What is your current field of research?
While my PhD was in anthropology and education, my research is interdisciplinary, drawing insight from critical development studies; refugee and forced migration studies; and gender, feminist and women’s studies. Broadly speaking, l am interested in the contestations that occur around gender, sexuality, and sex education in spaces characterized by high poverty (often produced by colonialism and sustained by inequitable global relations) and by high levels of international intervention. By paying attention to schooling’s role in reproducing or transforming gender roles/sex norms, I think critically about power dynamics in development itself, and between differently situated actors and institutions from families and communities to international funders.

My research has mostly taken place in Dadaab, Kenya and Southern Malawi. Lately, however, I’ve been most interested in how development ‘problems’ get named, and therefore, in the politics of knowledge production on a more global scale. 

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?
When I was an undergraduate student in Lewiston, Maine, approximately 3500 Somali refugees resettled in what had until that point been a largely homogenous (White/Christian), post-industrial town. As folks in many institutions, including schools, worked to rethink programming to better reflect and serve a more diverse population, the mayor at the time wrote a deeply troubling and racist note to the greater Somali community asking them to stop moving there, because the city had become, in his words, “overwhelmed.” Lewiston, at that point largely unknown, became the center of a national firestorm about immigration, white supremacy, and what it might mean to meaningfully make real the stated ideals of a pluralistic, democratic society.

I became interested in the central role that schooling played in these contestations and how different actors, including newcomers, made sense of its purposes. Eventually, I had the opportunity to explore the role of schooling for refugee women who ended up in Maine across diasporic journeys, including in the Dadaab Refugee camps on the Kenya/Somalia border. In Dadaab, I became immediately struck by the profound power differentials within and across the humanitarian industry, in the heated negotations around the relationship between schooling and gendered cultural change, and in the politics of representation.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?
I am proud to have co-authored widely with collaborators from Kenya, Malawi, the US, and Canada. Since 2013, I have co-authored with nine different people, each of whom I enjoyed getting to think with. Most recently I’m excited about a piece in that I wrote with 91��ɫ MEd graduates Mark Okello Oyat, HaEun Kim, and Sahra Mohamed Ismail about the possibilities for and barriers to meaningfully collaborative research in Dadaab.

I am also excited to be the Co-Chair of the Gender Justice SIG at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). We’d love for you to !

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“COVID-19 and vulnerable migrants across Africa” takes place on March 10 at 9:30 a.m. EST/5:30 p.m. EAT .

Moderated by 91��ɫ doctoral candidate Mohamed Duale, the event will feature Helidah Ogude and Tamuka Chekero from the World Bank, who will share their findings from a World Bank-led social analysis of the risks and impacts of COVID-19 for mobile populations across Africa.

Refiloe Ogude, a South African-Kenyan national, is a social development specialist at the World Bank. Her work focuses on the development dimensions of migration and forced displacement, social cohesion and violence prevention, and the political economy of reform. She holds a MSc in international relations from New 91��ɫ and is a doctoral candidate in Public and Urban Policy at The New School.

Chekero a Zimbabwean national, is a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa and part of the Africa Fellowship Program of the World Bank, in the Social Development Global Practice. His doctoral research, based in Cape Town, interrogates mobility and conviviality among migrants from African countries. He holds an MSc in social anthropology from UCT, and a BSc honors degree in social anthropology from Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe.

91��ɫ’s Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project, Faculty of Education, and Centre for Refugee Studies present the ‘Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis’ colloquium series, which examines the intersections of refugee education, anti-Black racism, and COVID-19 in Canada and East Africa.

This colloquium is the first of its kind to feature experts from 91��ɫ and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees in equal measure. Together, this series will: (1) deepen connections among refugee communities, educational leaders, and scholars within and across institutions; (2) foster a sense of reciprocity in learning; (3) recognize and validate the unique expertise that refugee communities bring to time- or resource-constrained situations; and (4) educate all attendees on a range of topics relevant to refugee education, COVID-19, and anti-Black racism.

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Participants in the Faculty of Education’s Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program have seen the impact of change upon multiple fronts, because the program involves faculty, students and community partners at 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus, as well as in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya. Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91��ɫ, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the program’s faculty and students and other interested parties to consider the issues arising from the confluence of education, the pandemic, and the new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

“We’re in this moment together, despite our different individual positions, different colonial histories, and different national public health and education system responses,” Silver said. “It’s an opportunity to learn from each other about how we make sense of and respond to a global crisis in distinct local contexts.

“We can see how systemic inequity is reflected in each space, and how COVID-19 brings to light the underlying systemic issues.”

Silver put together a committee comprising Esther Munene, the academic administrator of the BHER Learning Centre in Dadaab; Philemon Misoy, the BHER project co-ordinator; Molade Osibodu, a Faculty of Education colleague whose work draws heavily on African de-colonial theories; and two international 91��ɫ graduate students, Sharareh Kashi from Iran and Theodata Fafa Bansah from Ghana, to plan and organize the colloquium, which is a monthly event.

“We have planned to change the format each month with different speakers and different hosts,” said Silver. “We are drawing on the talents of diverse graduate students and academics in Kenya and in Canada. But we also wanted to feature our Kenyan institutional partners and BHER students speaking from their lived experiences in the camps.”

“This series is not only for a scholarly audience, but also for community leaders, NGOs and students in both countries.”

