Skip to main content.
Bard BerlinBard Berlin
  • About sub-menuAbout Us
    About BCB

    Discover Bard
    College Berlin

    Learn More
    • About Bard College Berlin
      • At a Glance
      • History
      • Governance
      • Accreditation
      • Educational Mission
      • Employment
    • Discover
      • People
      • Apply
      • BCB Merch Shop
      • Donate
      • COVID-19 Safety
      • Search
    • Networks
      • Open Society
        University Network
        (OSUN)
      • Freundeskreis / Circle of Friends
  • Academics sub-menuAcademics
    BCB Academics

    Bard College Berlin offers high-quality small-group teaching in the humanities and social sciences.

    • Degree Programs
      • BA in Economics, Politics,
        and Social Thought
      • BA in Humanities,
        the Arts,and Social Thought
      • BA in Artistic Practice
        and Society
      • Joint BA-Master’s Degree Program
      • Concentrations
      • Core Curriculum
      • German Studies Program
    • Semester and
      One-Year Programs

      • Academy Year Program
      • Project Year Program
      • Arts and Society in Berlin
      • LAB: Liberal Arts Berlin
      • Begin in Berlin
      • Study Abroad
      • Erasmus and Exchange Agreements
    • More Information
      • Courses
      • Internships
      • Certificates
      • Language and Thinking Program
      • Summer Programs
      • Academic Services
  • Admissions sub-menuAdmissions
    BCB Admissions

    Bard College Berlin accepts applications for first-year and transfer admission to its BA degree programs. Students can also apply for one-year programs, such as the Academy Year and Project Year.

    Apply Now
    • Applying to BCB
      • How to Apply
      • Discover BCB
      • Connect with Us
      • Ask a Student
      • Admissions Team
    • Financing Your Studies
      • Tuition and Fees
      • Financial Aid
      • Financial Aid Renewal
      • Scholarships
      • Payment Options
  • Student Life sub-menuStudent Life
    Student Life

    The student body at Bard College Berlin is small yet highly international.

    More About Students
    • Campus Life
      • Dining
      • Housing
      • Facilities
      • Group Housing Rentals
    • Services and Resources
      • Accessibility
      • BCB Orientation
      • Career Services
      • Equal Opportunity, Participation, and Nondiscrimination
      • Gender-Based Misconduct
      • Health & Counseling
      • Internships
      • Student Organizations & Activities
      • Study Abroad
    • For Students
      • Registrar's Office
      • Academic Calendar
      • Student Handbook
      • Jobs & Opportunities
      • Finances
      • Fellowship Opportunities
  • Civic Engagement sub-menuCivic Engagement
    Civic Engagement
    • Areas of Engagement
      • Arts and Society
      • Equal Opportunity, Participation, and Nondiscrimination
      • Education and Language
      • Human Rights and Global Justice
      • Sustainability and Climate
    • Access to Education
      • PIESC
      • Consortium on Forced Migration
      • OLIve
      • Threatened Scholars Integration
      • Smolny Beyond Borders
    • Opportunities
      • Awards and Funding
      • Civic Engagement Fellowship
      • Civic Engagement Certificate
      • Global Engagement
      • Network Courses
      • Project Creation
  • News sub-menuNews + Events
    BCB News
    • Newsroom
      • Events
      • Video Archive
      • Bard College Berlin in the Media
      • Office of Communications
      • For the Media

    Keep up to date with the latest campus news, learn more about upcoming events, read press articles featuring Bard College Berlin, and explore our photo and video archives.

    Learn More
  • Donate
  • Search
News Menu
  • News Archive
  • Events sub-menuEvents
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
  • Video Archive
  • In the Media
  • News Home

Shana Almeida on “Negotiating Discourses of Race in the City of Toronto”

Thursday, November 23, 2017 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST/GMT-5 
Bard College Berlin Lecture Hall

On Thursday, November 23, 2017, Dr. Shana Almeida from York University, School of Social Work, Toronto will give a guest lecture entitled “When ‘Diversity is Our Strength’: Negotiating Discussions and Discourses of Race in the City of Toronto” in the frame of the course “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air” taught by Prof. Dr. Agata Lisiak. 

In 2016, BBC Radio 4 officially declared Toronto, Canada to be the most diverse city on earth. According to BBC reporter Ed Davey, Toronto is most diverse because approximately 51% of Toronto’s population is foreign-born, with over 230 nationalities living there (“WS More or Less: The World’s Most Diverse City”, 2016). Responding to the declaration made by the BBC, Patricia McCarney, Director of Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto, remarked that Toronto’s top ranking is “proof of Toronto’s welcoming attitude to newcomers”, and to its cultural openness (Ngabo, 2016).

How then do we discuss experiences and realities of racism, in a city that is defined by its post-racial sensibilities?

In this presentation, Dr. Almeida draws on several City of Toronto policy documents to demonstrate how the matrix of diversity discourse re-frames claims of racism, making racial Others articulate(d) subjects only to the extent that diversity is reiterated, reproduced and cited by them, and through them. She engages with an understanding of diversity as performative in order to trace and make visible how historical and racial norms become perpetually linked to raced bodies, through texts and speech acts, in order to maintain the ‘diverse’ City of Toronto and its reputation for inclusion on the world stage. In an interesting twist, she also shows how diversity discourse in the City of Toronto both rejects and requires race, in order to reproduce itself.

Dr. Shana Almeida is a scholar, researcher, and activist in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her research and teaching contributions are informed by over eight years of work experience in the municipal government of Toronto, Canada, as Special Advisor to Toronto City Councillor Olivia Chow, and as Chief of Staff to Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks. During her time at the City, Dr. Almeida spearheaded several City-wide policy initiatives, especially in the areas of anti-racism, immigration, employment, recreation, public health, poverty, and housing.
Dr. Almeida completed her Ph.D. in the School of Social Work at York University in Toronto (2016). Her doctoral thesis, an exploration of how race is reproduced and organized through “diversity” discourse in the City of Toronto, provides the foundation for her forthcoming book Toronto the Good? Negotiating Race and Belonging in the Diverse City, with University of Toronto Press. This book represents a significant departure from popular understandings and depictions of diversity and the City of Toronto in that it uniquely attends to the question of what diversity does in and for the City, as a discourse and as a mechanism of power. 
Dr. Almeida has been invited to share her work locally and internationally, including in Toronto, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, and Grahamstown, South Africa.

Admission free

Email: [email protected]
BCB Logo, Address, and Links

Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University gGmbH

Mailing address: Platanenstrasse 24, 13156 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 43733 0
Fax: +49 30 43733 100
Email: [email protected] 
[email protected]

Directions | Contact Us | Impressum | Cookie Policy | Data Policy

Bard College Berlin is institutionally accredited at the national level in Germany by the Wissenschaftsrat.

In the United States, Bard College Berlin is accredited through
Bard College by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Qualifying students receive both a German BA and an American BA. 
© 2024 Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University gGmbH
Wordpress Blog
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Tik Tok