Robyn Maynard
Areas of Interest
- Black feminist thought
- Black social movements
- Abolition
- Policing, borders, carcerality
- Black/Anti-colonial studies
- Black and Indigenous solidarities
- Black Canadian studies
Biography
Robyn Maynard is an Assistant Professor of Black Feminisms in Canada at the University of Toronto-Scarborough in the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, with a graduate appointment in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the St. George Campus. She is the author of Policing Black Lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the Present (Fernwood, 2017) and the co-author of Rehearsals for Living (Knopf/Haymarket, Abolitionist Papers 3, 2022). She has published writing in the Washington Post, World Policy Journal, the Toronto Star, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Canadian Woman Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, Scholar & Feminist Journal, and a number of peer-reviewed book anthologies. Maynard’s research and teaching focus on transnational Black feminist thought Black social movements, policing, borders and carceral studies, Black-Indigenous histories and praxis, Black Canadian studies, as well as abolitionist and anti-colonial methodologies.
Education
PhD (ABD), Women & Gender Studies, University of Toronto
BA, McGill University
Selected Works
Maynard, R. & Simpson, L. B. Rehearsals for Living. Foreword by R. W. Gilmore, Afterword by R. D. G. Kelley. Knopf (ed. L. Henry, Canada); Haymarket: Abolitionist Papers Series (ed. N. Murakawa, US/UK)
Maynard, R., Simpson, L. B., Voegele, H. & Griffin, C. Every day we must get up and relearn the world: An interview with Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Interfere: Journal for Critical Thought and Radical Politics (Fall).
Police abolition/Black revolt. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. Special Issue: Our COVID Conjuncture: Critical Essays on the Pandemic; 41 (Fall), 70–78.
Trans-Atlantic affinities: Post-Ferguson freedom dreams and the global reverberations of Black (feminist) struggle. Scholar and Feminist (S&F) Online, Special Issue: Unraveling Criminalizing Webs, Building Police-Free Futures, 15.3. (invited)
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present. Fernwood Publishing.
Honours and Awards
Shortlist. Governor General Literary Award, Nonfiction
Honouree, Viola Desmond Award, Ryerson University
Honouree, 100 Accomplished Black Women, Congress of Black Women of Canada
Nominee, The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers, Writers’ Trust of Canada
Author of the Year, Gala Dynastie, Fondation Gala Dynastie, Montreal Black History Month
Winner of the 2019 Prix des libraires (Category: “Essais”), Association des libraires du Québec
Finalist for the Concordia University First Book Prize, Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards
Finalist for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards
Finalist for the Best Atlantic Published Book, Atlantic Book Awards
Winner of the 2017 Errol Sharpe Book Prize, 2017, Society for Socialist Studies