Slavery North invites you to the third in our series of eight Fellow Talks in Spring 2026. Visiting Research Professor Fellow, Dr. Sherry Johnson, shares her research troubling historical narratives of Canada as a promised land of freedom for Black people.
This hybrid talk is open to students, faculty, staff, and members of the public.
Date/Time: Thursday, March 26, 2026, 2:30-3:30 PM (EDT)
Location: Room 601, Herter Hall, 161 Presidents Drive, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003
Online via Zoom:
https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/94439094924
Meeting ID: 944 3909 4924
Speaker: Dr. Sherry Johnson, Visiting Research Professor Fellow, 2025-26
Moderator: Dr. Martha McNamara, Associate Professor of Public History & Associate Director Slavery North
Lecture: Black Geographies, Text, and the Troubling of Canadian National Narratives of a Promised Land
Lecture abstract: In this lecture, Dr. Johnson discusses two principal moments in Canadian historical narrative that depend on Black spatial movement. She will focus on the irony of geographical movement and a national narrative that requires Black people’s fixed positionality.
Bio: Dr. Sherry Johnson tells stories that engage memory and Black writing between Canada and the United States. She is a writer, researcher, and scholar of literature, particularly at the intersection of Black women’s lives and their writing, African American visual culture, and the digital humanities. Currently an associate professor, Dr. Johnson teaches courses in African American literature, Multicultural American literature, neo-slave narratives, and critical approaches to literary study.
