For Awad Ibrahim, professor and vice-provost, equity, diversity and inclusive excellence, Black History Month is not confined to a single moment on the calendar. “It’s not just February,” he says. “The spirit of Black History Month is every month, every day.”
In that sense, Black History Month offers a focus point — a chance to step back, go deeper and reconnect with a broader movement rooted in equity, diversity and inclusion, responsibility and engagement.
That movement, Ibrahim argues, is shaped both by moments of reflection and by what happens next.
Walking the talk: Shared commitment in action
At the University of Ottawa, the movement is taking shape through commitments meant to endure beyond moments of reflection. For Ibrahim, the priority is ensuring that existing work is harmonized, such that equity, diversity and inclusion are embedded in how the University operates.
One significant moment comes in May, when, for the first time, uOttawa will co-host, with Carleton University, the Inter-Institutional Forum of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism. The charter emerged in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, as institutions across Canada reflected on how to respond to anti-Black racism in concrete ways. The University has been a signatory to the Scarborough Charter since 2021.
“It's not just February. The spirit of Black History Month is every month, every day.”
Awad Ibrahim
— Professor and Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
For Ibrahim, hosting the charter forum is about creating space to reflect collectively on how anti-Black racism is addressed in practice.
This year’s gathering also carries a distinct francophone dimension. President Marie-Eve Sylvestre will host a francophone presidential panel, bringing together leaders from French-language universities to discuss the charter and equity, diversity and inclusion more broadly. For Ibrahim, the moment underscores uOttawa’s francophone-informed commitment within national conversations on equity.
Ibrahim also points to what he calls “courageous conversations,” dialogues designed to create space for difficult but necessary discussions on issues like antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, gender and sexuality. These conversations, he says, are not one-off events, but part of a deliberate effort to make engagement and listening features of everyday university life.
Alongside these gatherings, Ibrahim highlights work that’s just as consequential, including the revamped Count Me In self-identification survey, an essential step, he says, in understanding who makes up the campus community and what supports are needed. He also mentions the development of a University-wide EDI strategic plan aimed at bringing greater coherence to work already underway across faculties and services.
Visibility, Ibrahim adds, also matters. A dedicated EDI website, currently in development, is designed to make initiatives, policies and resources easier to find, helping ensure that responsibility for EDI is shared and expanded across uOttawa.
Rooted in the community we live in
For Ibrahim, institutional commitments matter most when they lead to relationships on campus and in the community the University is part of.
That work, he says, begins with listening. This spring, uOttawa will host a United Nations consultation related to the UN Declaration on the Rights of People of African Descent, bringing together members of the Black community across the region to share perspectives and lived experiences. The consultation reflects an approach grounded in engagement.
In his role, Ibrahim is active in community spaces across the Ottawa–Gatineau region, including a City of Kindness forum developed by the City of Ottawa in February focused on inclusion and social responsibility. As well, the University continues to serve as a gathering place for diverse groups, for example, hosting the annual Pinoys on Parliament conference (featuring the Filipino community), in February.
In these settings, Ibrahim sees his role as a connector — one participant among many — helping link University commitments with the communities uOttawa is part of.
EDI as shared and amplified responsibility
For Ibrahim, equity, diversity and inclusion functions as a lens — one that shapes how people teach, research, lead and relate to one another across the University. “Having a vice-provost dedicated to EDI is meant to amplify responsibility, not to concentrate it in one place,” he says.
That responsibility, in his view, begins with awareness: being mindful of what’s included, and what’s left out — and why. “If we start from the idea that EDI belongs to all of us,” Ibrahim says, “then the question becomes: what can I do?”
“If we start from the idea that EDI belongs to all of us, then the question becomes, 'what can I do?'”
Awad Ibrahim
— Professor and Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Black History Month offers a time to pause, reflect and learn. It also sharpens the focus on a movement, the EDI spirit, one shaped by shared commitments, lived relationships and sustained engagement.
At uOttawa, that movement is carried forward collectively, on campus and in the community the University is part of. “Our best is yet to come,” Ibrahim says, “so let us bring it into existence together.”
