The Harambee Project
The DISE Collective would like to present:
The Harambee Project - The Black/African & Muslim Feminist Collective
This mentorship project will apply the Swahili concept of Harambee, or “pulling together,” to establish a space and praxis that is grounded in self-help, the collective, community support and well-being amid structures and power dynamics that prove challenging for Black/African, Muslim and feminist women and LGBTQIA2+ individuals to thrive at post-secondary institutional settings, including the University of Toronto Scarborough. The project involves four Black/African and Muslim women scholars.
Dr. Afua Cooper, Dr. