legitimized, and in some instances contested, by the rule of law and legal institutions.”