Coloniality | The Harriet Tubman Institute

Everdene Francis-McIntosh

rebsl — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:14:17 +0000

Everdene Francis-McIntosh is a PhD scholar in the School of Social Work at 91��ɫ and a registered social worker. Her doctoral research examines the structural continuities of Black African chattel enslavement and their relationship to contemporary anti-Black racism and the lived experiences and wellbeing of Afro-Caribbean Canadian women. Grounded in decolonial, Critical Race Theory, Black Caribbean Womanist Thought, and Afro-Caribbean scholarship, her research interrogates how colonial systems of power, knowledge, and racial ordering continue to shape contemporary institutions and social relations. Her broader research interests include anti-Black racism, coloniality, historical and structural trauma, Black diasporic experiences, and decolonial approaches to social work knowledge, research, and practice.

Keywords: Anti-Black Racism, Afro-Caribbean Canadian Women, Black African Chattel Enslavement, Coloniality, Decoloniality, Black Diaspora, Structural Trauma

Damola Adediji

rebsl — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:39:14 +0000

Damola holds a master’s degree in Intellectual Property and Competition Law from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center in Germany, a specialized LL.M program jointly administered by the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Law, George Washington University, Technical University of Munich, and the University of Augsburg.

Currently, Damola is pursuing his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, under the supervision of Professors Jeremy de Beer and Chidi Oguamanam of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and the Open African Innovation Research Network. His doctoral project examines, through a TWAIL lens, the essential facility doctrine within the framework of antitrust competition law, with the goal of addressing global copyright issues related to the availability and access to both text-based and digital educational materials published in Indigenous African languages of Nigeria and South Africa.

Since September 2020, Damola has been a research assistant and student fellow at the Open African Innovation Research Network. From 2023 to March 2025, he served as Deputy Lead of the Open AIR network’s New and Emerging Researchers Group. Since December 2023, he has been a visiting scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School, 91��ɫ, where he is affiliated with IP Osgoode, an independent voice that explores legal governance issues at the intersection of intellectual property and technology.

Keywords: Linguistic rights, Third World Approaches to International Law, African Agency, Copyright Law, Cultural Expressions, coloniality, and decoloniality

Ify Okadigbo

rebsl — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 18:07:53 +0000

Ifeyinwa (Ify) Okadigbo, PhD. is a Black African Canadian scholar-activist with a strong record of developing theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding the nuanced and complex experiences of Black African women across diverse physical and ideological contexts. She earned her PhD from 91��ɫ in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies, completing it in four years, passing without revisions, and receiving a nomination for dissertation prize by the faculty of Graduate Studies. In addition, she holds dual master’s degrees from 91��ɫ where she earned a distinction, and the University of East Anglia, UK, in Gender and International Development.

With over a decade of research, teaching, and community engaged experience, her work explores gender, spirituality, governance, and institutional power in African and Black contexts. Her pedagogical practice is informed by critical, inclusive, and decolonial approaches that empower students to interrogate power, resistance, and social transformation. Beyond the academy, she collaborates with policymakers and community organizations to produce engaged, policy relevant research that advances gender justice, challenges racism, patriarchy and sexism across public and private spheres.

Keywords: Decolonization, Spirituality, African Feminism, Gender, Coloniality, Power