Rachel Silver Archives | Faculty of Education

Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Seed Grants in Critical Social Science Perspectives in Global Health Research

devontem — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:44:31 +0000

(Published on The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research Blog, July 8th, 2025)

Following the sixth annual Critical Perspective for Global Health Research (CPGH) workshop in April, the CPGH Steering Committee is delighted to announce that the following 91��ɫ researchers have been awarded this year’s $7,000 seed grants to initiate novel and innovative ideas that take a critical social science approach to global health research:

Rachel Silver

Reconfigurations and Refusals: Forging Futures Beyond Aid in Malawi

In March 2025, President Trump shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting more than $40 billions of dollars of promised funding. In Malawi, the U.S. alone contributed over 13% of the country’s overall 2024/2025 budget. While aid can meaningfully impact lives, the global aid architecture—the organizations, funding mechanisms, policies, and programs that scaffold development activities worldwide—is deeply flawed, often reproducing power hierarchies rooted in colonial histories and relationships. This pilot study conducted by a transnational research team (1) considers if and how aid cuts might catalyze decolonization of Malawi’s education and health sectors and (2) begins to reimagine possibilities for humanitarian engagement. Our project centers how local development workers theorize alternative arrangements for education within highly inequitable systems. Situated between international funders and community-based recipients, Malawian policymakers, NGO staff-members, and fieldworkers are uniquely positioned to reconceptualize aid mechanisms and forge new resourcing futures.

Fawzia Gibson-Fall

Researching the Role of Security Actors in Global Health

This project examines the expanding role of security actors in global health at a time of intensifying global crises and shrinking aid budgets. Using qualitative methods such as interviews, archival and media analysis, the study explores the historical, everyday, and geopolitical dimensions of this engagement. It offers timely insights into the health-security nexus and informs future global health governance. The programme of work includes a field visit to Senegal and four in-person workshops: a policy workshop at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, three research expansion meetings in Canada and the United Kingdom, linking colleagues at King’s College London and 91��ɫ. These activities are designed to co-develop policy tools, build networks, and advance this research agenda. Key outputs include visual material for an upcoming scholarly book, Health Warriors: The Global Politics of Military Health in Africa (Johns Hopkins University Press), peer-reviewed articles, and the development of international grant proposals.

The purpose of the CPGH Seed Grants is to support 91��ɫ–based critical social science perspectives in global health research that contribute to the research themes of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research: planetary health; global health and humanitarianism; and global health foresighting. The Seed Grants are also meant to encourage faculty to develop fuller grant proposals for Fall Tri-Council and other grant deadlines. Recipients will present the progress of their research at next year’s Critical Social Science Perspectives in Global Health Research Workshop.

The Dahdaleh Institute and the CPGH Steering Committee would like to thank all the applicants this year and congratulate the 2025 CPGH Seed Grant recipients.

Themes	Global Health & Humanitarianism, Global Health Foresighting, Planetary Health
Status	Active
Related Work	Critical Perspectives in Global Health \| Project, Research
Updates	N/A
People	Fawzia Gibson-Fall, Research Fellow, Global Health & Humanitarianism - Active

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Titan rescue efforts raise questions about whether migrants’ lives are also worth saving

mmvs — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 16:52:09 +0000

_{Migrants swam next to their overturned wooden boat during a rescue operation by Spanish NGO Open Arms at south of the Italian Lampedusa island at the Mediterranean sea, Aug. 11, 2022. Francisco Seco/Associated Press}

For travelers aboard the Titan, high-stakes travel was elective; submersible tourism was billed as a ‘thrilling and unique travel experience’ on the company’s website. ‘High-cost, high-risk’ travel for migrants is, by contrast, more fraught.

The world has been captivated this week by a search for the Titan, a missing submersible carrying five passengers. Rescue crews from the United States, Canada, and beyond joined forces in an operation that experts compared to a “.” All available resources and technology were deployed in an attempt to save those aboard — a British billionaire, a father and son from a preeminent Pakistani family, a French maritime expert, and the CEO of OceanGate, the company that designed the submersible.

While we mourn the lives lost and take inspiration from this extraordinary effort, the rescue operation raises questions about a differential valuation of human life. The political will and resources devoted to trying to save the wealthiest among us far outweigh those directed at trying to rescue the thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who have also been lost at sea in their search for safety.

In 2022, . Last week, . Of course, the total number of migrants attempting to immigrate by sea is unknown — unless they are apprehended and detained, or their bodies are recovered, their stories will never be told.

The passengers aboard the Titan are part of a growing industry of “high-cost, high-risk” travel, sought out by the uberwealthy. With “” (), those able to pay can push the boundaries of human travel — bringing tourism to space, the South Pole, or the depths of the ocean floor.

“High-cost, high-risk” travel for migrants is, by contrast, more fraught. When migrants and asylum seekers step into the hastily crafted wooden dinghies destined for the Florida coast or Mediterranean ports, they are fleeing gender-based violence in Haiti, political persecution in Belarus, and forced gang-recruitment in El Salvador, among others. Their journey seeking safety is often as haunting as the circumstances they fled. They face the possibility of trafficking and exploitation en route, the risk of capsizing and drowning, and, in perhaps the best of circumstances, the possibility of being apprehended and detained by law enforcement agencies that often have . Yet they take these risks because they’ve determined that staying behind is more dangerous.

