African diaspora | The Harriet Tubman Institute

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

Carlito Oliveira Junior

rebsl — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:54:48 +0000

Carlito Lopes de Oliveira Junior is a PhD candidate in History at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) and holds a Master's degree in History from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), where he was advised by Prof. Dr. Luiz Fernando Saraiva. His doctoral research, supervised by Prof. Dr. Anita Correia Lima de Almeida (UNIRIO), investigates the internal slave market in the Recôncavo da Guanabara (Estrela, Iguaçu, and Magé, 1850–1888), using fiscal records, parish registers, and historical cartography. He also holds a Master's degree in History from UFF, with a dissertation on the spatial, economic, and political formation of Vila de Estrela (1846–1892). He is Director of Historical-Cultural Heritage Preservation at the Prefeitura Municipal de Magé (Rio de Janeiro) and founder of the cultural platform @historiademage. He is a member of the YSI/INET Economic History Working Group and a TEDx Countdown 2024 speaker.

Keywords: Internal slave trade, Atlantic slavery, second slavery, Recôncavo da Guanabara, nineteenth-century Brazil, historical demography, African diaspora, economic history, Atlantic capitalism, slavery, abolition

Zachary Scola-Allison

rebsl — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:56:56 +0000

A writer and award-winning artist and curator, Zachary's research focuses on the idea of the artist as brand, exploring the concept's interaction with race, class, and identity. His research offers a decolonising analysis of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artworks, exploring the impact of Basquiat’s Afro-Caribbean heritage, appropriation, and commodification on his work. Central to his study is the popular labeling of Basquiat as “The Black Picasso,” a moniker that both includes and others the artist within the Western art canon. Using theoretical frameworks such as Homi K. Bhabha's concepts of mimicry and hybridity to interpret semiotic analyses of image and text within a postcolonial framework, Zachary critically examines how Basquiat’s art functions as a postcolonial counter-narrative. His work will contribute to the decolonisation of cultural narratives, exploring the effects of commodifying BIPOC artists.

Keywords: Decolonial, Postcolonial, African Diaspora, Basquiat, Branding, Commodification, Capitalism, Anti-Racism

Paul E. Lovejoy

rebsl — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 19:53:44 +0000

As Distinguished Research Professor the Department of History, �첥��Ƶ, he was Founding Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at �첥��Ƶ and held the Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History (2000-2015). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was a member of Council of the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada, serving as Vice President and Acting President. He was a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO “Slave Route” Project from 1996 to 2012, publishing several books in association with the Project. He was co-editor of the journal, African Economic History, for 37 years and continues as General Editor of The Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora (Africa World Press), having published 40 books in the Series. In 2019, the Journal of Global Slavery and Brill Publishers established the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize, an Annual Award for Excellence and Originality in a Major Work on Global Slavery. In 2021, African Economic History published a special issue in his honor (Vol, 49, No. 1), and in 2024, Toyin Falola published Transformations in History: African Societies and Economies in The Works of Paul Lovejoy (Berlin and Leiden: De Gruyter Brill). He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Extraordinary Global Academic Leadership from Obafemi Awolowo University *the Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association in 2024. Lovejoy has published more than forty books, including Jihad in West Africa during the Age of Revolutions (1775-1850) (2016), Slavery in the Global Diaspora of Africa (2019), Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: An Enslaved Muslim of the Black Atlantic (2025), and Ecología, etnografía y comercio musulmán a través del Sahel: interacciones entre el Sahara, la sabana y el bosque en África Occidental (2025). He has co-edited Slavery, Resistance and Abolitions: A Pluralist Perspective (2019), The Atlantic and Africa: The Second Slavery and Beyond (2021), Regenerated Identities: Documenting African Lives (2022), and Boko Haram, Islamic Protest and National Security (2023). His various web-based projects include Equiano’s World: Gustavus Vassa and the Abolition of the Slave Trade (), which is the subject of his current research. His forthcoming book, Olaudah of Ikwuano: The True Origins of an African Abolitionist is being published by Princeton University Press.

Research keywords: African Economic History, Islamic Africa, slavery, biography, African diaspora

Gemechu Abeshu

rebsl — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:36:20 +0000

Dr. Gemechu Abeshu is a refugee and forced migration researcher currently employed as a postdoctoral fellow at �첥��Ƶ. He is presently a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow seated in the Department of Sociology at �첥��Ƶ. He earned his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Bayreuth University (Germany) and an M.A. in Governance and Development Studies from Antwerp University (Belgium). His research interests include African Diaspora, forced displacements, racialized refugee integration, and non-state political power forms, the Horn of Africa.