Faculty Conversations
OISE Faculty Conversations: Reflecting on difference, belonging, resistance, and agency
March 22nd 2024, 1:30 – 3:00 pm EST, OISE Library
This OISE faculty session will explore how scholars understand the construction, debate, and embodiment of difference in relation to neoliberal and capitalist definitions of difference that homogenize and dispossess. Panelists will examine how educational systems, policies, institutions, and communities have been impacted by the legacies of those who have resisted and mobilized against colonial, racist, ableist, misogynist, transphobic, xenophobic, anti-queer, climate-change related, and economic violence and injustice. Reflections from each faculty member will implore educators and attendees to engage with resistance and agency in their research, classrooms, communities, and beyond.
Faculty Panelists:
rosalind hampton, PhD works as Assistant Professor of Black Studies in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her areas of teaching and supervision are centred on Black radical thought, racialized social relations, Black feminist life writing, and arts and creative practice. As a scholar and activist, Dr. hampton is especially interested in anticolonial, anticapitalist solidarities within and beyond academia. Her recent research studies Black student activism and coalition building, and critically examines Black Studies and its belated arrival in Canadian universities. She publishes essays, articles, and commentary related to education, cultural studies, and leftist politics, and is the author of Black Racialization and Resistance at an Elite University, published in 2020 with University of Toronto Press (UTP). She is currently working on her second single-author book project (also with UTP), titled Critical-Creative Praxis in Black Studies.
Dr. Qui Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Trans Studies in Curriculum and Pedagogy, in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. Their current research explores pedagogies of abolitionist praxis in the lived experience of Black trans folks. Prof. Alexander’s research and teaching interests include Black trans studies, abolition and transformative justice, Black feminist thought, Black radical tradition, queer Black feminist praxis, critical pedagogies, and queer/trans youth of colour. Prof. Alexander is the recipient of the 2020 Howard Liebhaber Human Rights Award from the Pfund Foundation, and the 2020 Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity award from the University of Minnesota. Their academic work is complemented by extensive community organizing experience, building advocacy, programming, health education and community for LGBTQ2S+ individuals through service roles at the University of Minnesota, Haverford College, Attic Youth Center and the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia.
Dr. Beyhan Farhadi is an Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Equity at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Specifically, she researches online education and resistance to neoliberal restructuring. She draws from extensive experience teaching in secondary schools and public education advocacy to bridge research and practice. During her 2-year tenure as a Postdoctoral Fellow, she researched policy enactment and the implementation of educational policy online during COVID-19 school closures. She was also a steering committee member of the President’s Advisory Council on EDI as an appointed Post-Doc Representative, developing a university-wide EDI framework. She hold a PhD in Geography from the University of Toronto (2019) and an MA in English from York University (2010). Her dissertation research examined the relationship between e-learning and educational inequality in the Toronto District School Board. Her manuscript is currently under contract with with University of Toronto Press. Dr. Beyhan Farhadi is the Vice President of the Canadian Association of Sociology of Education and a member of the Critical Geographies of Education American Association of Geographers Specialty Group.
Panel Chairs:
Shanna Peltier (she/her) is an Anishinaabe kwe from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory located on the beautiful Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Shanna is a Ph.D. candidate in School and Clinical Child Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education – University of Toronto. Shanna’s research seeks to foster Indigenous mental wellness and prevent suicide through life promotion practices that are built upon Anishinaabe theories of “The Good Life.” Her work highlights the life-promoting practices enacted within Indigenous communities, which are built upon local Indigenous knowledge and theories of wellness and utilize community action and cultural practices. Shanna is a psychological consultant at Kinark Child and Family Services, a community-based mental health clinic that supports children and youth with complex needs. In this role, Shanna provides psychological intervention and assessment services to children, youth, and their families.
Sewsen Igbu (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Sewsen’s research examines the intersections of gender, immigration, race, community, and well-being. Her current scholarly work focuses on the migration experiences of newcomer mothers from the Horn of Africa, their transnational lives, and community work to nourish themselves, their families, and their communities. Previously, she worked with numerous nationally and internationally organizations to address gender-based violence, child welfare, adult education, and community development. Her writing can be found in the Canadian Scholars, Women Studies Quarterly, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), and Relational Child & Youth Care Practice.