Associate Fellow | The Harriet Tubman Institute

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

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

Esther Feza Borauzima

rebsl — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:31:32 +0000

Borauzima Feza Esther is a Congolese researcher and lecturer, holding a Master’s degree in Political science from the Université Officielle de Bukavu and a Master’s degree in Gender Studies from the Université Catholique de Louvain. She is currently pursuing a doctoral program at the University of Mons within the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

Her doctoral research examines the relationship between armed dynamics in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the environment, through an anthropological reading of gender. Her research is based on four empirical configurations operating in and around the Virunga National Park, located in eastern DRC: (1) Women fighters in armed groups, (2) Former female combatants incarcerated for espionage, (3) Female rangers of Virunga National Park, and (4) Female forest resource traders. She investigates how the agency of these women unfolds differently across temporal and spatial contexts.

Keywords: Armed conflicts, women, agency, environment, afrofeminism, decolonial, DRC

Delessa Neger

rebsl — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:56:31 +0000

Dr. Delessa Bulcha Neger is a senior university leader, economist, and partnerships strategist with extensive experience across African higher education. He has served as President of Dambi Dollo University, Vice President at Wollega University and Oromia State University, and Senior Advisor at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Science & Higher Education. His work focuses on development economics, specifically public revenue, African higher education governance, internationalization, and diaspora engagement. Dr. Neger currently advises CAFOR–African Union on partnerships and resource mobilization and serves as Strategic Advisor at AYA Innovation (USA). He has supervised numerous graduate theses published on economic policy and growth and actively supports Africa–global academic collaboration. Additionally, he is serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Gondar and Bule Hora University. He is a member of the editorial board of some journals. Based in Toronto, he is committed to contributing to the Tubman Institute’s research and community-engaged initiatives.

Keywords: African higher education, University leadership, Development economics, Public revenue, Internationalization, Diaspora engagement, Partnerships & resource mobilization, African Union, CAFOR, Institutional governance, Community‑engaged research, South–South collaboration, Economic policy, Academic supervision (MA/PhD), Research and publications, International academic partnerships, Adjunct professor, Editorial board member, Africa–global collaboration, Knowledge mobility, Sustainable development

Toni Achebe Bell

rebsl — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:50:10 +0000

Toni Achebe Bell is the founder of Black Cat Impact Media and the creator and host of the What's Up with Docs Podcast. She was the Impact Producer for The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales by Abigail Disney, Fruits of Labor, and the award-winning A Woman on the Outside. She teaches media and impact at Saybrook University. She has worked as an Impact Strategist for Odyssey Impact Partners, Looky Looky Pictures, & Auburn Seminary’s Hartley Media Impact Initiative.
Toni spearheaded the impact campaign for RePresent Media’s initiative, The Power of Personal Documentary Films, and previously served on the advisory board of the Southeast European Film Festival. She has worked as a facilitator and mentor for Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local. A sought-after industry expert, Toni has been a speaker, panelist, mentor, and juror at leading documentary film festivals and labs, including NALIP, Dok Leipzig, HotDocs, IFP Week, Berlinale’s European Film Market, Outfest, Docs by the Sea, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Korea Next Media.
Toni has also contributed her expertise as a grant reviewer for Firelight Media’s William Greaves Fund and Impact Funds, California Humanities, the Jerome Foundation, and numerous other funding organizations. She was part of the inaugural cohort of Art Equity's BIPOC Leadership Circle and formerly served as the Filmmaker Services Manager at the International Documentary Association (IDA).
Toni holds a MAT-TESOL and an MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California (USC), an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, and a certificate in Professional Screenwriting from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology and Social Change at the California Institute for Integral Studies

Keywords: Mental health, Afromexicanas, identity formation

Oni Foluso Olaitan

rebsl — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:39:55 +0000

ONI Foluso Olaitan holds a Bachelors Degree in History and International Studies from University of Ilorin and a Masters Degree in History from University of Ibadan, Oyo State. Her Research interest spans across Environmental History, Agricultural History, and Developmental Studies. She has successfully conducted research on the origin and development of Horticultural Production in Nigeria in a rigorous research to trace the trajectory of horticultural development from precolonial indigenous knowledge of farmers to the dynamics during colonial administration and post-colonial growth of the horticultural sector. Her present study and provides new perspectives to Indigenous farming knowledge among farmers, farmland and the communities. She is a member of African Economic History Network (AEHN) and Fellow of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies, Ife Summer Institute. (IIAS)

Oluwatosin John Ibitoye

rebsl — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:35:19 +0000

Oluwatosin John IBITOYE is a PhD Candidate (ABD) in Ethnomusicology (Music and Digital Culture) at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He currently lectures at the Department of Performing Arts and Film Studies, Kwara State University, Nigeria, and a Visiting Faculty at IAUSS, China. His research focuses on ethnomusicology, digital culture/humanities, music and gender studies, performance and cultural studies. He is a 2025 Fellow of the Central European University Foundation of Budapest (CEUBPF); 2025 ASUU-Nigeria Scholar; 2024 Fellow of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS); 2024 Laureate of the LSA/Conventions of Creativity supported by Cadbury Endowment at DASA, University of Birmingham. He is a beneficiary of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) conference travel grant to University of Bern, Switzerland; mdw-Vienna, Austria travel grant; 91��ɫ, Toronto workshop travel grant; TETFund conference travel grant to IOHA, Poland; British Academy conference grant for ASAUK; and ASUU Doctoral Research Grant. He has 11 research publications in journals and book chapters.

Fehintola Tunbosun Akinwale

rebsl — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:30:37 +0000

Akinwale, Fehintola Tunbosun, Ph.D was born about 4 decades ago. She holds a Doctoral Degree in History, from the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan in 2022. M. A History from the department in 2014 and, a Bachelor Degree in History Education, from Obafemi Awolowo University in 2006. She teaches at the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.
She is an affiliate of several professional and religious bodies: Nigerian Institute of Management; Ife Institute of Advanced Studies; Historical Society of Nigeria; Lagos Studies Association; Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria, Academic and Grant Writers Enclave Society, and Mothers’ Union of the Anglican Communion, Ondo Diocese where she has been serving as the Diocesan Secretary for many years. Her research interest includes Social History, Knowledge System and Gender Studies. She has a good number of research works in edited Books and reputable Journals.
She is happily married to The Rev. Canon John Akinwale while the union is blessed with biological and spiritual children.
Her hobbies include singing, writing and traveling

Aminu Bakari Buba

rebsl — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:25:06 +0000

Bakari, Is an emerging scholar in the field of History, with interest in economic, agrarian energy and environmental History. He obtained his first degree from the University of Maiduguri and a Master of Arts and PhD degrees from Bayero University Kano Nigeria. Bakari published papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented his works at National and International conferences.