The remaining events in the series will touch on a range of topics, including the unique needs of inter-African migrants in southern Africa during COVID-19; the Toronto diasporic community; and the gendering of pandemic-related risks in Kenya, featuring a panel of 91��ɫ’s academic and organizational partners there.

“The series is even more important since we haven’t been able to meet face-to-face with our 91��ɫ colleagues for months due to COVID-19,” said Misoy. “This really opens the lines of communication and allows us to share our experiences working during the pandemic.

“We can look at issues of social, economic and racial discrimination and consider how we support people emerging from conflict. We can take stock of achievements and, by hearing from different people, get ideas how we can shift toward the future. It’s important for north-south relations that we can share ideas freely and help each other.”

Munene agreed.

“It’s good to get the Toronto context on many issues, such as race and gender and learn what it’s like there,” she said. “They can also get to understand our context.”

An eagerness to learn about the Dadaab context was apparent at the most recent session of Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis on Nov. 4. It focused on the educational challenges faced in Dadaab due to the pandemic and featured representatives of 91��ɫ’s partner organizations in Dadaab, as well as Abdikadir Bare Abikar, a graduate of the first class of 91��ɫ’s Dadaab-based Masters of Education students, who is now teaching in Somalia. All of the educational organizations based in Dadaab collaborate to ensure that there is no duplication of effort.

Schools in Dadaab have been closed since mid-March, forcing educators to be creative in offering lessons in the camps, where not every student has a computer or laptop and internet connectivity can be suspect.

“The president of Kenya announced the school closures on a Sunday and they had to close the next day,” said Norah Kariba of Windle International Kenya, which runs the secondary schools in Dadaab. “This left students confused about how to continue.

“The quick fix was to introduce radio lessons, although not all learners were able to access them, and there wasn’t enough air time to handle all of the content. However, at least it was a starting point.

“Teachers also formed classes through WhatsApp [a popular phone application used to communicate with groups] and contacted their students. They were able to create a timetable and students were able to download lessons.”

At the university level, there was also disruption.

“Kenyan universities didn’t offer online learning,” said Munene. “It delayed graduation and caused stress, something we had to address with students. A few universities offered online exams, but exams here are usually administered in person, so it was a big hill to tackle.”

Luckily, 91��ɫ continued to offer online courses through its BHER project, and even though the learning centre in Dadaab was closed, students could access lectures.

“It was an abrupt shift to online learning, and many students weren’t used to the lack of interaction,” said Munene. “BHER also had to buy laptops or tablets and data bundles, so the students had access. We have learned to adapt to technological change.

“However, many students had lost jobs due to the pandemic and it was tough for them to concentrate on school. We tried to comfort them and did some mental health awareness work about the value of sharing their concerns.”

Dakane Bare, a representative of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees in Kenya, offered an observation that served as the motto for the group going forward: “With calamity comes opportunity.”

Silver and the colloquium organizing committee hope that the series continues to provide excellent opportunities for learning and connection.

“Our big goal is to push back against the notion of expertise being located only in one geo-political space, such as the university,” Silver said. “There is much learning to be done.”

Visit the series website at /edu/reciprocal-learning-in-times-of-crisis/ for a full listing of upcoming talks and to view the Zoom recordings from all previous talks.

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer

Article from the , a special issue of YFile devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91��ɫ. It offers compelling and accessible feature-length stories about 91��ɫ’s commitment to excellence in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience.

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Through a series of talks, film, and an open-mic event, experts will consider the unique challenges that the twinned pandemics pose to refugee communities and educators in Canada and/or East Africa; highlight the unique knowledge that refugee communities and the educators who work with them bring to learning in situations of constraint; and offer new lenses to make meaning of our current moment.

This colloquium is the first of its kind to feature experts from 91��ɫ and from institutions that are comprised of or work with refugees in equal measure. Together, this series aims to deepen connections among refugee communities, educational leaders, and scholars within and across institutions; foster a sense of reciprocity in learning; recognize and validate the unique expertise that refugee communities bring to time- or resource-constrained situations; and educate all attendees on a range of topics relevant to refugee education, COVID-19, and anti-Black racism.

The colloquium series will be held monthly throughout the academic year at 10 a.m. online via Zoom.

This month's event is "e/Thinking and Acting Holistically in our Times: Discussions on Conceptual Multiplicity" featuring (91��ɫ) on Oct. 7.

What lenses do we use to give meaning to a sociopolitical and economic landscape marked by questions and uncertainties? Dlamini offers her thoughts at a time of the intersection of multiple contemporary crisis and challenges including: the global pandemic, COVID-19; the public lynching of black and indigenous people; demonstrations and protests against social injustices; national and domestic border policing; anti-immigrant sentiments; etc.

In the face of these challenges and crises is a need for the spirit of hope, healing and opportunity. The international responses to these public lynchings bring hope to a possibility of re-imagining a future that, through dialogical conversations like this one, we can start and continue to re-envision, rebuild and heal. As we move forward towards a different normality, we must acknowledge and address the wounds created and those spirits murdered.

This talk offers layers of concepts for engagement towards this new era. It is an invitation to ponder about meaning making resources and their impact and effects on the “self” as a collective – an invitation to examine interconnections between the intellect and the soul in teaching and learning. Embracing this interconnection requires that we engage thinking with tools that go beyond the familiar so as to meaningfully participate in the production of an innovative politics of existence.

Join the Zoom session at .

View event flyer with full listing of scheduled talks in series

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