Funké Aladejebi: “I Don’t Know if I Should Say This”

Highlighting Black women’s individual and collective choices, this presentation argues that the uses and approaches of oral history methodologies can be understood as a Black feminist practice that is both political and restorative in nature. By considering the tones, silences, pauses, laughter, and body language present during the oral interview process, the practice of oral history within Black communities does not consider research participants as mere subjects of historical analysis, but rather, engaged knowledge producers who made deliberate and conscious choices about the stories they discussed.

Dr. Aladejebi is the inaugural Wendy J. Robbins Professor in Gender & Women’s Studies. Professor Robbins was one of the founders of GWS at UNB. Dr. Aladejebi researches African Canadian history and holds a PhD in Canadian History from York University. Her dissertation won the Mary McEwan Memorial Award for outstanding feminist scholarship. She is currently working on two book projects; one investigates the ways in which black Canadian women confronted and navigated socially constructed boundaries of racial alienation, limited institutional support and inequality within Ontario school systems. The second is a collection of essays titled, Unsettling the Great White North: African Canadian History, which explores the histories of African Canadian, Canadian, and African Diasporic communities across chronological, regional and thematic subjects.

All are welcome…please bring your lunch!

Our next Feminist Lunch Series talk will begin again in January! Stay tuned for the lineup.

The Feminist Lunch Series is organized by the UNB Gender & Women’s Studies Program, the UNB/STU University Women’s Centre and the Office of the UNB Dean of Arts. For more information on the series, contact Sophie Lavoie (lavoie@unb.ca).