Distinguished Speaker Series in Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Pedagogies Hosted by Office of the Vice-President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.



Featuring keynote speaker Professor George J. Sefa Dei and his talk on "Race, Indigeneity and Anti-Colonial Education: Making Discursive". The presentation focusses on making discursive links between race, Indigeneity, decolonization and anticolonial education. I engage key concepts of race, [anti-]Blackness, Indigeneity and decoloniality for thinking through and working to create equitable learning outcomes and opportunities for young learners. The discussion will highlight crucial sites for anti-racist and anti-colonial interventions and the intersections of politics of Indigeneity and decolonization for liberation and new educational futurities. The discussion is largely intended to highlight the philosophical grounds for exploring learning and teaching strategies that enhance educational success for diverse learners in the twin pandemics of Covid-19 and anti-Black/Indigenous structural racisms. The implications of decoloniality and anti-coloniality in the search for new educational futures will be broached.



Biography:

Ghanaian-born George Sefa Dei is a renowned educator, researcher and writer who is considered by many as one of Canada’s foremost scholars on race and anti-racism studies. He is a widely sought after academic, researcher and community worker whose professional and academic work has led to many Canadian and international speaking invitations in US, Europe and Africa.



Currently, he is Professor of Social Justice Education & Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). Professor Dei is the 2015, 2016, 2018-19 Carnegie African Diasporan Fellow. In August of 2012, Professor Dei also received the honorary title of ‘Professor Extraordinarire’ from the Department of Inclusive Education, University of South Africa, [UNISA]. In 2017, he was elected as Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, the most prestigious award for an academic scholar. He also received the ‘2016 Whitworth Award for Educational Research’ from the Canadian Education Association (CEA) awarded to the Canadian scholar whose research and scholarship have helped shaped Canadian national educational policy and practice. He is the 2019 Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Chapman University, US - ‘Social Justice Award’ winner. This April 2021, Professor Dei received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators [ONABSE] for how long-standing work promoting Black and minority youth education.



Professor Dei has forty (40) books and over seventy (70) refereed journal articles to his credit. Finally, in June of 2007, Professor Dei was installed as a traditional chief in Ghana, specifically, as the Gyaasehene of the town of Asokore, Koforidua in the New Juaben Traditional Area of Ghana. His stool name is Nana Adusei Sefa Tweneboah.