Canada’s first journalism program is launching its first-ever lecture series named for a woman.

The Annual Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture Series: Voices of Change in Canadian Journalism will feature leading women and non-binary journalists from historically under- and mis-represented communities, who will share their stories and expertise.

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“Carleton’s first journalism class took place in October 1945. The first Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture is scheduled to take place 80 years later, in October 2025,” Trish Audette-Longo, an assistant professor in the journalism program, said. 

“This is an opportunity to celebrate and centre women and non-binary journalists’ work, and to give students in our undergraduate and graduate programs opportunities to meet some of their heroes.”

The lecture series is named for Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first Black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. In 1853, Shadd Cary founded The Provincial Freeman. 

“Mary Ann was known for her impressive lectures, and for speaking the truth to audiences who sought change, but didn’t always understand her because she was an outspoken woman,” said Nana aba Duncan, the Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity, and Inclusion Studies and the founder of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging at Carleton University.

“It has been my mission to make sure our industry recognizes and honours her legacy in journalism. Launching a lecture in her name – at Canada’s oldest journalism institution – is the perfect way to do it.”

Shadd Cary’s pioneering spirit and unwavering commitment to supporting and advancing Black communities, education, and women’s rights through journalism laid the foundation for a more inclusive and just society. Her example will guide the selection of invited speakers, who will deliver public lectures at Carleton University.

The Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture Series will be a cornerstone initiative led by the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging and journalism faculty in Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication.

The new lecture joins a pair of long-standing annual series in the school. The annual Kesterton Lecture is named for Wilfred Kesterton, one of the journalism school’s first graduates and faculty members. The annual Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture commemorates Stursberg, who reported on the ground during the Second World War, becoming the “voice of the frontline.”

Journalist Omayra Issa, right, delivers the Kesterton Lecture, “Black on the Prairies: a Journalistic Voyage” in September 2022. Journalism professor and Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre founder Nana aba Duncan, left, interviews her on-stage.

But the Annual Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture will look different from other public lecture series. 

Journalism students will be hired and trained to join guest speakers on stage, where they will ask their own questions and moderate audience questions.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary lecturers will also deliver small workshops or seminars in journalism classes. 

To make this possible, Audette-Longo and Duncan have launched a FutureFunder campaign and aim to raise $55,000 by March 31, 2025 to fund the first four years of the lecture series. 

Journalist Pacinthe Mattar, second from right, is joined by executive members of the student-led Association for Equity and Inclusion in Journalism and Media at Carleton after delivering a special public lecture in September 2024. From left: Students Rachel Kwok, Carmela Carangan and Elissa Mendes, Mattar, and journalism professor Trish Audette-Longo. Photo by Jaime Sadgrove.

Audette-Longo said the lecture series will provide students with hands-on learning and more opportunities to imagine themselves doing journalism in the future. 

“We have a wish list of established, award-winning, brilliant journalists we hope to bring to Carleton, to talk about how they cover the stories that matter in their communities, in the world, in politics, on climate – there is so much to take on, and I’m so excited,” she said. 

Duncan emphasized the significance of this event, particularly as efforts to shut down programs focused on inclusion and diversity continue to grow. 

“This is not the time to pause the work,” she stated. “On the contrary, now is when we double down and intensify our focus on people from historically underrepresented and misrepresented communities.”

Make your contribution to the Annual Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture Series: Voices of Change in Canadian Journalism here.

Thursday, November 28, 2024 in , , , ,
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