Black History Month 2026: Celebrating Black History and Liberation
FIFSW events
FIFSW Alumni Association Lecture Series: Black History Month events
Featured presenter
Renata Hall is a PhD candidate, published Black feminist scholar, Woman of Distinction 2022 Awardee, President’s Award for Outstanding Individual Service Awardee, co-creator of the Learning in Colour digital platform, and former Inclusion and Anti-Racism Education Manager at McMaster University. Now situated as an anti-racist educational consultant at the University of British Columbia, Renata lives all things social justice through her counseling, teaching, and research pursuits. She loves building community connections, challenging marginalization and the status quo.
Session I: Combatting Racial Trauma and Burnout with Afrofuturistic Radical Dreaming
February 23, 2026
6:30 to 8:00pm
Register for Combatting Racial Trauma and Burnout with Afrofuturistic Radical Dreaming
This event is open to all Black identifying persons
This interactive session examines some of the barriers faced by people of African descent. From structural challenges to personal obstacles, we have all encountered moments that tested our strength. Together, we will create a space to learn from one another, to envision possibilities beyond the limits placed on us, and to explore strategies that replenish our spirit, affirm our identity, and ignite our capacity to rise. This is a moment to reconnect with our power, celebrate our resilience, and chart pathways toward collective growth and fulfillment.
Session II: Addressing Historical Inequities: The Role of Allies in Advancing Collective Change
March 2, 2026
6:30 to 8:00pm
Register for Addressing Historial Indequites
This session is open to all allies of the Black community
This interactive session invites Allies into a purposeful exploration of their role in advancing equity and belonging for people of African descent. Building on an understanding of the structural and lived barriers faced by African Canadians, this workshop moves beyond intention to impact. Participants will reflect on power, privilege, and accountability, examine how systems are sustained or disrupted through everyday actions, and learn how to show up with humility, courage, and consistency.
Student event: Black Futures in Social Work: Fireside Chat
February 24, 2026
5:00 to 7:00pm
FIFSW is hosting gathering designed to bring together Black social work students and faculty at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. This relaxed community event will feature brief remarks, meaningful conversation, and a catered meal from a local Black-owned business.
The fireside chat will feature a panel including Professor and Dean Charmaine Williams, Professor Tanya Sharpe, Professor Keith Adamson, and Asante Haughton (MSW student), who will share reflections on Black futures in social work, followed by an open, informal discussion.
A light dinner will be provided. Registration is required. A registration link and more information about this event was sent to all students. Questions? Email fifsw.dean@utoronto.ca.
All students and faculty are welcome to attend this opportunity to connect and build community, bringing together Black social work students and faculty and those joining us in honoring Black excellence.
University of Toronto events
View a list of all events planned across U of T that recognize and honour Black History via U of T’s Black History 365 Calendar.
Black History Month Luncheon
February 26, 2026
11:30am to 2:00pm
Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, Great Hall
Learn more and register for the Black History Month Luncheon
2026 marks year 24 of the University of Toronto’s Annual Black History Month Luncheon, organized and sponsored by the Division of University Advancement and supported by Hart House, the luncheon is a staple celebration and recognition event within the University community that has grown in stature, scope and reach over its many years. As the capstone event to the month long Black History Month activities across the campus and broader community, the luncheon serves as an opportunity to celebrate and recognize black excellence and achievement past, present and future. The event is presented in a welcoming and inclusive environment where stories are shared, lived experience is amplified and diverse community engagement is encouraged.
In case you missed it: Watch “Africentric Social Work,”with Dr. WandaThomasBernard
In a 2014 lecture entitled Racism is Killing Us Softly, Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard stated, “We need to lead the change. I want change yesterday, not 10 years from now.” Ten years later, in this 2024 Distinguished Lecture, Dr. Bernard explores how Africentricsocial work in Canada moved from the margins to the center to create opportunities for systemic change. Using lessons from the field, she highlights transformative practices rooted in Africentricity in her work with families and communities.
This lecture, presented in 2024, was part of the FIFSW Alumni Association Distinguished Speaker Series. Watch it now on YouTube.
Black Faculty making history: recent news & outreach
Listen to Assistant Professor Harry Owen Taylor on The Curiosity Podcast
Assistant Professor Harry Taylor was recently a guest on The Curiosity Project Podcast, for an episode titled “Is Social Isolation as Dangerous as Smoking?” The interview focused on Taylor’s 2023 publication “The State of Loneliness and Social Isolation Research: Current Knowledge and Future Directions.”
Taylor joined FIFSW as an assistant professor in 2021. His research addresses the prevalence, risk factors, and associative health outcomes of social isolation and loneliness among older adult Black Americans.
Find the episode whereever you listen to podcasts, or listen and watch the interview via YouTube.
Read our Q&A with Dr. Harry Taylor.
Follow Professor Tanya Sharpe on instagram
Professor Tanya Sharpe has recently been sharing insight and advice as a Black woman scholar through a series of reels on instagram. Her videos include advice for Black scholars and Black women in the academy. She also speaks about joy as resistance, the power of imagination in research, tools for staying grounded, and insights from her work for and with Black survivors who have lost loved ones to homicide. Sharpe is the founder and director of the Centre for Research & Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (The CRIB) and holds the Endowed Chair in Social Work in the Global Community at FIFSW.
Follow Dr. Sharpe at @drtanyasharpe on Instagram!
Read our recent news stories featuring Dr. Tanya Sharpe.
View this post on Instagram
Inspiring the next generation of learners and leaders
In 2024, FIFSW Dean & Professor Charmaine Williams was featured in a CBC News article and segment on four Black academic leaders at the University of Toronto.
“I certainly think representation matters. I think that it’s important not only for Black students but for other students who don’t see people like them in this space to see us representing that possibility,” Williams told the CBC. Read the full article and watch the segment on CBC’s website.
Williams was appointed Dean of FIFSW in 2023, after serving for a year as Interim Dean. Her research bridges practice and access and equity issues that affect various populations including racial minority women, LGBTQ individuals in a local and international context, and individuals and families affected by serious and persistent mental illnesses. She has also been involved in organizational change initiatives in the health care sector and has extensive experience developing and delivering professional education in the areas of anti-racism, cultural competence, mental health and addictions. Recent activities include serving on the expert panel for the Mental Health of Black Canadians Initiative at the Public Health Agency of Canada and serving on the Anti-Racism Advisory Panel that developed the Toronto Police Service’s race-based data collection policy.
Read more recent news featuring Dr. Charmaine Williams.
Redefining Primary health care and social work education
MSW Director and Associate Professor Keith Adamson helped lead a summit in the fall of 2025 that brought together social work clinicians, researchers, teachers, and policy makers from across the country advanced a strategy to redefine primary health care with social work among the essential contributors. Adamson and his fellow summit organizers aim to contribute to a Canada-wide strategy for primary health care involving multiple disciplines. Adamson is also working with the Council of Social Work Education to develop a new guide on involving services users in social work education.
Adamson’s research seeks to explore innovative pedagogical approaches to interprofessional education and practice, research that explores new roles for social work within a changing healthcare system, as well as research that explores how compassionate care and empathy can be enhanced in social work education through collaboration with service users, clients and their families.