Concordia adds new certificate option to Black Studies program
For third-year Concordia student Anaïssa Dauphin, pursuing a Minor in Black and African Diaspora Studies in the Canadian Context has been more than textbooks and lectures. It’s also been a chance to connect with history, community and ideas that extend far beyond the classroom.
“You really get classes from different disciplines: sociology, history, religion, communications. It really touches everything and gives you access to another world,” she says.
A Journalism major, Dauphin shares her experience through her popular Instagram series, Black Studies Diaries. She is part of the first cohort in a program that has already made history in Quebec as the first of its kind, with its unique focus on situating Black presence in the Canadian context.
One year after the Minor’s launch, and as Black History Month begins, the program is expanding: a new certificate will welcome its first students in September 2026, with a graduate microprogram also in development.
The 30-credit certificate was created to open the program to a broader community of students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in a major at the university. It will include three core courses: Introduction to Black Studies in the Canadian Context (BLST200), Black Montreal (BLST211) and Race and Ethnic Relations (BLST230). Students can choose from electives in literature, music and the arts, post- and decolonial narratives, and special topics.
Program director Christiana Abraham says student engagement has been fundamental to the program’s development, a priority reflected in BLST 200, the class she teaches.
“We have introduced students to Black studies in the Canadian context through an exciting range of themes and approaches such as Black political thought, with a focus on seminal ideas from Black Canadian scholars. We’ve had lots of subject matter and community experts coming to class and some joining us on Zoom. It’s been incredible to see students connect with scholars they’re reading in the course,” she says.
Abraham adds that for many Black students, the program creates a range of spaces in the arts and social sciences where “essential questions they’ve been asking themselves about Blackness and cultural production throughout their lives can be studied in scholarly ways.”
“By centering Black histories, cultures and lived experiences that have long been underrepresented in school curricula, our program invites students to understand Blackness in Canada through an interdisciplinary lens grounded in both local realities and global connections. It offers a space for all students to engage with silenced histories about Black presence, contributions and lived experiences in Canada, and its diasporic interconnections,” she says.
Certificate responds to student demand
The certificate grew directly out of student demand, according to Angélique Willkie, special advisor to the provost on Black integration and knowledges and Contemporary Dance professor.
“Much of the catalyst came from intense interest from students and prospective students when we announced the minor last year,” she says.
Unlike the minor, which requires students to be enrolled in a major, the certificate will be open to non-degree learners, including alumni, students from other universities, and Concordia staff.
Willkie emphasizes that the program is for everyone.
“As much as one might think these programs are for Black students, that’s not the case. They’re about Black thought and history and that is everyone’s history,” she says. “The program is for all students interested in being able to sit in the world we live in, here in this moment and geographic place, with generous awareness.”
For current student Miguel Marcheterre-Pina, openness is part of the appeal.
“It’s not always easy. It can be confronting. But you have to see it in a way that’s going to stimulate you. If you want a challenge, to dig deeper than what’s on the surface, then apply.”
