On Black Canadian Media Studies: A Conversation with Cheryl Thompson

On February 17, 2022, the Canadian Journal of Communication met with Cheryl Thompson (2021) via Zoom to discuss her latest book, Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty, and the possibilities of a Black Canadian media studies. Dr. Thompson is a professor in the School of Performance in X University,1Toronto, Canada, and author of Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture. She has published articles in Emergent Feminisms: Challenging a Post-Feminist Media Culture, the Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Journal of History Annales canadiennes d’histoire (CJH / ACH), and Feminist Media Studies. She has also published in The Conversation, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Spacing, Herizons, Halifax Coast, and Rabble.ca. Thompson grew up in Scarborough and currently resides in Toronto. She is working on a book that addresses Canada’s history of blackface.