Anton Allahar, Professor Emeritus

Ph.D Sociology, U. of Toronto
M.A. Sociology, U. of Toronto (Gold Medal Winner)
B.A. Hons Sociology, U. of Toronto
Diploma in Arts, Ryerson

Brief Bio

Anton Allahar was born in Trinidad, West Indies, and completed his PhD in Political & Economic Sociology at the University of Toronto. He is currently a Full Professor of Sociology at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Professor Allahar’s principal areas of interest are economic development, the politics of globalization & democracy, and ethnic and racial relations, as these apply to the Caribbean and Latin America. His books include: The Sugar Planters of Colonial Cuba. Toronto: Two-Thirds Editions (1982); Class, Politics and Sugar in Colonial Cuba. New York: Mellen (1990); Is there Life after Debt? The Latin American Debt Crisis. Montreal: IOHE (1993); Sociology and the Periphery: Theories and Issues. Toronto: Garamond (1995); Generation on Hold: Coming of Age in the Late 20th Century. New York: New York University Press (1996); Richer and Poorer: the Structure of Inequality in Canada. Toronto: Lorimer (1998); Critical Youth Studies: a Canadian Focus, Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall (2006), Ivory Tower Blues: a university system in crisis, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2007), La Tour de Papier: L’université mais à quel prix? Montréal: Les Édicions Logiques, (2011), and Lowering Higher Education: the rise of the corporate university and the decline of liberal education. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2011). Anton has also edited Caribbean Charisma. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers (2001), Diasporas and Transnational Identities, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum (2001), Diasporic Identity: Myth Culture and the Politics of Home, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum (2002), Ethnicity, Class and Nationalism: Caribbean and Extra-Caribbean Dimensions. New York: Lexington Books (2005) and Locating Oliver Cox: The Contradictions of Radical Liberalism. Special issue of The Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. (Vol. 39. Issue 3, 2014).

In addition Professor Allahar has written over 90 refereed articles and book chapters on related themes and has won 7 major awards for excellence in teaching, including the USC award in 1996, in 2002 and again in 2017. He is the only person ever to have won this award more than once. Before this Anton was honoured with the UWO’s Gold Medal and Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1986 and later he won 3 other major awards for excellence in university teaching: the province-wide OCUFA in 2004 and the national 3M award in 2005. In June 2007 Professor Allahar won the inaugural Leadership in Faculty Teaching award (LIFT) sponsored by the Government of Ontario. Professor Allahar has delivered over 200 papers at international conferences and as an invited lecturer. In connection with the latter he has been invited to lecture at some 20 different universities internationally. In 1997 Professor Allahar was appointed as external adviser to the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), and from 2002-2007 he was invited to design and teach a course entitled “Ethnicity and Nationalism in the New World Order,” at St. Petersburg State University (formerly University of Leningrad) in Russia. In 2004 Dr. Allahar was made a “Special Honorary Research Professor” (Invesitgador Honorífico Especial) at La Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, and in 2007 “Special Invited Professor” (Categoría Docente Especial de Profesor Invitado), at La Universidad de la Habana, and in 2011 he received Reconocimiento de Destacado Colaborador (Outstanding Researcher Recognition) from the Centro de Estudios Cuba-Caribe, La Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Anton is also a “Fellow” of the Centre for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica), and has held appointments as Visiting Professor at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) 2004, and at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados) in 2011. Based on his combined scholarly publications and awards of excellence in teaching, also in July 2007, Dr. Allahar was named Faculty Scholar at The University of Western Ontario. In 2007-08 Dr. Allahar was President of the Caribbean Studies Association, whose membership is drawn from well over 100 universities and some 50 countries internationally, and he is the recipient of the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from that Association.

Languages: English, Spanish, French

Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy of teaching and education is best described as critical, democratic, and egalitarian.  It deals with the dynamic tension between the individual and society, and highlights the need for individuals to be made aware of their social responsibilities. Cultivating that awareness is synonymous with teaching, which is the process by which individuals are encouraged to stand outside of their individual selves, outside of their narrow, personal interests, and to see societal goals as superior to their own. I am convinced that a society is only as strong as its least educated citizen, and to this end the purpose of education is to strengthen the community, whether it is the local, provincial, national, or even the international community. For no individual, regardless of his or her number of degrees and diplomas, is worth anything if the wider social context that nurtures and sustains him or her is left to ruin.

