Kofi Campbell is Brandon University's new Provost and VP
May 26, 2021
With a student population of about 3,300, Brandon University (BU) class sizes are small.
That was a major factor in Dr. Kofi Campbell’s decision to join the Manitoba institution of higher learning as Provost and Vice President (Academic).
He starts on August 1.
“I like places where the instructors, students and staff really get to know each other,” he said. “I really embrace the ability to make those relationships and to mentor the students closely. They can lead to exceptional learning and mentorship opportunities.”
BU’s strong research profile was also a big drawing card for Campbell.
“I want to continue to build that, help to recruit a larger body of students and expand the diversity of students, faculty and staff as well,” he pointed out.
Campbell is the second Black academic to hold the position after Dr. Gervan Fearon who is Brock University’s President & Vice-Chancellor. He was in the position for 11 months before being promoted to President & Vice-Chancellor that was a first for a Black Canadian.
“Before I accepted this position, I reached out to Gervan and we had a really good talk about the place,” he said. “He loves the city and the university and he convinced me this is a place I really needed to be at. The conversation with him was extremely positive.”
Founded as a Baptist institution in 1899, BU received its university status in 1967.
Last year, it was ranked 17tth in the Primarily Undergraduate among Canadian universities and second overall for its investment in student services.
Campbell joins BU from Renison University College (RUC) that’s affiliated to the University of Waterloo where he was the Vice-President (Academic) and Dean since 2017.
That role, he said, has prepared him for the challenge at BU.
“I have learned a lot about developing programs, helping to support students and also faculty members in terms of their research and teaching,” Campbell said. “I have also learnt a great deal about doing good diversity work with fantastic colleagues at Renison.”
He was a founding member of the Black Faculty Collective and a key player in the negotiations that led to the university completing its first collective agreement with Renison Association of Academic Staff (RAAS) that received its trade union certification in March 2020.
Founding a community lecture series to showcase research and deepen ties with the community, participating in the creation of a strong first-year experience plan for students, bringing in five years’ worth of external funding to help consolidate Renison’s Studies in Islam program and planning and co-hosting a national anti-racism conference focused on the higher education sector are also among the accomplishments Campbell is proud of.
The ConversAction anti-racism conference in November 2019 brought together over 200 representatives from more than 25 universities across Canada.
Dr. Wendy Fletcher, RUC’s President & Vice-Chancellor, said Campbell’s creativity and energy for new projects is infectious.
“We are delighted for Kofi as this new position presents a wonderful opportunity for his continued development as a senior administrator in Canadian higher education,” she added.
Prior to joining RUC, Campbell was an Associate Professor of English, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Director of the Master of Arts in Cultural Analysis & Social Theory program at Wilfrid Laurier University Brantford campus.
Since 2012, he has been a series co-editor for Palgrave Macmillan’s New Caribbean Studies that seeks to explore Caribbean self-understandings, intervene in the terms of global engagement with the region and extend Caribbean Studies’ role in reinventing various disciplines and their methodologies beyond the Caribbean.
“One of the things I realized as I graduated and was in my first tenure-track job is that the field of Caribbean Studies was really growing at a big pace, but there was no collective spot where people can know they can look to find Caribbean Studies and where the people doing the work in that field could speak to each other, “he said.
Along with University of Pittsburg Professor Dr. Shalini Puri who is a founding member of the Pitt Prison Education Project, Campbell solicits manuscripts and promotes the series and its authors.
“We are getting a lot of good manuscripts and I think we have really helped to define the field of Caribbean Studies in North American universities,” he said. “This is very important work and I am proud to be able to do it.”
Before pursuing higher education, working in academia wasn’t something Campbell envisioned doing.
Entering Carleton University in 1992, he thought lawyering would be his career.
“I thought I was going to law school until I did my first English class,” said Campbell who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language & Literature/Letters. “Halfway through that class, I knew I would be majoring in English. That love of Literature and studying is really what has driven me the whole way so far.”
In the second year of undergraduate studies, Campbell was turned on to Gaming through ‘Doom’.
The video game series focusing on the exploits of an unarmed space marine operating under the auspices of the Union Aerospace Corporation, fighting hordes of demons and the undead was launched in 1993.
“Since then, I have branched out into a lot of tabletop games as well,” he pointed out. “I like all kinds of video and board games. One of the things I have discovered about myself is that I have ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). In my research, I discovered that a lot of people with ADHD actually love video games. In playing the game in a chaotic environment, you get to impose a bit of discipline on that chaos. I also love the storytelling aspect of games. As someone who is a reader and writer, I love the way in which good video games all have this really compelling story that pulls you in and teaches you something about life. I find that to be very attractive.”
Before moving to Ottawa from Guyana, he spent nearly three years in Cuba while his father, Frank Campbell, served as Guyana’s first Ambassador to the Caribbean’s largest island nation, and a year in Trinidad & Tobago as his dad – also a former Guyana Information Minister, Editor-in-Chief & Executive Chairman of the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd. and Editor of New Nation – completed a one-year Diploma in International Relations at the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus.
Just before his son’s 11th birthday, the family patriarch relocated to Canada in 1983 to pursue a Master’s in Journalism at Carleton University. His wife, Barbara Campbell, taught English Literature and Spanish in Guyana.
Campbell’s parents are his biggest role models.
“My mom is the reason I love to read so much,” said the impassioned scholar and energetic leader who completed a Master of Arts at the University of Toronto in 1997 and his PhD. eight years later at Western University. “She always has a book in her hands and she’s always reading to my two young children. My father, on the other hand, provided me with that love of writing. I learnt to appreciate the value of good writing, being able to express your thoughts well and just the power of words.”
Married for 15 years, Campbell and his wife have a four-year-old boy and a girl who is two.
He also has an older sister, Dawn Boucher, who is the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto Privacy Officer.
