“Multicultural Snake Oil” and Black Cultural Criticism

Abstract

McNeil via Zoom. McNeil's teaching and scholarship bring together history, cultural studies, diaspora studies, and cognate fields of inquiry to explore the complexities of global Black communities. After receiving his PhD in history from the University of Toronto in 2007, he was a lecturer in media and cultural studies at the University of Hull (2007-2010) and Newcastle University (2010-2012). Between 2012 and 2014 he was the Ida B. Wells-Barnett visiting professor of African and Black diaspora studies at DePaul University in Chicago. McNeil returned to Canada in 2014 as an associate professor of history and chair of the migration and diaspora studies initiative at Carleton University. In 2019-2020, he was the inaugural visiting public humanities faculty fellow at the University of Toronto, a position open to citizens of all countries who are tenured faculty members with a history of research achievement and who have the capacity to present their research across disciplinary and institutional boundaries; a demonstrated track record of bringing humanities research into the public realm for discussion, debate, and examination; and a promise of continued excellence. McNeil is currently a professor at Queen's University and Queen's National Scholar Chair in Black studies with a focus on interdisciplinary studies of liberation and decolonial praxis.Thinking While Black, his book about the political aspirations and cultural achievements of soul rebels, Black Atlantic intellectuals, and planetary humanists over the past fifty years, will be published by Rutgers University Press and Between the Lines in 2022.The conversation is edited for clarity and length.

Navigating Identity and Belonging: The Experiences of Black African Refugee Youth in Higher Education Institutions in Canada

“…I also tried to cultivate space for joy, despite the painful and traumatic experiences that were being shared. As noted by McNeil andRussill (2021) andMcNeil (2022), struggle can involve politically infused acts of pleasure which can be lively, radical, and educational. Therefore, in thinking of struggle as joy, both laughter and tears were present in this process.…”