Department of Art History and
Communication Studies
McGill University
Arts Building, W-255
853 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0G5

Département d’histoire de l’art et
d’études en communication
Université McGill
Pavillon des arts, W-225
853, rue Sherbrooke ouest
Montréal, QC, Canada H3A 0G5

Tel. : (514) 398-6541
Fax: (514) 398-7247
E-mail: ahcs@mcgill.ca

July 2, 2020

Re: Dismissal of President Aoife MacNamara

Dear Ms. Louise Anne Comeau (Chair of NSCAD Board),
We have not yet met in person, but I have been newly appointed as a Tier I Canada
Research Chair to NSCAD and will be in charge of the creation of the new Institute for the Study
of Canadian Slavery, the first such research centre in the nation. I have also been asked to act as
the faculty representative on the Board of Governors. Therefore, it is in these two capacities, a
concerned faculty member and a future member of the NSCAD Board, that I am contacting you.
Like many other NSCAD constituents, I was alarmed by the abrupt dismissal of President
MacNamara. The way in which she was dismissed, apparently without warning or open
communication of your issues with her work and leadership, was disrespectful of her as an
individual and of her role as the head administrator of the university which the board claims to
serve and govern. Furthermore, your exploitation of the in-camera session served to create a lack
of transparency that only increased the anxiety of the university community which, alongside
President MacNamara, were clearly blindsided by your decision. Frankly, your lack of
transparency, refusal to consult and the ongoing lack of information and clarification about your
decision-making process is opening up a gulf between the board and NSCAD’s constituents, the
faculty and staff who do the work and the students and alumni that we have and will continue to
serve.
As you well know, we are in the midst of multiple and intersecting crises, each
unprecedented. The coronavirus pandemic has provoked great strain on university staff and
faculty as we have scrambled to deliver courses and services to our students while supporting
students’ increased financial, relocation, academic, and mental health needs. Above and beyond
their normal duties, NSCAD faculty have had to be trained or retrained on online learning
platforms to deliver fine arts content virtually – no small feat! The pandemic also exposed the
prolific racism of our medical and healthcare systems as we witness the disproportionate
detrimental impacts of coronavirus illness and death on black and other people of colour
communities. At the same time, the murder of Mr. George Floyd at the hands of four
Minneapolis Police has sparked global protests against anti-black and anti-indigenous racism and

 police brutality. With less than one year on the job, President MacNamara has had to deal with
and facilitate university responses to all of these crises and she has done so admirably, her public
statement on Mr. Floyd’s death going far beyond the trite, business-as-usual, standardized
statements routinely issued by most Canadian universities which clearly intend to deal only in
platitudes. President MacNamara has been exceptional in her support for the communities who
are most endangered by these crises and as such, she has put NSCAD on the Canadian and
international map as an institution of higher learning which actually intends to live its stated
principles of diversity and inclusion – something which most Canadian institutions do not do and
which their leadership has no intention of doing.
I implore you to reverse your decision immediately. Your decision to fire President
MacNamara and the unprofessional and opaque way is which it was done sends a message to the
university community that the board is prepared to act in the dark, to conceal its decision-making
processes, and to inflict reputational, educational, and potential financial harms on the
university. It sends the message that the board does not understand, nor does it care about the
unprecedented weight of the multiple crises under which the university’s staff and faculty are
labouring. It sends the message that the board did not take into consideration the strain of their
unanticipated decision on NSCAD’s current and future students. Whether intentional or not, the
board’s decisions appears to be not merely an attack on President MacNamara, but an attack on
the greater racial inclusiveness and anti-racist principles that she so courageously championed.
How exactly do you think this makes the most vulnerable of NSCAD’s constituents feel?
As you can imagine, after spending seventeen years of my career at McGill University, it
took some convincing for me to make the decision to move to NSCAD. As a black female
professor and the only black art historian in a tenured or tenure-track position at a Canadian
University, McGill has not been an easy ride for me; indeed no Canadian university is an easy
ride for black faculty. However, as many people believe, it’s better to stick with the devil you
know. President MacNamara’s leadership was one of the key reasons that I decided to accept
NSCAD’s offer and join the NSCAD community. Specifically, her clear vision and devotion to
transforming NSCAD into a space that more directly attracts, recruits, retains, and supports
black, indigenous, and people of colour constituents, convinced me that I might finally find a
supportive academic environment.
In pulling the rug out from under President MacNamara, you have also done so to me
and, falsely or not, sent a message that she is being removed for the strides that she is taking to
create an anti-racist university. The reputational damage of the fallout of the board’s hasty
decision - for the board and the university- must not be underestimated. Precisely which
esteemed professors and upper administrators does the board expect to attract, recruit, and retain
in the aftermath of this very public debacle? You have sent a message that: 1) you do not consult
with the community or even the individual involved on major decisions like dismissals and (2)
that presidents can and will be fired without cause - or at least without a clear public delineation
thereof. Like it or not, the timing of your actions also gives the very dangerous impression that

 the board is not only completely detached from, but callous towards, the NSCAD community
and the compounded set of crises which, if unchecked, will result in unparalleled strain and
harm.
Like many of my NSCAD colleagues, students, and alumni, I call upon you and the board
to immediately reverse your decision and to reinstate President MacNamara. We need her
visionary and compassionate leadership more than ever at this moment. In reinstating President
MacNamara, the board will also restore its own reputation as a body which is not serving its own
secretive agenda, but one that is in place to serve and to act in the best interests of the NSCAD
community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson
Professor of Art History
charmaine.nelson@mcgill.ca
Tier I Canada Research Chair: Transatlantic Black Diasporic Art and Community Engagement
NSCAD University
cnelson@nscad.ca

cc: Sean Kelly, Vice Chair of the Board (NSCAD); Hon. Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova
Scotia; Hon. Labi Kasoulis, Minister of Labour and Advanced Education; Hon. Leo Glavine,
Minister of Communities, Culture, and Heritage; Hon. Tony Ince, Minister of African Nova
Scotian Affairs and Public Service Commission; Hon. Justin Huston, Chief Executive Officer of
the Office of Aboriginal Affairs and Deputy Minister of Communities, Culture, and Heritage