The Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS)

In the 1996-97 academic session, the Department established the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) which brings together faculty and students whose research interests and political commitments are in anti-racism. The Centre provides a supportive research environment, linking communities of colour, marginalised communities, and the university in a pursuit of social justice. The mandate of CIARS, namely, the fostering of interdisciplinary anti-racism studies in education, embraces a broad view of education, defined as how individuals and communities come to know the world and act within it. Students and faculty working in the field of anti-racism are deeply committed to an integrative view: all systems of oppression are interlocked and a study of one such system, racism, necessarily entails a study of class exploitation, sexism, ableism, and heterosexism..

Faculty with direct involvement in this Centre are Dwight Boyd, Kari Dehli (on leave), George Dei, Rose Baaba Folson, Monica Heller, Judy Iseke-Barnes, Helen Lenskyj, Ruth Roach Pierson, Sherene Razack, Kathleen Rockhill (on leave) and Njoki Nathani Wane.