Members | The Harriet Tubman Institute

Deborah Neill

rebsl — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:33:37 +0000

I am an Associate Professor of Modern European History at �첥��Ƶ in Toronto. I focus on the history of European imperialism in Africa, the history of the two World Wars, and the history of colonial medicine. My first book, Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, was published by Stanford University Press in 2012.

I have two current projects: my manuscript-in-progress explores the expansion of the commodities and retail firm John Holt & Co (Liverpool) in non-British colonies (French Equatorial Africa, Spanish Equatorial Guinea, and German Kamerun) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I am interested in the relationship of the company to foreign governments, the expansion of their regional trade in the Gulf of Guinea, and the experiences of their European and African employees.

My second project explores aspects of the First World War in Cameroun. I have articles in progress on African telegraphers, guides, and spies who assisted the British; the experiences of John Holt & Co. agents and traders during the war; and the way that John Holt & Co.'s business was impacted by the war and the aftermath, when the territory became a Mandate under the League of Nations, controlled by the British and French governments.

My teaching interests are broadly focused on the history of modern Europe and Imperialism since 1789 and includes colonialism, World Wars One and Two, the Holocaust, Modern Germany, Modern France, War, Revolution and Society in the 20th century, and Globalization.

Keywords: Colonial Capitalism, John Holt & Co. , Transnational Business, Rubber, Palm Oil, Western Africa

Nia Akilah Wilson

rebsl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:22:35 +0000

Nia Akilah Wilson (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Department of Humanities at �첥��Ƶ. She is a research associate with the YRC II in Black Sonic Cultures. Nia earned her MA in Human Geography from University of Toronto. Her SSHRC CGS-M funded thesis focused on the experiences of Black women with anti-black surveillance practices, especially in the wake of Toronto’s Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy. Her current research explores the implications of counterinsurgent surveillance policies on Toronto’s Caribana and London’s Notting Hill Carnival, with a focus on Black youth.

Keywords: Carnival, diaspora, Black youth, surveillance, counterinsurgency, resistance

Tareq Al Khalaf

rebsl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:18:31 +0000

Tareq is a PhD student in Health at �첥��Ƶ under supervision of Prof. Farah Ahmad. His research examines the lived experiences of family caregivers of racialized autistic children in Canada. Tareq’s work focuses on how collaborative community-centred approaches, particularly those aligned with Social Prescribing (SRx) models, can enhance caregivers’ health and well-being through equitable partnerships between healthcare providers and community organizations. His study aims to facilitate knowledge translation that informs and strengthens systems of care in Canada, with broader applicability in glocal context. His research interests also include social prescribing, autism, caregivers’ health, interprofessional collaboration, primary health care, and healthcare quality improvement.

Keywords: global health, interprofessional collaboration, health systems, autism

Magdaline Nkando

rebsl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:16:00 +0000

Dr. Magdaline Nkando is the Founder and Lead of Kujua Collective, an African-led platform advancing knowledge systems transformation and Learning Justice. Her work focuses on how knowledge is produced, governed, and applied within institutions, and how this shapes development outcomes. She is developing Learning Justice as an emerging governance methodology, alongside the Learning Justice Framework and Index, to support institutional transformation. Her work spans research, policy advisory, and institutional capacity building across multilateral and African contexts, with a focus on advancing African knowledge systems within global discourse.

Keywords: Learning Justice, Knowledge Systems Transformation, African and Diaspora Knowledge Governance, Institutional Learning, Epistemic Justice, Knowledge-to-Policy Translation Systems, Global South Knowledge Systems

Ayomide Yemi

rebsl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:07:38 +0000

Ayomide Yemi is a researcher and development practitioner working at the intersection of women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and behavioral finance in low-income contexts. She is the Founder of Renbi Women Empowerment Initiative, a Nigeria-based organization focused on strengthening the sustainability of economic empowerment outcomes for last-mile women through community-based financial literacy and behavior change models.

Her work is grounded in extensive field experience with women in informal economies, where she has designed and implemented financial literacy and savings-focused interventions tailored to low-literacy and underserved communities. Through this work, she has developed the HER-Inclusion Model, a behavioral readiness framework that examines the gap between access to financial services and sustained financial participation among low-income women.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Management with a specialization in Finance and Investment from IE Business School.

Keywords: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Financial Inclusion, Behavioral Finance, Financial Literacy, Informal Economies, Social Impact, Community-Based Finance

Praveen Naik Bellampali

rebsl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:01:19 +0000

Dr. Praveen Naik Bellampalli is an Assistant Professor at PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore. He is a rural development scholar with expertise in Rural Studies, Tribal Studies, Migration, Livelihoods, and Rural Entrepreneurship. He holds a PhD in Rural Development from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), focusing on migration, agrarian distress, and livelihood vulnerabilities in drought-prone regions of India. He is a recipient of the National Fellowship for Higher Education (Government of India) and a Gold Medalist at the MPhil level.

He has an interdisciplinary academic background with MPhil degrees from TISS and Gandhigram Rural Institute, and an MSW from the Central University of Karnataka. He has qualified UGC-NET and KSET in Social Work and has over three years of teaching, research, and field experience, including his tenure at the Central University of Karnataka.

Dr. Bellampalli has published in reputed Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journals and presented at international conferences in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines, supported by an ICSSR Travel Grant. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a funded project on social security and livelihoods of rural women in Coimbatore and actively contributes to research, teaching, and policy-oriented work.

Christiane Ndedi Essombe

rebsl — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:58:39 +0000

Dr. Christiane Ndedi Essombe (she/her) holds a Master's of public health from the University of Montreal School of Public Health and a PhD degree in psychology from the University of Cape Town. She has researched structural inequities for over ten years in several countries that include Tanzania, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa and Canada. Her current research focuses on the psychological dynamics of western colonial violence and their impacts on the way Black Africans - on the continent and in the diaspora - perceive themselves and others.

Keywords: (De)coloniality, western colonialism, appropriated whiteness, critical race theory, colonial identity erosion

Muna-Udbi Ali

rebsl — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:27:39 +0000

Dr. Muna-Udbi A. Ali (she/they) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Environment and Urban Change (EUC), specializing in Black Studies in Geography and Environment, at �첥��Ƶ in Toronto, Canada. Before joining the faculty of EUC, Ali worked as an Assistant Professor at California State University San Marcos, and as a Visiting Faculty member at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar, her primary research covers diverse theoretical foci including Black studies, critical refugee and migration studies, critical race studies, Black feminist studies, Black geographies, transnational feminism, environmental justice, popular education, critical Muslim studies, public policy, critical pedagogy, and higher education studies. She has published several book chapters and scholarly articles in journals including The Black Scholar, Darkmatter, Reconsidering Development, and The Conversation, among others. Outside of academia, Ali is a community worker, curriculum and policy consultant, researcher, and anti-oppression educator. She has designed curricula and policies on gender-based violence, Afrocentric education, and anti-racist praxis. She has worked in education and curriculum development in Canada, United States, Kenya, and Somalia.

Keywords: Black Studies, Black geographies, Black feminist theories and methods, critical refugee studies, higher education studies, critical pedagogy, popular education, environmental justice, public policy, and surveillance studies.

Adeyemi Olusola

rebsl — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:00:04 +0000

Adeyemi Olusola is a hydrogeomorphologist whose research examines river processes and changing waterscapes using high-resolution in situ measurements, remote sensing, and machine learning. His work bridges field-based hydrogeomorphology with data-intensive methods to better understand how rivers respond to environmental change and human intervention. He currently serves as Theme 3 Lead for the International Association of Hydrological Sciences HELPING Initiative (Hydrology Engaging Local People IN one Global world) for the decade (2023 – 2033), where he contributes to advancing inclusive and community-engaged water science. He is also an active member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committees of both the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Keywords: Rivers, Human-Water Interactions, Decolonizing Hydrology

Margaret Ofori Asubonteng

rebsl — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:58:59 +0000

Margaret Ofori Asubonteng is a Black African Human Resource Management student with interests in Black studies, labor, equity, law, student engagement, and community development. Her academic and leadership pursuits explore the intersection of Black lived experiences, institutional systems, social justice, and belonging within educational and professional spaces.

She currently serves as an Upper-Year Student Engagement Assistant in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at �첥��Ƶ, where she supports student outreach, programming, and peer connection initiatives. Margaret has also contributed to student transition and leadership programming through York’s Student Community & Leadership Development team and served as an Outreach Lead for a policy case competition through the School of Public Policy & Administration.

Her commitment to student engagement and service has been recognized through several honors, including a Certificate of Distinction for Excellence from Student Community & Leadership Development, the Best College Crew Volunteer Award (2024–2025) from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and recognition for her contributions to the Human Resources Student Association community. She was also recognized for her presentation at �첥��Ƶ’s International Career Ready Conference, where she shared insights on navigating university life as an international student.

Margaret is passionate about advocacy and community-centered engagement, and she hopes to continue contributing to conversations that affirm the richness, complexity, and diversity of African and diasporic experiences.

Keywords: Black Studies, African Diaspora, Labor, Equity, Social Justice, Student Engagement, Community Development, Law, Belonging, Youth Leadership, International Students