Obiora Okafor Archives | Research & Innovation

Meet the inaugural recipients of the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowships for Black and Indigenous Scholars

ls1207 — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 18:30:13 +0000

91��ɫ has announced the four inaugural recipients of its new Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowships for Black and Indigenous Scholars: Godwin Dzah, Don Davis, De-Lawrence Lamptey and Ruth Murambadoro.

This two-year award, valued at $70,000 per year, seeks to address underrepresentation in many disciplines and fields by providing Black and Indigenous scholars with the ability to dedicate their time to pursuing new research, while accessing the collegial resources, faculty supervision and mentorship for which 91��ɫ is well known.

91��ɫ has a strong commitment to the pursuit of justice. Integral to this pursuit is an understanding of knowledge as multifaceted and plurally constituted. For the sake of knowledge, diversity is fundamental. While the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides new opportunities for Black and Indigenous scholars, most importantly it seeks to attract superb scholars who will help to push the boundaries of knowledge in necessary ways.

Professor Lisa Philipps, 91��ɫ’s provost and vice-president academic, believes that “building new paths and welcoming spaces for diverse voices to thrive in the academy and beyond is vitally important.” She continues by saying that the Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowships for Black and Indigenous Scholars are “a reflection of the inclusive higher education environment that we are committed to creating at 91��ɫ.”

Professor Thomas Loebel, associate vice-president graduate and dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, adds: “As a program, these fellowships manifest a challenge that 91��ɫ has put to itself, which is to work with emerging scholars in individualized ways and to understand their needs as these emerge through the research process. Our goal is to help connect postdoctoral scholars to the incredible community that is 91��ɫ, so that with this program we can create something truly career developmental.”

Godwin Dzah

Godwin Dzah (Osgoode Hall Law School)

Dzah comes to 91��ɫ having recently completed a doctorate in law at the University of British Columbia. His research proposes a fundamental re-evaluation of how international environmental law deploys concepts of crisis in ways that limit the potential for more sustained and complete forms of transformation. "The historical significance of this award is an ever-present reminder of the unfinished task of addressing systemic challenges," says Dzah. "I am looking forward to advancing this cause by expanding my teaching and research interests, which sit at the intersection of international law and the environment, by demonstrating the common interests and connections between the peoples of the Global South and their counterparts – the Indigenous Peoples in the Global North – in the context of the law and politics of international environmental law. I am grateful to the leadership at Osgoode Hall Law School; my supervisor, Professor Obiora Okafor; and especially to 91��ɫ for this exciting opportunity."

Don Davis

Don Davis (Faculty of Science)

Davis is currently a postdoctoral researcher at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. His research investigates a novel approach to the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, arguing that processes of forgetting are naturally amplified in major neurodegenerative diseases. “The Canadian Indigenous population has an increased prevalence and earlier onset of Alzheimer’s disease than the Canadian non-Indigenous population," he says. "This opportunity will allow me to establish a research program to study Alzheimer’s disease within the Indigenous community and accelerate growth in scholarly diversity through development of an academic pipeline for Indigenous scientists. I am very grateful for the advice from Dr. Steven Connor, who will be mentoring me during my postdoctoral fellowship.”

De-Lawrence Lamptey (Faculty of Health)

De-Lawrence Lamptey

Lamptey is currently a postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia. His research introduces an intersectional approach to the study of the material, social, and financial barriers Black children and their families are faced with in Canada. “91��ɫ’s commitment to support Black and Indigenous scholars is very remarkable," says Lamptey," and I am proud to be an inaugural recipient. This fellowship is a recognition of the unique and complex challenges that Black and Indigenous scholars often confront as we pursue our career ambitions. My research will be exploring the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and disability among children and youth in Canada. I look forward to making a positive difference in society through this fellowship.”

Ruth Murambadoro (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

Ruth Murambadoro

Murambadoro is currently a lecturer at the Wits Schools of Governance at the University of Witswatersrand in South Africa. Her research explores how women who have experienced state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe deploy narratives to advance the goal of gender justice. “My project, ‘Gender justice and narratives of violence by women in post-colonial Zimbabwe,’ involves working with women’s social movements and the diaspora to produce new insights on how networks of women provide avenues for healing, justice and peace, outside the auspices of the state," she says. "This work focuses on women’s encounters of state-sanctioned violence and living under dictatorial rule for the past 40-plus years. I am delighted to join the Centre for Feminist Research at 91��ɫ to work closely with Dr. Alison Crosby as a Fellow under the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowships for Black and Indigenous Scholars.”

