McMaster University welcomes an accomplished scholar and administrator as the new leader of the Equity and Inclusion Office (EIO). Dr. Barrington Walker has been appointed as vice-provost, Equity and Inclusion starting on May 1, 2023.

Barrington Walker, Ph.D. holds a doctoral degree in Canadian History from the University of Toronto (Canada) and is Vice Provost Equity and Inclusion and Professor of History at McMaster University. Before arriving at McMaster University he was the inaugural Associate Vice President Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo Ontario. His research and teaching interests are in histories of Black Canada, race, immigration, and the law. From 2001-2019, he was member of the History Department at Queen’s University Kingston. During those years he taught both at the undergraduate and graduate levels and supervised and mentored over 40 graduate students in topics related to his research specialties. He is also often consulted for national television, print and radio media. He has published three books. Race On Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858-1958 (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2010); The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2012) and The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings (Canadian Scholars Press, 2008). He also currently working on two book projects: Colonizing Nation: Blackness and Citizenship in Canada and Dark Threats: Blacks and Violence in Canada’s Urban Landscapes (Wilfrid Laurier University Press). In 2012 Race on Trial was shortlisted for the Ontario Speaker’s Book Prize. He is also currently a member of the Board of the Federation for the Social Sciences and Humanities and Chair of its standing committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization. He is also a member of the Inter-Institutional Advisory Committee for the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion.