The foundations of NBGN have been built by a team of three doctoral students working with the guidance of rosalind hampton, professor of Black Studies and co-president of the BCSA. The graduate student team worked from January to June 2020 to raise awareness of the project across the country, reaching out to their fellow students and establishing a founding membership representing students studying at universities in Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and Yukon.
Jamilah Dei-Sharpe
NBGN Project Coordinator 2019-2020
PhD student, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University
As an African-Caribbean-Canadian scholar and a student representative for the Black Canadian Studies Association, Jamilah has a personal, academic and political investment in the NBGN. She has been driven to offer Black graduate students and students of Black Studies a space to celebrate and propel student-lead innovations, mentorship, research collaborations and for connecting with like-minds that she was not offered in her academic career. Her academic career has consisted of an HBA in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an MA in Sociology from Concordia University, Montreal, where she founded the Decolonial Perspectives and Practises Hub on Concordia campus.
She is currently completing her doctoral degree at Concordia University, holding the 2019 SSHRC Joseph Bombardier Armand Award for her project ‘Empowerment and Community Engagement: A Documentary on Black Men in Canada’. She will continue mobilizing her specialization in critical race, gender and decoloniality into fostering the national recognition of and connectivity amongst the Black scholarly community and our allies.
Cherie A. Daniel
NBGN founding team member
PhD student, Department of Social Justice Education, University of Toronto
Cherie is a lawyer in the Province of Ontario, and among the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women honourees for 2020. She obtained her Master of Laws in 2019 from Osgoode Hall Law School, the same year she graduated from the University of Toronto (OISE) with a Master of Education. In Fall of 2019 she began a PhD in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto (OISE).
From the moment that Cherie heard about this project she was excited. As a Black woman who has successfully completed Undergraduate studies, Law School and two masters she could not believe that a Black student Network would be ever be possible. Going through a professional program and Graduate studies she didn’t feel supported or aware of anything that existed “for Black students by Black students” on a nationwide basis. For her, the only connection to other Black university students across the nation was through the small group of friends that went to law school out of province (such as at UBC or Dalhousie for example).
This National Black Graduate Network is going to be a legacy for Cherie’s daughter, and for other Black students of tomorrow who will benefit from the foundations she has helped to establish for the NBGN.
Julian Kapfumvuti
NBGN founding team member
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Occasionally we make major life changes, and three years ago, Julian made a significant change by moving from Zimbabwe to Canada to pursue her graduate studies. At some point however, she missed the contentment she derived from her peers and professors back home, as they had heated debates about Black academia, topics affecting Black students and those in African universities. Sensing her desire to have more connections and interactions with more scholars, one of her supervisors advised that she attend conferences centring on Black studies and scholars in Canada. It was through these connections that she became part of the National Black Graduate Network.
For Julian, the network not only provides a sense of home as we collaborate and build academic networks beneficial for individuals but for the Black community at large as we seek to change and influence academia as we know it. Julian’s doctoral research examines climate change initiatives and women’s access to land in Zimbabwe.
rosalind hampton
NBGN Project Director
Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto
rosalind is an educator and activist from Montreal who works as a professor of Black Studies in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She teaches courses and conducts and supervises research related to racialized social relations in Canadian higher education, Black Studies in Canada, student activism, Black radical thought, and critical-creative practice.
