Tari Ajadi is one of three Pre-Doctoral Fellows in Black Studies, amongst the first scholars in this new and growing program at Queen’s. Tari is British-Nigerian. He was born and raised in the United Kingdom and has lived in the United States and across Canada in British Colombia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and now Ontario. He comes to this fellowship from Dalhousie University, where he completed his master’s and is working towards the completion of his PhD, both in Political Science.
Tari began his academic career by looking at the benefits and drawbacks of collecting disaggregated race-based health data for Black communities across Canada. In this work, he examined the interactions between state power and community advocacy, and his attention to these dynamics continues to shape his approach to research now. Tari’s current research for his dissertation focuses on the methods and discourses that Black activists in mid-sized cities like Halifax use to provoke policy change in public health and policing. He describes his work as taking a “historically-informed approach to understanding the lineage of Black organizing in [public health and policing], working to highlight the distinct Black radical tradition that informs resistance in these spaces.”
Tari has a deep interest in community organizing, which is both integral to his dissertation research and extends to his work beyond it. Tari was also one of four lead authors of the Defunding the Police: Defining the Way Forward for HRM report, alongside Henry Critchley, El Jones, and Julia Rodgers. The 217-page report was released to the public and presented to the Halifax Regional Municipality Board of Police Commissioners in January 2022. In Tari’s words, the report “offers a blueprint for how Halifax might work to defund its police force overtime” and presents 36 recommendations to act on. According to El Jones, the project took 8 months and had an extensive public and community consultation process.
As a Black Studies fellow, Tari is excited about working with the program’s incredible faculty members and building connections with the other pre-doctoral fellows, Nataleah Hunter-Young and Sefanit Habtom. As campus opens up and fills with students again in the fall, he is hoping for more opportunities to connect with Black Studies faculty, staff, and students.
“I’m most looking forward to teaching students in the Fall term. I’m really excited to engage with students interested in Black politics in Canada,” Tari says. He can’t wait to connect with students from across the university who are interested in the vibrant and interdisciplinary work of Black Studies.
The Black Studies Pre-Doctoral Fellowship will run for twelve months, from January 2022 to December 2022.