For travelers aboard the Titan, and those like them, high-stakes travel is elective; submersible tourism was billed as a “” on the company’s website. Self-funded excursions into dangerous terrain beg few societal questions about who bears the burden of rescue in the case of emergency. Migrants and asylum seekers take to the sea because they view it as their only hope of escape and survival; a chance that can cost them tens of thousands of dollars. Unlike their much wealthier counterparts, the money they spend on travel often puts them in debt for decades. And, while politicians debate immigration policy, few questions are asked when , as happened recently off the coast of Greece.

Another striking contrast can be found in the global response to this week’s lost submersible. The Titan search and rescue mission was an admirable display of transnational partnership, with a French robot deployed in Canadian waters under joint military operations, US and Canadian aircraft, and British surveillance. By contrast, when migrants go missing at sea, politicians argue that search and rescue missions are an ill-advised . Ironically, was so appalled by migrant drownings in the Mediterranean that he bought a boat and took to personally rescuing migrants. But the world can’t rely on the beneficence of a wealthy few to carry out the obligations of governments.

Some might argue that the actions taken by those aboard the Titan were, while perhaps reckless, legal — whereas migrants often seek safety in other countries without proper authorization. Still, suggesting that death is an appropriate consequence for unauthorized migration is as morally and legally indefensible as turning a blind eye to the Titan’s disappearance. It also discounts the historically complex ways in which US and other transnational policies are implicated in global migration.

We extend our condolences to the passengers’ families. We also hope that the “” undertaken in this rescue will be extended to the next group of Venezuelan migrants capsized off the coast of Miami or Afghani refugees adrift in the Mediterranean Sea.

Sarah Sherman-Stokes is a clinical associate professor of law and associate director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Rachel Silver is an assistant professor at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and Centre for Refugee Studies in Toronto.

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Get to know our faculty: Rachel Silver

acoward — Tue, 09 May 2023 15:49:09 +0000

Rachel Silver

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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Crisis: Only one of the experiences shared by students and faculty

acoward — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 19:02:16 +0000

There has been considerable change in lives worldwide in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, and the persistence of systemic anti-Black racism.

Rachel Silver

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.”

The Dadaab Education Centre in Kenya

Esther Munene

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.

Philemon Misoy

“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.

91��ɫ U students living in the camp work on the assignments at the Dadaab Education Centre

“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.”

The centre is equipped with computers and supplies, which are essential for student success in the online learning environment that was made necessary by the global pandemic

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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November 2020 issue of 'Innovatus' focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education

acoward — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 15:24:55 +0000

Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Innovatus, a special issue of YFile that is devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91��ɫ.

Will Gage

This issue of Innovatus focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education. I am so pleased by the rich variety of stories offered in this issue because they showcase the expansive depth of the Faculty's approach to the "act of education" to quote Interim Dean Sharon Murphy.

Education is universal and the Faculty's work with refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya, homeless youth and in re-envisioning early childhood education are displayed among the fine stories offered in this issue. As well, Dean Murphy's letter is a testament to the Faculty's commitment to excellence, and the story highlighting the innovation shown in moving the Faculty of Education's Summer Institute online and transforming it to a year-long effort is amazing. Encore!

Thank you again for the many wonderful comments about our September and October issues. I value each of your responses. Please continue to contact me with your ideas, classroom innovations and thoughts about teaching, learning and the student experience.

As I close, the snow is starting to fly and with it, the holidays are approaching. I would like to take a moment to wish each of you good health and happiness at home, which is especially important this year.

Featured in the November 2020 issue of Innovatus

In her letter to the community, Interim Dean Sharon Murphy writes about how the Faculty of Education is constantly working to enliven new visions of education and society, visions of possibility, equity and social justice. "Our work focuses not only inward on curriculum and pedagogy, but very much looks outward towards the idea of education being situated within a complex and seemingly evermore fragile world."

One of 91��ɫ's hallowed traditions, the Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI), may have bowed to COVID-19 in terms of format, but it is unbowed in terms of mission and content. For 2020-2021, the institute has morphed into a series of five free webinars titled Up Close and Personal: Conversations on Anti-Oppression.

Stephen Gaetz, the 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact and a professor in the Faculty of Education, is using his excellent research and communications skills and grant-writing ability to attack the challenges within youth homelessness, which need broad solutions and a meeting of many perspectives.

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 Faculty's Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program. The series considers the issues arising from the confluence of education, the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

Lucy Angus and Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, assistant professors new to 91��ɫ and the Faculty of Education, have created a lecture series titled Disrupting Early Childhood: Inheritance, Pedagogy, Curriculum to explore new ideas about early childhood education (ECE) and create a space to bring together the innovative research conversations that are changing the field of ECE.

Innovatus is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.

I extend a personal invitation to you to share your experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at .

Will Gage
Associate Vice-President, Teaching & Learning

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Inaugural 'Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis' series featured Associate Professor Nombuso Dlamini

acoward — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 20:47:41 +0000

The ‘Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis’ monthly virtual colloquium series launched on October 7, 2020 with a talk by Associate Professor Nombuso Dlamini titled "e/Thinking and Acting Holistically in our Times: Discussions on Conceptual Multiplicity".

The talk examined the lenses that we use to give meaning to a sociopolitical and economic landscape marked by questions and uncertainties. Dlamini offered 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; and much more.

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