Protests & Pedagogy

About the Exhibit

This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the archival records related to the 1969 biology students protest at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University). Between January 29 and February 11, 1969, Canada’s largest student occupation took place in the Henry Hall building, when students took over the seventh and ninth floor computer Centre to protest anti-black racism in science education andpedagogy. By revisiting these events over fifty years later, we ask: what do these archival materials say to us now about scientific education and pedagogy? Many of the existing accounts of the "Sir George Williams affair" have focused on violence: labeling the protest as a riot or emphasizing material damages, and have ignored the cost of racism in science practices and education.

This exhibit offers a re-reading of the protest from Black-centric, grounded-decolonial perspectives that take us on a journey to 1969, where representation meets communal memory as the neglected complexities of the protest come into view.

In collaboration with Concordia University, McMaster University, and the Dalhousie Art Gallery, this exhibit is on display at the Tupper Link (Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building, Dalhousie University, 5850 College Street, Halifax, NS) from Feberuary 23 - March 26, 2024, with a culminating Artist Talk on March 28, 2024.