Pauline Elaine Brathwaite
Lovingly known as “Dr. P”
20 November 1959 — 2 June 2022 · aged 62
Sociologist at U of T Scarborough who learned her craft at her father's dances
Toronto, Canada Born in Kingston, Jamaica Resting at Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough, OntarioAbout Pauline
Pauline Brathwaite's first field site was her father's yard in Kingston, Jamaica, where four speaker boxes the size of wardrobes turned a vacant lot into a cathedral every Saturday night. At nine she was allowed to sit beside the turntable and write down the names of the records. At sixty-two she was one of Canada's leading scholars of Caribbean popular culture. The notebook habit never stopped.
Born in Kingston in 1959, the second of three children of Maxwell Tulloch, an electrician and sound system operator, and Gloria, a seamstress, Pauline earned her bachelor's degree at the University of the West Indies at Mona, a master's in sociology at McGill University, and her PhD at the University of Toronto in 1990. She joined the University of Toronto Scarborough that year and stayed thirty-two years, rising to full professor. Her book on sound system culture and migration is still assigned in six countries, and the first footnote of her dissertation thanks “Daddy, for the records and the volume.”
She was a teacher first. Pauline co-founded the Scarborough Black Youth Mentorship Program, supervised more than forty doctoral students, and kept a spare winter coat in her office for any first-year arriving from the Caribbean unprepared for February. She cooked curry goat for her graduate seminar every December, wore a different pair of earrings to every lecture, and could cite dancehall lyrics and Durkheim in the same sentence, sometimes the same breath.
Her husband Gerald, a Toronto high-school principal born in Barbados, and their daughter Amara were her heart. She hosted Sunday dinner in Scarborough for thirty years, with rice and peas, a record on the turntable and a firm rule that nobody left before dessert. When her father died in 2019, she said it slowed her, but did not stop the music.
Pauline died on 2 June 2022, aged sixty-two, in Toronto, after a long illness borne with humor and mild irritation at the schedule. She is survived by Gerald, Amara, her sister Hortense, her brother Delroy and generations of students who learned that the classroom, like the dance floor, needs everyone in the room.
“Every dance floor is a classroom. Pay attention to who is teaching.”
- Faith
- Anglican
- Place of birth
- Kingston, Jamaica
- Resting place
- Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough, Ontario
- Passed away
- 2 June 2022, Toronto
Celebration of Life
Friday, 10 June 2022 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
B.A. in Sociology
University of the West Indies, Mona1978 – 1981 · Kingston, Jamaica
Graduated with first-class honours.
M.A. in Sociology
McGill University1982 – 1984 · Montreal
Her first Canadian winter, survived in a borrowed coat.
Ph.D. in Sociology
University of Toronto1984 – 1990 · Toronto
Dissertation on Jamaican sound systems and migration.
Professor of Sociology
University of Toronto Scarborough1990 – 2022 · Toronto
Thirty-two years of teaching, supervision and Sunday dinners.
Co-founder, Scarborough Black Youth Mentorship Program
University of Toronto Scarborough1996 – 2022 · Toronto
Paired hundreds of high-school students with university mentors.
Teaching Award
University of Toronto Scarborough2008 · Toronto
Voted by students who say she remembered every name.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Pauline is survived by
- Gerald Brathwaite· Spouse
- Amara Brathwaite· Daughter
- Hortense Blake· Sister
- Delroy Tulloch· Brother
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Pauline.
Knew Pauline? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- WC
Selector for her father's sound system
I knew Pauline when she was nine, sitting by the turntable writing names in her little book. Mr. Tulloch said, “That child will study us someday.” He was right, and she did it with love. Both of them gone now, but the bass lives.
- NS
Classmate at McGill
We met in a Montreal laundromat in 1982 where she was loudly debating Fanon with a dryer. She brought me to my first Caribbean dance in Canada and told me to stop standing against the wall. I haven't stopped dancing since.
- CE
Neighbor in Scarborough
Pauline's Sunday dinners fed half the street for twenty years. She'd knock on your door with a plate and say, “You look hungry, and I made too much.” She never made too much. She made exactly enough, and always a little extra for whoever needed it.
- PM
Colleague, University of Toronto Scarborough
In thirty years of faculty meetings, Pauline never once raised her voice and never lost an argument. She would simply wait, smile and say, “Let me tell you a story about a yard in Kingston.” By the end of the story we had always agreed.
- AG
PhD student and mentee
Dr. P read my first chapter and wrote only one sentence in the margin: “Where is the music in this?” I rewrote the entire thesis. It was the best advice of my life. She had a way of asking the question that made you want to be braver.
- HB
Sister, Kingston
Pauline taught me to dance at six, to drive at nineteen and to ask for what I deserved at forty. She was the loudest person at every family gathering and the quietest at every funeral. She made Daddy proud, and she made me braver.