Education for some is a right, and I am in agreement with that; but like all rights, it comes with important responsibilities. And this is where the critical aspect of teaching and education is key. For what I advocate is not a blind endorsement of what might well be an unjust social order, but rather a social order consisting of, and fashioned by, an informed (educated) citizenry, that is able to challenge injustice in any form. In this context every individual has a social responsibility to the wider social whole of which he or she is a part. Thus understood, teaching and education ought to enable us to see that wider whole and to put its interests and welfare above  narrow, personal, sectarian interests.

My teaching philosophy, therefore, makes a firm distinction between teaching/education, on the one hand, and training, on the other. The first, which speaks to my democratic and egalitarian concerns, embraces central philosophical issues that lie at the heart of the human community: the promotion of social justice, the inculcation of a sense of morality and social responsibility, a restless commitment to the pursuit of social equality, and the recognition of the dignity of all women and men irrespective of class, culture or country. In the teaching and educational process this is achieved by putting the stock of human knowledge in the service of humanity, especially the least fortunate and least able, and not using it to diminish some and elevate others. Training, on the other hand, is equally important, but speaks to acquisition of technical knowledge and the details that are specific to a given field. As such, training is more narrow, particular, and instrumentally geared to meeting definable goals and honing personal careers. In an ideal situation, then, we would have a harmony between education and training, but the former must never be made to take a back seat to the latter, for without an educated and socially responsible population, all the "training" in the world will amount to nothing.

In sum, teaching is about the dissemination of knowledge, and the ability to learn even as one teaches. And while knowledge bestows privilege and power, it also demands duty and social responsibility. "It is used not to compete with one's fellow beings for some unending standard of life, but to achieve for them, as for oneself, a higher quality of life."

Thesis Supervision

Current Supervision

Lianne Mulder (MA)

Tasmeea Islam (MA)

PhD Dissertation

Esra Ari, "The ideology of multiculturalism as a double-edged sword: second-generation black Jamaicans and dark-white Portuguese."

Marylynn Steckley, “Agrarian Change and Peasant prospects in Haiti.” PhD Dissertation in Geography. (Co-supervisor)

Amanda Zavitz, "Manufacturing Content: The Portrayal of Aboriginals in the Mainstream Press"

MA Theses in Sociology

Adam Jog, "The value of postsecondary education: human capital theory in Ontario’s postsecondary education discourse 1962-2005” (Co-supervisor)

Andrea Flynn, "Defying Demographic Expectations: Induced Abortion, Contraceptive Use, and the ‘Culture’ of Birth Control in Cuba”

Rena Bivens,  "The Road to War: Manufacturing Public Opinion in Support of US Foreign Policy Goals"

Frances Cachon, "Global Economics and the Deficit of Humanity"

Filip Alexandrescu, "Sociological Perspectives on the Environment and the Environmental Movement"

Ruth Zuchter, "Diplomacy and the United Nations: Peace, Security, and Human Rights in East Timor, 1975-1999"

Yuko Naka, "The Black Savage and the Yellow Peril: The Social Construction of the Blacks and the Japanese in Canada"

Andrea Taylor, "Perceiving Discrimination: Does Proximity Really Reduce Distance?"

Holly Bell,  "Moral Entrepreneurship and Employment Equity: The Case of The University of Western Ontario"

Andrew Woolford, "Class and Ideology in Chiapas: The EZLN's Political Project"

Heather Pearson, "Underemployment of Women in Science Compared with Other Fields: A Test of Bourdieu's Theory of Social Reproduction"

Mario Nigro, "The Effects of Ethnicity and Social Status, and Intra-Group Differences in Attitudes toward Police among the Chinese Community of Metropolitan Toronto" (Co-supervisor)

Cynthia Cammidge, "The Ideology and Practice of Democracy: A Study of American Foreign Policy"

MA Thesis in Sociology and Transitional Justice

Caylee Cody, "The Social Costs of Industrial Growth in the Sub-Arctic Regions of Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Attawapiskat First Nation and the Innu Nation"

MA Thesis in Theory and Criticism

Christine Tetrault, "Cultural Capital, Private/Public Intellectuals, and the Politics of Pedagogy"

MA Research Papers

Andrea Dean, "Racism, Oligarchy and Contentious Politics in Bermuda"

Harmeet Singh Sandhu, "Beyond the Land of Five Rivers: Inequality and Class Consciousness in the Canadian Sikh Diaspora"

Houda Babetti, "The process of ethnic identity formation among second-generation immigrants of Arab/Middle Eastern descent"

Ryan Turner, "The Role of the State in 21st Century Capitalism"

