In 2010, the Department of Sociology established the Dr. Agnes Calliste African Heritage Lecture series to honour the research, teaching, and service of their retired colleague, Dr. Agnes Calliste. Following her death in 2018, the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) highlighted that “her ground-breaking research with African-Canadian railway porters and Caribbean-Canadian nurses explored previously unexamined dimensions of our social history.
Dr. Calliste studied not only the institutionalized oppression of such communities, but also their organized resistance." At St. Francis Xavier University, Dr. Calliste established some of Canada’s first race courses (e.g., Race, Class, Sex and Gender; Black African Diaspora), and she was loved and admired by her students. Her extensive service at StFX included chairing the Department of Sociology, creating and serving in the role of what is now called the Black Student Advisor, and annually organizing a Martin Luther King Jr Day lecture – highlighting the work of activists, and an African Heritage lecture – highlighting anti-racist research conducted by Black scholars.
In addition to her service at StFX, Dr. Calliste co-established and served on the CSA’s Anti-Racism Caucus and she worked with local activists in the organizations like the Antigonish-Guysborough Chapter of the Congress of Black Women. She is dearly remembered by her friends near and far.
