The more intense the world got, the more readers The Conversation Canada attracted. You came to us for analysis, facts, context, history and a measured look at the events and issues unfolding around us.

As the COVID-19 pandemic and then later, anti-racist uprisings, rippled throughout North America, interest in stories about racism spiked. Some of our most important stories this year helped explain the significance and innovative tactics of the unfolding Black Lives Matter marches including the connections to history. What impact might the protests have on education and what does “defund the police'' really mean?

Some authors pointed out oppressive patterns in health systems for Indigenous Peoples, working people and Black Canadians. In the first week of April, we published an article that raised the alarm when it came to COVID-19’s impact on racialized and poor communities.

We published some great analyses about the U.S. election: how the U.S. might move past some of the damaging rhetoric and policies of its current leader and how Trump made us nostalgic for a past that never existed.

At the same time, Indigenous land defenders continue to fight. We published stories about these ongoing resistance struggles.

As I reflect back, I see the news year was tough and the information was fast and furious. Even in this, authors managed to honour creativity, strength and beauty. Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto took the fashion world by storm and scholars wrote about how designers translate Indigenous worldviews into apparel. We published a story about how everyday people took their creativity to the next level to create and share “cheerful” coronavirus parodies and how Wuhan, China residents shouted “Wuhan jiāyóu” (“stay strong”) out of their windows to send encouragement to their neighbours, doctors and frontline workers.

All in all, more than 150 scholars wrote insightful and thought-provoking articles for the Culture desk: their stories attracted four million readers around the world.

As the critical race editor in the meeting, I am regularly embroiled in the hot soup of newsroom discussions, fighting for equity, representation and a different way to do journalism. This battle dominates many of my days. This year, we received a grant to launch a Journalism Innovation Project to tackle some of these issues. So far, that means I’ve invited new editors and interns to the critical race beat, including: Nehal El-Hadi, Vicky Mochama, Ibrahim Daair, Anowa Quarcoo, Reza Dahya and Saniya Rashid. Many of them have had a hand in editing these articles. We’re also set to launch a podcast and a newsletter in the new year.

I welcome your ideas: what stories do you want to hear more about and who do you want telling them?

Vinita Srivastava

Director of Innovation | Senior Editor, Culture + Society, Critical Race

The Year in Culture+Society

Black Lives Matter movement uses creative tactics to confront systemic racism

Nimalan Yoganathan, Concordia University

By rejecting traditional norms of "respectable" protest, BLM activists compel police and the public to confront anti-Black racism.

A better future: How to defund and reimagine policing

Michelle Stewart, University of Regina

Another world is possible when we defund and reimagine policing as we know it. A review of police budgets could mean more money towards community initiatives.

Canada’s unequal health system may make remote Indigenous communities more vulnerable to the coronavirus

Ann M Seymour, Carleton University

Canada's public health-care system is one of the most well-developed in the world. And yet, many remote Indigenous communities are still not getting what they need.

Personal support workers are the backbone of health care but the bottom of the power structure

Bharati Sethi, Western University

Personal support workers are crucial but under-appreciated in the health-care system. They are often subjected to racism, and they struggle to make ends meet while caring for our most vulnerable.

Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data

Beverly Bain, University of Toronto; OmiSoore Dryden, Dalhousie University; Rinaldo Walcott, University of Toronto

Black lives are further in peril in a time of COVID-19. Subject to death on both the public health and policing fronts, we will not be silent.

Coronavirus is not the great equalizer — race matters

Roberta K. Timothy, University of Toronto

How does racism impact the health of racialized communities when it comes to COVID-19? Will these social factors play an implicit role in health-care workers’ decisions?

To move on from Trump, America must rebuild its capacity to care for its people

J.M. Opal, McGill University

The United States was built on the idea of public safety and well-being. Those values have been slowly eroded since the '80s. Can the U.S. find its way back to a more caring civil society?

Trump has made America nostalgic again for a past that never existed

Cheryl Thompson, Ryerson University

The closeness of the 2020 U.S. election has much to do with the way in which both Trump and Biden have invoked an imagined past.

Six Nations Land Defenders in Caledonia reveal hypocrisy of Canada’s land acknowledgements

Lucy El-Sherif, University of Toronto

Land Defenders from Six Nations occupied a disputed land to highlight the fact that Canadians have a long way to go when it comes to learning what land acknowledgements are supposed to teach us.

Wet'suwet'en: Why are Indigenous rights being defined by an energy corporation?

Shiri Pasternak, Ryerson University

Impact benefit agreements between energy companies and First Nations are typically confidential. But documents suggest First Nations may be trading away their Aboriginal rights.

Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto designers are showcasing resistance and resurgence

Riley Kucheran, Ryerson University; Alysia Myette, Ryerson University

This year's Indigenous Fashion Week was a huge success despite being virtual. Indigenous designers engaged daily in the tasks of translating Indigenous worldviews and practices.

Coronavirus in Wuhan: Residents shout ‘stay strong’ from windows

Yvonne Su, University of Guelph

During a crisis, communities seek to come together. But quarantined residents of Wuhan at the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic have had to show their encouragement in a different way.