Carl James wins 2022 Killam Prize in social sciences category

On Tuesday, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the winners of the highly prestigious 2022 Killam Prize. This year, each of the 5 Canadian scholars and doctors will be awarded $100,000 in the fields of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering.

Three of this year’s recipients have already been named as part of the Order of Canada, and are regarded on an international scale for having devoted their life’s work to bettering our world; via scientific discoveries, changing and challenging our discourse and view of the world, and beyond.

Among the winners is Black Canadian writer and educator Carl James (Toronto, ON). James will take home the prize in social sciences category for his work in equity and social justice. James has spent his career focusing on the study of how we can create a more equitable world, with groundbreaking research on identity, race, class, gender, racialization, immigration and citizenship.

He is currently working on an RBC program titled Securing Black Futures where he is collaborating with local school boards and university students to provide them with tools to more effectively navigate school systems that lead to successful graduations.

He is also working with Sick Kids Hospital on a CIHR funded research project titled COVID-19 Vaccine Responses among African Canadian Children with and without Sickle Cell Disease, which is still in its early stages.

He is currently working on a research paper that compares different universities’ responses to the George Floyd related-events, Black Lives Matter and the racial reckoning spurred by protests.