Resisting Invisibility: Black Faculty in Art and Art History in Canada

"There is an ongoing invisibility and even erasure of talented black intellectuals, artists, writers and scholars in the Canadian academy. But we also need to acknowledge and challenge the dominant lens through which this invisibility tends to be examined. Contrary to popular belief, not all issues, objects, events and materials of relevance to race, racism, colonialism, slavery and the Black Diaspora can be situated within or examined from the perspective of social science disciplines such as politics, sociology, psychology or law. Art and visual culture more broadly were and continue to be central to western programs of slavery, colonialism and ongoing conditions of racial oppression and marginalization.  Monarchs, colonial administrators and European citizens had to be convinced of the rightness of the colonial project and the morality and economic viability of empire building."
-Charmaine Nelson

Charmiane is the only black female art historian in Canada, teaching Black Diasporic Art at McGill University. I find this alarming and infuriating, that there is a lack of accessibility to Black History and Black Art History studies in Canadian universities. Why is this so?
The neglect of Afro-American art, history and distortion of the facts concerning Negroes in most history books, is the  deprivation of a heritage, that plays a valuable role in Canadian and American Culture. A knowledge of history is crucial if we want an understanding of the past in relationship to current discourse. Historical ignorance breeds contemporary ignorance!


Here is a link to Charmiane speaking about the presence or lack there of African representation at the  UAAC Universities Art Association of Canada annual convention and the American equivalent CAA  College Art Association.
http://www.congress2013.ca/blog/resisting-invisibility-black-faculty-art-and-art-history-canada