Involving humans, Or Doing Good Work with Good People: Insights for Qualitative Research in Black Studies post-2020

This article engages the work of Caribbean theorist Sylvia Wynter—particularly her 1994 article, “No Humans Involved.” We examine the unprecedented post-2020 climate of invitation and recognition of Black scholars, Black research, “Black excellence,” and Black Studies in the Canadian academy and inquire into its implications for research methodologies. We identify the current Canadian academic climate, like those that Wynter examines in her work, as emerging in the aftermath of Black death, anti-Black terror, and race rebellion. We argue that despite the ostensible epiphanies that this moment might be taken to represent, the anti-Black ordering of bodies and knowledge that Wynter outlines might well persist in the Canadian academy embedded in methodologies that produce Black people as non-human. We take seriously the possibility that the new discourses of recognition, invitation, excellence, and incorporation might be the new strategies by which BlackLife is cast beyond the realm of the Human in Canadian universities. As Wynter proffered for Black Studies, we argue that Black research cannot leave the university or its methods intact as it enters the university. We reflect on ways forward for Black researchers that insist on Black humanity in a university context that routinely denies it.