CAAS Administration

Isaac Bazié holds a Ph.D. (summa cum laude, 1998, Universität Bayreuth, Germany) in Comparative Literature. He has taught in Europe, Africa, and North America. He became a faculty member at UQAM in June 2001. From 2009 to 2015, he was chair of the Department of Literary Studies at UQAM and supervisor of the BA Program in Education (French). In 2016, Isaac Bazié co-created a research group named LAFI (Laboratoire des Afriques Innovantes, www.lafi.uqam.ca ), which gathers professors and young scholars from diverse disciplines related to Africa.  He was promoted to the rank of  Full Professor in   2015.  Professor Bazié specializes in Francophone African Literatures, World Literature and Africa in Global discourse. Professor  Bazié's scholarly work has attracted several grants in Canada (CRSH), Quebec (FRQSC), and in Germany (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) in the last 20 years.  

Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research. Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria, General Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors, founding member of the Nigerian chapter of UNESCO’s Committee on Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage, and founding member of the Board of the $100,000 annual Nigerian Prize for Literature. A Fellow of the William Joiner Centre for War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, his research interests span Cultural Studies, Oral Performance and Literature in Africa, Postcolonial Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Globalization and Popular Culture.

His recent books include Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021), Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020), and Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019). His research has appeared in top-ranked journals such as Journal of Folklore Research, African Literature Today, Journal of African Cinema, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Postcolonial Text, Wasafiri, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, and Canadian Journal of African Studies.

His creative writing publications include The Night Hides with a Knife (short stories), which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize; Voices in the Rainbow (Poetry), a finalist for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; Love in a Time of Nightmares (Poetry) for which he was awarded the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing. He has co-edited Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (2006); and We-Men: An Anthology of Men Writing on Women (1998).

Otiono obtained his doctorate in English and Film Studies from the University of Alberta where he won numerous awards including the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic distinction. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University where he was also appointed a Visiting Assistant Professor and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carleton University.

His professional honours include a Capital Educator’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence, Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship (twice), and Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award.

DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono is his latest book slated for release in October 2021 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press as part of Canada’s most prestigious poetry series, The Laurier Poetry Series (LPS).

Temitope B. Oriola is joint Editor-in-Chief of African Security journal and associate professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. A recipient of the Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal (established by the Lord of Dufferin in 1873), Oriola’s book Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers (Routledge 2016 [orig. 2013]) is one of a small number of book-length sociological investigations of political kidnapping in the English language. Dr. Oriola’s research focuses on policing (use of force & weaponization), resource conflicts, political kidnapping and terrorism studies. He has published in leading scholarly venues such as Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Third World Quarterly, Sociology (the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association), the British Journal of Criminology, Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Ethics and Critical Studies on Terrorism, among others.  Oriola’s research has received funding from organizations such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Killam Trusts, etc. Dr. Oriola is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (2015 and 2017). Oriola aims to foster a strong community of Africanists and enhance the visibility of CAAS around the world. He aims to increase the strong and indisputable profile of CAAS as the clearinghouse of African studies in Canada. Oriola intends to enhance collaborations between CAAS and relevant organizations within and outside North America.

Dr Nicole Haggerty is an Associate Professor in Information Systems.  Since she left the private sector to pursue a second career in Academia, she has studied how to maximize the effectiveness of IT enabled organizational performance.  Her research has specifically focused on the role of the increasing importance of cross-functional knowledge sharing and virtual competence as mechanisms to enhance value creation from technology.  Her most recent projects examine digital transformation initiatives in the health care sector.Dr. Haggerty also has a keen interest in case-based education and how this active learning method creates significant learning experiences for students.  She has taught faculty development workshops on this method for over 500 faculty members in Colombia, The Netherlands, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Canada winning the 2012 Emerging Leaders Award in Academic Leadership from the Ivey Alumni Association and the Innovations in Case Teaching Award, from The Case Centre in the UK in 2014.  Dr. Haggerty is a social innovator who runs The Ubuntu Management Education Initiative from Ivey with a goal of collaboratively building capacity for case based education in African Universities and Business Schools.

Dr. W. R. Nadège Compaoré is a University of Toronto Provost Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science. Prior to this, she was respectively a Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo, a Research Analyst at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social Science at York University. Her research lies at the intersection of International Relations and Global Political Economy scholarships, which guide her analysis of natural resource governance in Africa. Dr. Compaoré’s research has been funded by SSHRC, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the Canadian International Development Agency. She is co-editor of New Approaches to the Governance of Natural Resources: Insights from Africa (Palgrave, 2015). Her work has also been published in journals such as International Studies Review, Etudes Internationales, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, and Contemporary Politics. Dr. Compaoré holds a PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University. 

Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh is the Messecar Professor in History and Global Human Rights at McMaster University. He has taught in universities in Africa, Europe and North America. Previously, he was a Human Rights Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, New York, and Research Fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen. Dr. Ibhawoh is a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of the Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Award for “distinguished contribution to research and the promotion of African affairs.” Dr. Ibhawoh has held several university administrative positions including Director of the Centre for Peace Studies, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Humanities, and Acting Associate Vice-President (Research) at McMaster University. Dr. Ibhawoh's publications include Imperial Justice, Imperialism and Human Rights and Human Rights in Africa. As a scholar with senior University administrative experience, Bonny hopes to bring his skills as manager of human and financial resources to CAAS.

Katrina Keefer is an Adjunct Professor at Trent University, Ontario, Canada. She is a cultural historian who specializes in identity, body marking, slavery, and initiatory societies in West Africa. She is a contributor to the Liberated Africans Project and the Studies in the History of the African Diaspora – Documents (SHADD) projects, both of which engage with biography in the Atlantic world. Keefer is working on a large scale digital humanities project on using permanent body marks to better discern origins and birthplace, and is embarking upon related research. She has previously published on scarification, Poro, and identity in Sierra Leone.

Gladys Akua Agyeiwaa Denkyi - Manieson is a faculty member at Central University, Accra. Ghana. She is also a second year PhD candidate at the University of Ghana. Her PhD thesis is on “Northrop Frye and Ngugi wa Thiong’O: a study in Archetypal Criticism”. Gladys is the author of several research articles. Her area of interest are African literary studies, literary criticism and film criticism. As an African based early career scholar, she hopes to use her position at a member at large to garner support and visibility for CAAS activities in and around the West African sub-region.

Dianah Byaruhanga Ajuna is currently a PhD in Law student and a Student Research Fellow with Open African Innovation Research Network, Open AIR, at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada. Her PhD research area is Internet Governance, specifically assessing the international legal rules for combatting cybercrime. She holds a Master of Laws Degree in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Law from the University of Oslo, Norway, a Master of Legal Science in Law and Information Technology from Stockholm University, Sweden, a Post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda and a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. Before pursuing her PhD in Law, Dianah established an ICT Law Centre in Uganda, which promotes the field of ICT Law. She is also an Enrolled Advocate of the High Court of Uganda and has worked as a Law lecturer at both Nkumba University (currently on study leave) and Uganda Christian University with a specialization in ICT/Cyber/Internet/Technology Law. In May 2019, Dianah was nominated and selected to represent Uganda in a U.S Department of State’s Premier Professional exchange program on promoting Cyber security as an International Visitor in the United States. In 2014, Dianah introduced ICT Law and Policy as a course to fourth year law students at Uganda Christian University as a way of promoting the field of ICT Law. She has continued to promote and advance the field of ICT/Cyber/Internet/Technology Law. In addition, as a way of promoting ICT/Cyber/Internet/Technology law, Dianah volunteered as a program committee member and co-chair for AFRINIC in organizing the 2019 Africa Internet Summit where she gave a presentation on “Africa’s role in promoting Internet Governance.”

Esther Ekong is a graduate student at the University of Ottawa, pursuing a PhD in Law. Her these is titled: The role of intellectual property rights as a development tool for women entrepreneurs in developing countries: The case of the cosmetics sector in Nigeria. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Benin, Nigeria; and a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. She is also a New and Emerging Research (NERG) Fellow with the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network, accredited to both Nigeria and Ottawa. Prior to studying in Canada, Ekong worked for 7 years as a Research Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in Lagos, Nigeria’s foremost legal research institute. She was as a member of the research team that produced the Restatement of Customary Law of Nigeria (2013) an authoritative text on customary law in Nigeria that has been widely accepted by legal practitioners in the country and has been frequently referred to in judicial proceedings. While at the institute, Ekong was an assistant tutor for Criminal Law, Legislative Impact Analysis, Advanced Constitutional Law, and Environmental courses in NIALS’ postgraduate school. She was also a special assistant to the Director of Studies at NIALS between 2016 and 2017. Esther has published four articles and book chapters in reputable publications by NIALS. She is passionate about women’s rights and empowerment and was the initiator of Chadash Phoenix Woman Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) set up in Nigeria in 2012. Its mission is to help indigent women build capacity for small businesses and raise funds for them to start their businesses.

