Professors Philip Howard and Nanre Nafziger, and Librarian Sharon Rankin Receive Harvard University Grant to Study Black Teacher Legacies in Montreal

DISE Professors Philip S. S. Howard (Principal Investigator) and Nanre Nafziger (Co-investigator) and Faculty of Education Liaison Librarian, Sharon Rankin (Co-investigator) and Co-investigators, Professors Tya Collins and Lerona Dana Lewis of the University of Ottawa, have received a grant from the Harvard Graduate School of Education Black Teacher Archive program.

Their project, Uncovering, Preserving, and Mobilizing the Legacies of Black Teachers in Montreal, will document the work of Black teachers by collaborating with Black Community Supplementary Education Organizations and elderly Black teachers in Montreal to preserve archival materials and develop an online archive. This project also aims to enhance interest in, and accessibility to, the histories of Black teachers in Montreal by mobilizing existing research and encouraging engagement with under-utilized Black archives.

The Black Teacher Archive, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in association with the Monroe C. Gutman Library Special Collections, is an open-access digital portal centralizing materials created by Black educator organizations in the 20th century. It is made possible through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Spencer Foundation.