By Lincoln DePradine

Master’s degree student Silja Mitange has never regretted the day she applied to, and was accepted, to work with the Jean Augustin Chair (JAC) in Education, Community, and Diaspora at York University (YU).

“It’s been amazing. We’re all family here,” Mitange told The Caribbean Camera.

She made the comment at an “Appreciation Gathering” at YU, where the JAC is located.

“We want to recognize and express our gratitude and appreciation for the people we’ve been working with; the people who invited us to be part of their community,” Carl E. James, a York University professor, explained in an interview. “We want to have them see what we’ve been doing and for them to get a chance to talk to the team of people with whom I’m working.”

James is chair of the JAC that was established in 2008 with several goals, including forging a more inclusive and equitable educational and social environment in Ontario and in Canada.

James and his JAC team members, through the use of scholarly research, are attempting to address systemic barriers to advance access, equity and inclusivity for African-Canadians and to open new opportunities for them.

The JAC says, among other things, it is seeking to “foster an understanding of the diverse cultural and educational needs of students”; to “strengthen university-community partnerships and engagement”; and to “build educational and social capacity among students, junior scholars and community members”.

The Jean Augustine Chair lists its “programmatic areas of focus” as not only education, but also employment, health, housing and social justice, through activities such as partnerships and student and community engagement.

The JAC, which is affiliated with York University’s faculty of education, is named after Grenada-born Jean Augustine, 87, a retired Liberal Party MP and former federal cabinet minister.

Augustine, the first Black woman elected to the parliament of Canada, was MP for Etobicoke—Lakeshore from 1993 to 2006, and served as parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, as well as Minister of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of women.

She also has served on the board of governors of York University, and holds Honourary Doctors of Laws from the University of Toronto, McGill University and Trent University.

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The federal government announced last year that it was providing $1.5 million in funding to help sustain the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community, and Diaspora.

Professor James acknowledged that the JAC is now fully funded, with not just the federal funding, but also through support from corporations such as Royal Bank and Walmart.

“Things are going well,” James said in a Caribbean Camera interview at the “Appreciation Gathering”, which was attended by Augustine and professor Rob Savage, dean of the faculty of education at York.

Savage said he was impressed with James’s leadership and also “extremely proud” that the JAC was associated with YU’s faculty of education.

“There are several projects in the faculty and the Jean Augustine Chair is front and centre as one of the most important,” said Savage, who received his PhD from University College London in the United Kingdom, and took up his position at YU in 2021.

“I had never set foot on York Campus ever before in my life, and I had heard about Carl; I had heard about the Jean Augustine Chair,” Savage said.

“Before I arrived, I was really looking forward to meeting Carl and working with him. It was such a pleasure to meet him and talk with him. He’s scholarly and an incredibly impressive individual. Carl is a credit to the chair and the work he does is extremely powerful.”

Mitange said she has been enjoying the JAC experience that includes hosting events, networking and connecting with people, and welcomed the opportunity to be part of “the only 100 percent Black-led research team in all of Canada”.

“Normally, you only find this in the U.S.,” said Mitange, who was born in Angola and came to Canada at eight with her parents.

Her master’s is in communications and culture, focusing on policies and technology. It also involves an examination of how social media influence youth in Canada in making decisions about post-secondary education.

Mitange’s Master’s studies are being jointly undertaken at Toronto Metropolitan University and YU, where she’s the JAC’s social media, engagement and communications lead.

“You learn from others and then you also bring your own knowledge,” Mitange said, describing her participation in the work of the Jean Augustine Chair.

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