Empowering African Studies for a Global Impact

Mohamed Sesay is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the African Studies Program in the Department of Social Science, York University. He is also a member of the UKRI GCRF Gender Justice and Security Hub at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Women, Peace and Security. His research focuses on the rule of law, legal pluralism, customary justice, transitional justice, international criminal justice, and postconflict peacebuilding in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Jones Adjei is a Sociology Instructor, and Head of Sociology, at Red Deer Polytechnic, specializing in social demography and applied statistics. His research interests include immigrant settlement experiences and population health disparities. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Sex Education, Ethnicity and Health, Canadian Studies in Population, Journal of Biosocial Science, and Canadian Ethnic Studies. In addition to his passion for teaching, he generously volunteers his research skills to enhance the operational capacity of immigrant service organizations in the Red Deer area. He has also served as a board member of the Central Alberta Immigrant Women's Association (CAIWA) for the past six years.

My name is Michael Akinpelu. I am an associate professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Regina, in Regina (Saskatchewan). My research interests focus on language policies and planning and their impact on sustainable development in multilingual environments (such as Africa). I am also interested in immigration from Sub-Saharan Africa, sociolinguistic approach to teaching and learning of French as a foreign language, as well as Francophonie in minority contexts. I am currently engaged in various research projects, including a study on the settlement and integration of Afro-Canadian immigrant youth in Saskatchewan.

Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin is the Canada Research Chair in Youth and African Urban Futures and an associate professor in both the Departments of Geography and Planning and Gender Studies at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Her current research examines the impact of contemporary urban transformations on youth identity, labour practices, psychosocial well-being, and future orientation in Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria. She also engages with the issues of subjectivity and belonging and the use of Afrofuturism in geographic projects that address the politics of difference in popular culture.

Abel Chikanda is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth, Environment & Society (SEES) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He holds a PhD in Geography from Western University (2010) and was an Assistant / Associate Professor at the University of Kansas (2015 – 2022). Prior to that, he was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University (2010-2012) and Research Coordinator at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (2013-2015). He also worked as a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe (2004-2006). His research focuses on African immigrant integration, the role of diasporas in developing their countries of origin, and exploring the ways in which African cities can build sustainable and resilient food systems. He is an active member of the Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP), the African Urban Food Network (AFSUN), the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and the Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) research networks. For full biography and publications, please see https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/chikana

Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research. Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria, General Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors, founding member of the Nigerian chapter of UNESCO’s Committee on Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage, and founding member of the Board of the $100,000 annual Nigerian Prize for Literature. A Fellow of the William Joiner Centre for War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, his research interests span Cultural Studies, Oral Performance and Literature in Africa, Postcolonial Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Globalization and Popular Culture. His recent books include Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021), Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020), and Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019). His research has appeared in top-ranked journals such as Journal of Folklore Research, African Literature Today, Journal of African Cinema, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Postcolonial Text, Wasafiri, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, and Canadian Journal of African Studies. His creative writing publications include The Night Hides with a Knife (short stories), which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize; Voices in the Rainbow (Poetry), a finalist for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; Love in a Time of Nightmares (Poetry) for which he was awarded the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing. He has co-edited Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (2006); and We-Men: An Anthology of Men Writing on Women (1998). Otiono obtained his doctorate in English and Film Studies from the University of Alberta where he won numerous awards including the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic distinction. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University where he was also appointed a Visiting Assistant Professor and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carleton University. His professional honours include a Capital Educator’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence, Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship (twice), and Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award. DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono is his latest book slated for release in October 2021 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press as part of Canada’s most prestigious poetry series, The Laurier Poetry Series (LPS).

Philippe M. Frowd is an Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. His research draws on critical security studies and focuses on emerging transnational forms of governance of security in the Sahel region of West Africa. His research has primarily focused on irregular migration and border control in the region and has been the focus of his latest book Security at the Borders: Transnational Practices and Technologies in West Africa (2018, Cambridge University Press). Philippe also works on the politics of non-state security provision and dynamics of militarization and intervention in the Sahel more broadly. His work has most recently appeared in Third World Quarterly, Geopolitics, and African Affairs. He is an editor of Security Dialogue.