Participant Info

First Name
Melissa N.
Last Name
Shaw
Country
Canada
State
Affiliation
McGill University
Website URL
https://www.mcgill.ca/history/staff/melissa-shaw
Keywords
Black Canadian, race, sociopolitical movements, activism, Black liberation, women’s history, interwar period, oral history, Underground Railroad, slavery, emancipation
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr. Melissa N. Shaw, an Assistant Professor in McGill University’s Department of History and Classical Studies, brings a unique perspective to the field of Black Canadian history. Her work has been published in the Journal of African American History, Histoire Sociale/Social History, and Race & Class. Her first monograph, tentatively entitled Unblemished Citizenship: Black Canadian Women’s Fight for Racial Justice, 1919-1939, is a groundbreaking chronicle of the largely unknown story of women’s activism in Ontario during the tumultuous interwar years. Unblemished Citizenship argues that women’s race politics centred on establishing the interpersonal relationships necessary for ethnically diverse Black people to see themselves as a collective that could work together to develop new political strategies to fight anti-Black racism in Canada.

Recent Publications

“‘Who Used to Run the UNIA Hall’: Black Canadian Women’s Leadership of Toronto Division 21, 1919–1939,” Journal of African American History 109, no. 2 (Spring 2024): 200–30.

“James Francis Jenkins,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, February 2023.

“Historical Legacies, Black Canadian Slavery, and Institutional Histories,” Black Perspectives, African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), 22 September 2022.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
North America
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Children & Youth, Emancipation, Gender, Human Rights, Local & Regional, Politics, Race, Slavery, Women