Territory acknowledgment
We acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
Critical thinking in action
Political science is the study of power, authority and governance in human affairs. We examine the social, economic, cultural, historical, geographical and other forces that generate conflicts in and between societies.
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Canadian Political Science Association Reconciliation Statement on Inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
STANDING AGAINST RACISM AND INTOLERANCE:
Anti-racism statement
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
STATEMENT AGAINST RACISM
16 June 2020
The Department of Political Science stands in solidarity with BlackLivesMatter and those working to confront racism and colonialism in our communities. While the immediate impetus to publicly express our solidarity is the murder of George Floyd and the mobilization of Black communities against anti Black police violence in the United States, we acknowledge and oppose systemic racism and colonialism in Canada and globally, which manifests in economic, political, and social structures, including policing. The killing of Chantal Moore and the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet show that these issues of anti Black racism as well as anti-Indigenous racism are similarly urgent in Canada. In Canada, while systemic racism targets Black peoples and Indigenous peoples differently, police violence disproportionately affects these two communities. We acknowledge that Canada's history of Black slavery, ongoing Indigenous dispossession, racial profiling, racist and sexist immigration policies, violence against Indigenous women and girls, and exploitation of racialized labour are among the injustices that form the foundations of the over-policing and under-protection of marginalized communities in this country today.
We also acknowledge that Canadian political science has failed to adequately study or understand the role of racialization and colonization in the making of power and privilege in this country. We are grateful for the leadership of Indigenous scholars and scholars of colour who have been working on these issues. If you are interested in reading some of this critical scholarship on "race" and the Canadian political science discipline, please see:
Canadian Journal of Political Science "Is Race Political?"
I know that individually, many members of our department have been thinking about how they can best work toward supporting anti-racism initiatives. As a collective, our department commits to critical and thoughtful engagement with these important issues by faculty, staff, and students. We also recognize that there is more work to be done in confronting systemic racism and colonialism as we live, work, and play on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen speaking peoples. Our department will support and participate in the university's anti-racism workshops for faculty members, and will continue our efforts to diversify and decolonize our curriculum. Our department is committed to serious and meaningful engagement; including exploring how we can improve our research, teaching, and student support structures to combat systemic racism, including anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racisms.
Learn more about our research on racism and police violence
- Tough on Crime: The Rise of Punitive Populism in Latin America. Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh University Press, 2019.
- Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. (edited with Guillermina Seri, Mary Rose Kubal, and Michael Kempa)
- "What Democratic Policing Is... And Is Not" Policing and Society. Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2014. 2009.
- "Media as Social Accountability: The case of police violence in Argentina". International Journal of Press/Politics, 14:3, 296-312.
- Clarke, M. (2018). Supporting the 'elite' transition in South Africa: Policing in a violent, neoliberal democracy. In Michelle D. Bonner, Guillermina Seri, Mary Rose Kubal and Michael Kempa (Eds.), Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
- "Relational Othering: Critiquing Dominance, Critiquing the Margins," Politics, Groups and Identities, 2019 DOI: 10.1080/21565503.2019.1691023.
- "Racism as a Workload and Bargaining Issue." 2020. Socialist Studies 14: 1, n.p.
- "A Feminist Approach to Decolonizing Anti-Racism: Rethinking Transnationalism, Intersectionality, and Settler Colonialism." 2015. Feral Feminisms, issue 4, 20-37.
- "Metaphoric Representations of Women of Colour in the Academy: Teaching Race, Disrupting Power." 2014. Co-authored with Adrienne Chan, Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Lisa Moy. borderlands e-journal 13: 2.
- "Unsettling settler colonialism: The discourse and politics of settlers, and solidarity with Indigenous nations." 2014. Co-authored with Corey Snelgrove, Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Jeff Corntassel. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(2): 1-32.
- "Exclusion & Regulated Inclusion: The Case of the Sikh Kirpan in Canada." Sikh Formations (9:1, May 2013: 7-28).
- "Dangerous (Internal) Foreigners and Nation-Building: The Case of Canada," co-authored with Yasmeen Abu-Laban. International Political Science Review. (30: 2, March 2009).
- "Itinerant Subjects of Empire: Unmooring the Komagata Maru," with Davina Bhandar. In Charting Imperial Itineraries, 1914-2014: Unmooring the Komagata Maru. Co-edited by Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Renisa Mawani, Davina Bhandar, and Satwinder Bains (UBC Press 2019).
- "Uncomfortable Comparisons: The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Comparative Context," Les Ateliers de l'éthique 5:2 2010. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ateliers/2010-v5-n2-ateliers03557/1044312ar/
- "Scaling Memory: Reparation Displacement and the Case of BC," Canadian Journal of Political Science 42 2009: 363-386. https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/scaling-memory-reparation-displacement-and-the-case-of-bc/637CF5D5FA0F2BEBEA9A50174A0D8B16
- "Racial Structural Solidarity," Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 2018 http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/eunYJnDIGjtR74KJf7tR/full
- Nohl, A., Schittenhelm, K., Schmidtke, O., and Weiss, A. Work in Transition. Cultural Capital and Highly Skilled Migrants' Passages into the Labour Market. University of Toronto Press (in particular chapter ‘6 Symbolic Struggles over Cultural Capital: Racial Discrimination and Symbolic Exclusion’; pp. 157-202)
- Schmidtke, O. "Towards a cosmopolitan and inclusive European identity? Negotiating immigrants' inclusion and exclusion in the new Europe". In: Salvatore, A., Schmidtke, O. and Trenz, H.J. (eds.) . Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes: Europe and Beyond. New York: Palgrave, 2013, pp. 132-155.
- Randolph B. Persaud and R.B.J. Walker, Editors, "Race, Decoloniality and International Relations," Special Issue of Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 40:2, May 2015. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/alta/40/2
- Randolph B. Persaud and R.B.J. Walker, Editors, "Race in International Relations," Special Issue of Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 26:4, Oct- Dec 2001. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/alta/26/4