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Professor Obiora Okafor elected to UN Human Rights Council advisory committee

fmaquito — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Last week, 91��ɫ law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law, and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the .

“The committee is the think tank of the Human Rights Council,” says . “It’s where the thinking begins.” He sees participating on the committee as a form of public service and an opportunity to make an impact at a relatively high level.

Okafor (left) was nominated by Nigeria to represent Africa on the 18-person committee for the next three years. The Geneva-based committee meets twice a year.

The son of an Ibo lawyer concerned about social justice, Okafor studied, practised and taught law in Nigeria before coming to Canada. He won a scholarship to the University of British Columbia, earned two graduate degrees and joined Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000.

“Human rights gave me a language and framework for expressing my concerns about social justice,” says Okafor.

At Osgoode, the award-winning teacher lectures on international human rights law, human rights in Africa and the international law of south-north relations.

His most recent research projects include a study of human rights activism in Nigeria and a comparison of refugee rights in Canada and the United States post 9/11.

He is also affiliated with 91��ɫ’s , the and the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies.

Okafor has served as an expert panellist for the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and a human rights consultant for the British Department for International Development. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and in Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program.

“I’m interested in a full range of issues, but the preponderance of my work is on human rights in Africa,” he says.

He has written three books: ; ; and .

He has also co-edited three books: ; ; and .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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SSHRC-funded international workshop examines forced marriages in conflict stituations

fmaquito — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ law & society Professor (LLB '88) and The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples are hosting an international workshop on forced marriage in conflict situations today and tomorrow in Room 305 91��ɫ Lanes on the Keele campus.

Left: Annie Bunting

Bringing together historians of slavery and women's human rights scholars, this workshop will explore the phenomenon of forced marriage and enslavement from comparative and historical perspectives.

During conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda, women were kidnapped, raped and forced into "marriages" with combatants. recently found such gender violations to constitute a new crime against humanity of forced marriage as opposed to sexual slavery.

Workshop speakers will explore the merits of prosecuting those responsible for forced marriage under the heading of Sexual Slavery, Forced Marriage or Enslavement? They will also explore the historical antecedents of servile marriage and enslavement of women.

A keynote presenter at the workshop is , chair of the Women's Forum in Sierra Leone, a national umbrella organization of women's groups in the region. M'Carthy has been working with the for the past three years and will speak about the experiences of female victims in the Sierra Leone war. Other presenters will discuss comparable practices in Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.

Speaking at the workshop are:

, president of Free the Slaves
Gaëlle Breton-LeGoff, a lecturer at the University of Quebec in Montreal
91��ɫ law & society Professor
, a senior researcher in children, armed conflict and human rights at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University
91��ɫ Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, director of The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples and
Rosaline M’Carthy, President, Women's Forum of Sierra Leone
, Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), Harvard Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School Professor
University of Hull Professor Joel Quirk,
, RCUK Fellow in International Slavery at the University of Liverpool
, 91��ɫ PhD candidate in history, The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples
Jody Sarich, DePaul University, Free the Slaves

This workshop is the first of two conferences supported by a grant. In February 2011, Bunting will host a larger international conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Today's workshop is supported by numerous areas at 91��ɫ, including the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), and The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples.

For more information, visit The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples website or contact Kathy Mirzaei, interim graduate program assistant, Department of Sociology, LA&PS.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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High-powered workshop and conference examine international refugee law

fmaquito — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ hosted two major international events in the field of refugee studies, one of its widely recognized areas of research excellence, during the week of May 17 to 20.

On May 17, the War Crimes and Refugee Status Research Workshop took place, followed by a welcome reception to launch the 91��ɫ 2010 International Conference on Forced Displacement, Protection Standards and the Supervision of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol and Other International Instruments held over the next three days. Both international events featured distinguished senior jurists, legal scholars and academics, government officials, intergovernmental officials, non-governmental organization officials, advocates and students.

The idea for both the international research workshop and the conference grew out of discussions at the Research Workshop on Critical Issues in International Refugee Law, held at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus in May 2008. The War Crimes and Refugee Status Research Workshop was the result of a concerted effort to continue work begun at the 2008 research workshop with a wider international collaborative and compartative research project . The international conference came out of a proposal by Justice Tony North of the Federal Court of Australia, immediate past-president of the , for the establishment of an International Judicial Commission for Refugees.

