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“There's a lot more Black students now,” he says. “I could go days [as a student] where I didn't see any other Black people. I think Dalhousie's made a lot of progress in terms of supports for minority students, or students of colour.”

Originally from Ann Arbor, MI, Dr. Whitfield has been contributing to those changes in several ways. In 2024, he became the first Centennial Carnegie Chair in the History of Slavery in Canada at both Dal and the University of King’s College. He was also a member of the Lord Dalhousie Scholarly Panel on Slavery and Race.

“They asked me to be a historical consultant while I was a professor at the University of Vermont,” says Dr. Whitfield. “It was an opportunity to help raise the level of consciousness about these issues, to get people thinking about how we can make things better. For example, working on the Black and African Diaspora Studies program and putting more money into the history department for research on these topics. That’s important not only for Black Nova Scotians, but also white Nova Scotians.”

The Black and African Diaspora Studies program in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is one of several initiatives Dalhousie has launched to advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) based on recommendations the panel made in its 2019 report. Other efforts include progress made by the African Nova Scotian Strategy, the appointment of Grace Jefferies-Aldridge (BA’00) as Dal’s first head of people and culture, and the hiring of Dr. Wanda Costen as the university’s new provost and vice president academic.

“In the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies, there are administrators who are very keen on supporting the report’s recommendations,” Dr. Whitfield says. “That hasn’t always been the case. That’s not to say people didn’t care 20 years ago, but it wasn’t the same."

"Are we on the right track? Yes. Could we tweak things slightly? Sure. But, overall, I’m encouraged. And if I wasn’t, I’d leave.”

Meaningful work in Black history and racism

Dr. Whitfield is equally encouraged by how he has been received as the Centennial Carnegie Chair. He has given pro bono talks on racism, delivered lectures, and worked with people in the community who are researching Black history and racism. But the most rewarding aspect has been the reaction from students to the courses he teaches, which cover topics such as African Nova Scotian history, the rise and fall of the slave-holding republic, slavery and freedom in the Americas, and slavery and American political culture.

“They’ve told me how meaningful it is for them,” Dr. Whitfield says. I’m lucky in the sense that they are self-selecting, so they really want to know about the history. My job as the Chair is to say there are ramifications of slavery that we need to talk about.”

For the most part, Dr. Whitfield believes African Heritage Month helps advance those conversations, in particular the ways in which key figures in Nova Scotia’s history, such as Lord Dalhousie, reflected attitudes toward or helped perpetuate slavery and anti-Black racism. But he says it is crucial that those conversations acknowledge that slavery was not a monolithic experience.

“I try to show my students that an enslaved Black woman who lived in Halifax or Boston had a very different life from someone who lived in Georgia or Barbados,” he says. “They came from diverse places, had different owners, and settled in different places. And all of that mattered.”