Belinda Dodson is Coordinating Editor of CJAS, a position she has held since 2015. Prior to that, she served as a CJAS Editor from 2012 to 2015. She has been a member of the Canadian Association of African Studies since 1998. She has degrees from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa and a PhD in Geography from Cambridge University in England. She was a faculty member at the University of Cape Town in the 1990s and joined the faculty in the Department of Geography at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 2002. Her own research examines the intersection of gender, migration and development, with a regional focus on Southern Africa. Her work has been published in edited volumes as well as journals including Africa Today, Agenda, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Feminist Review, Gender Place and Culture, Health and Place, Migration and Development, and South African Geographical Journal.

Martin Evans is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. His main interests are in rural economic and political geographies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on conflict and ‘post-conflict’ situations. He has a long-standing research programme in Casamance, Senegal, which has more recently extended into studying the effectiveness of development interventions to support paddy rice cultivation in a context of climatic and social change. He is also interested in the emerging debates about the geostrategic implications of climate change. He is Editor for Geography-related papers for the Canadian Journal of African Studies.

Philippe M. Frowd is Assistant Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from McMaster University in 2015. Philippe’s primary research interest is in the transnational governance of security in the Sahel, with an emphasis on interventions around irregular migration and border control. His work draws on ongoing fieldwork in the region — in Mauritania, Senegal, and Niger — and has appeared in Security Dialogue, Millennium, International Political Sociology, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Philippe’s work on the social dynamics of security professionals as well as new technologies of border control such as biometrics forms the basis of his first book Security at the Borders: Transnational Practices and Technologies in West Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2018). His most recent projects have been on migrant smuggling in Niger (funded by the British Academy) and on non-state security provision in Burkina Faso (funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung).

Gillian Mathys is a senior fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders and based at Ghent University. She has degrees from Ghent University and SOAS, and received her PhD in History from Ghent University in 2014. She is editor for the Canadian Journal of African Studies since 2019. Her current research focuses on decolonization, post-colonial violent conflicts and state formation in the east of the DRCongo from a longue durée perspective. Her work has been published in several edited volumes, as well as in The Journal of African History, Journal of Eastern African Studies, Conjonctures de l’Afrique Centrale, and the European Journal of Development Research. Her previous research, focusing on mobility and the historical trajectories of space and identity in the borderland between Rwanda and DRCongo is being revised as a monograph tentatively titled ‘Mobility and Exclusion: Making Borders and Identities in Central Africa’.

Dr. Jean Ntakirutimana is a linguist and a professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures at Brock University, Niagara Region, ON, Canada. He has a broad range of interests related to languages, education, cultures and communication, with a reliable cognizance of African languages and cultures, more particularly in the African Great-Lakes region and the surroundings.

Vanessa S. Oliveira, BA, MA, PhD, Assistant Professor of African History

History Department, Royal Military College of Canada

Dr. Oliveira teaches courses on early and modern Africa, European colonialism and African women’s history. She has published several articles and book chapters on women merchants, interracial marriage and slavery in Luanda, the capital of Angola. Her book Abolition and Slavery at Luanda is under contract with the University of Wisconsin Press. Dr. Oliveira is currently working on a project entitled A Social History of Slavery in Luanda, which focuses on the enslaved population of the capital of Angola and its hinterland during the era of “legitimate” commerce (1850-1870).

Associate Professor and Chair
BA, MA McGill University
PhD Dalhousie University

Jonathan Roberts is from Lantzville, British Columbia and he arrived at the Mount in 2008. He holds a BA and an MA from McGill University and a PhD from Dalhousie University. Jonathan specializes in the history of medicine and religion in West Africa, with a particular focus on the history of healing in Ghana. As part of a project funded by the British Library, he is currently archiving witchcraft trial records held at shrines in Accra, Ghana.  He is also interested in the politics of heritage tourism at slave forts in West Africa. At the Mount, Jonathan teaches courses in African and World history. He has recently taught the following courses: World History, Cultural Encounters in the Modern World, the Early African Past, Modern Africa, and Religions in African History

Roger Riendeau, former Vice Principal of Innis College, University of Toronto (2003-16), is concluding a teaching career that began in 1976. While he has taught mostly in the Writing and Rhetoric Program at Innis College, his research and publications reflect his professional training as a historian – a graduate of Glendon College, York University and the University of Toronto (Canadian history specialist). Notably, he is the author of Mississauga: An Illustrated History (1985) and A Brief History of Canada (2000, second edition in 2007). As a professional editor, he has served in an advisory or a production capacity on many scholarly and popular books in various disciplines, and he has been the Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of African Studies since 1986.