Houda Babetti, "The Process of  Ethnic Identity Formation Amongst Second-Generation Immigrants of Arab/Middle Eastern Descent”

Gökhan Erol, "Unfree Labour Under the Representation of Unfree Trade Unions: United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada and Labour Migration"

Nicola Samaroo, "Race and Social Control: The Racialization of the Political and National Consciousness of Trinidad and Tobago"

Manbir Bajwa, "Globalization and Economic Development: Investigating the Effects of IMF Neoliberal Policies on Jamaica"

Angela Hick, "The Filipina Connection: The Face of Exploitation in Canada's Live-in Caregiver Program"

Alissa Mazar, "'New' and 'Old' Social Movement Paradigms: Justice for Seasonal Agricultural Workers?"

Samantha Houben, "Politicizing Identity: Ethnicity, Race and Class as Bases of Political Mobilization"

Sukhveer Bains, "The Modernity of Tradition: the specificity of caste in the Modern World"

Cenk Saracoglu, "Marxism and the Question of Ethnicity: the Kurdish Question in Turkey 1923-1980"

Recent Publications (Past 5 Years)

Dr. Allahar's publications include 14 books, 54 articles in refereed publications, 35 book chapters, and 7 guest-edited journals. Below is a recent selection. For more, see his  Full CV

Book Chapters

(forthcoming) “Sovereignty on trial: whose Caribbean?” in Anales del Caribe, Cuba: Casa de las Américas.

(2016) “Sovereignty and instances of violence: colonial and neo-colonial moments” (pp. 38-66) in A Future without Borders: Theories and practices of cosmopolitan peacebuilding ,  Eddy Souffrant (ed).  Boston: Brill.

(2016) “John Anthony La Rose: tireless advocate for social justice” (pp. 34-37) in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography , (Franklin Knight and Henry Louis Gates Jr. eds) Oxford University Press.

(2016) “Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler: defender of workers’ rights” (pp. 453-456) in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography (Franklin Knight and Henry Louis Gates Jr. eds) Oxford University Press.

(2016) “Oliver Cromwell Cox: a case of scholarly neglect” (pp. 241-243) in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography , (Franklin Knight and Henry Louis Gates Jr. eds) Oxford University Press.

(2016) “How distorted democracy conditions distorted development: the English-speaking Caribbean” (pp. 1-22) in Contradictory Existence: Democracy and Neoliberalism in the Caribbean , Dave Ramsaran (ed). Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers.

(2015) “Citizenship and Belonging: forging a Caribbean identity” (pp. 113-139) in Globalization sovereignty and citizenship in the Caribbean , Hilbourne A. Watson (ed). Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.”

(2014)  “La supuesta independencia caribeña: ¿mito o realidad?”  (Chap. 2, pp. 23-42) in El Caribe: independencia, identidad e integración,  Jacqueline Laguardia Martínez (ed). La Habana: Editorial Ciéncias Sociales.

Refereed Articles:

(2017) "John Anthony LaRose: committed to praxis," Caribbean Quarterly 63(1):109-21.

(2015) "Class and the crisis of higher education" (with James E. Côté), Asian Journal of Canadian Studies 21(1):1-50.

(2014) “Looking back and moving forward: reflections on Latin American and Caribbean Studies” Interview with Bridget Brereton. Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (39)3: 445-454. (with Linden F. Lewis).

(2014) “Introduction: situating Oliver Cromwell Cox, 1901-1974.” Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (39)3: 339-344. (with Linden F. Lewis).

(2014) “Marxist or not? Oliver Cromwell Cox on capitalism and class versus ‘race’” Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (39)3: 420-444.

(2014) “Gordon K. Lewis: an appreciation.” Caribbean Quarterly: a journal of Caribbean culture (60)1: 117-127.

Professor Allahar studies the economic and political sociology of the Caribbean, with particular emphasis on ideology, ethnicity, class and nationalism. Internationally recognized for his research, he is currently the president of the Caribbean Studies Association and a Faculty Scholar.

Current Research Projects

A Conversation about the Nature of Morality and the Correct Path to 'Salvation'

The Nature of Truth

Associations

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)

Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA)

Cuba Research and Analysis Group (CRAG), University of New Mexico.

Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS)

Ontario Co-operative Programme in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (OCPLACS)

Casa del Caribe (Santiago de Cuba)

Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC)

Centre for Interdisciplinary Historical Studies (UWO)

Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association

Society for Caribbean Studies (England)

Political Economy Research Group, UWO

Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) (life member)

Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) (life member)