Above: Conference participants from around the world gather for a group photo

The conference’s opening was delivered by Volker Turk, director of the Division of International Protection for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who outlined seven points for enhancing the monitoring and supervision of international protection standards for those forcibly displaced in the world today.

Among Turk’s seven points were two substantive proposals: the establishment of an expert advisory committee on the implementation of international instruments, and reconstituting a special committee of the Executive Committee that would focus specifically on international protection.

, professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Public Policy & Administration in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and a former Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada judge, is leading both initiatives, supported by , 91��ɫ’s associate vice-president research & innovation, and , director of the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at 91��ɫ.

In addition to Turk, the international conference featured two other keynote speakers, Justice Nicholas Blake, president of the Asylum and Immigration Chamber, Upper Tribunal, UK, and Professor Sriprapha Petcharamesree of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and Centre for Human Rights Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand.

Panel presentations covered a variety of topics on current monitoring and supervisory practices and experiences of the UNHCR and states party to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, as well as possible ideas, proposals and reforms for enhancing the supervision of international protection standards in the context of forced displacement. The international conference also considered the effectiveness of legal instruments and remedies in the Global South and the Global North. The final day was devoted to presentations on International Protection and Public Accountability: The Role of Civil Society.

Above: Participants at the research workshop gather for a photo. Front row seated left to right: Professor Sharryn Aiken, Queen's University; Barbara Harrell-Bond, OBE, UK; Professor James Simeon, 91��ɫ; Professor Jane McAdam, University of New South Wales, Australia; Justice Anthony North, Federal Court of Australia; First row standing: Professor Ian Greene, 91��ɫ; Susan Davis, Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy; Professor Susan McGrath, 91��ɫ; Professor Elspeth Guild, Radboud University, The Netherlands; Kees Wouters, UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland; Judge-President Bernard Ngoepe, South Africa; Justice President Ana Calzada, Costa Rica; Second row standing: Nico Mol, European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France; Justice Professor Dr. Harald Dorig, Germany; Justice Dr. Bostjan Zalar, Slovenia; IRB Chair Brian Goodman; Joseph Rikhof, senior counsel, Justice Canada; Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, University of Oxford; Dr. Alice Edwards, University of Oxford; Mary Teresa Glynn, Canada Border Services Agency; Geoffrey Care, Shetland Islands, Scotland.

The War Crimes and Refugee Status Research Workshop was divided into two panel presentations and roundtable discussions. The morning panel session on the war crimes and refugee status research project, funded by an International Opportunities Fund grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, included presentations from Professors Geoff Gilbert, School of Law, University of Essex, UK; Kate Jastram, Berkeley Law, University of California Berkeley; and Simeon.

The afternoon panel focused on the developing content on exclusion under Article 1F(a) of the 1951 Convention, which included presentations from Joseph Rikhof, senior legal counsel, Justice Canada; Justice Professor Harald Dorig, Federal Administrative Court, Germany, and Kees Wouters, senior refugee law adviser, Division of International Protection, UNHCR.

Canadian government officials in attendance at the research workshop or the international conference included: Chief Justice Allan Lutfy of the Federal Court of Canada and fellow Justices Luc Martineau and Russel Zinn; Brian Goodman, chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), Ken Sandhu, deputy chair of the IRB's Refugee Protection Division, Sylvia Cox-Duquette, senior general counsel, and other IRB officials; Kristen Mlacack, director of Citizenship and Immigration Canada; and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Among 91��ɫ faculty members who participated in one or both events were: Nergis Canefe, associate director of the Centre for Refugee Studies, a political science professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Public Policy & Administration and adjunct faculty member in the Faculty of Law at Turkey’s Istanbul Bilgi University; Obiora Okafor, professor in 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School; Michael Barutciski, professor and director of graduate studies in Glendon’s School of Public & International Affairs, and Professor Emeritus Howard Adelman, founding director of the CRS.

In addition to visitors from across Canada and the United States, the research workshop and international conference participants came from such countries as Australia, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Thailand and South Africa. European participants included representatives from France, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

Both the research workshop and international conference were chaired by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, senior research fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, England. A Canadian, Goodwin-Gill is one of the world’s leading authorities in international refugee law.

For further information on the research workshop and the international conference, visit their Web sites.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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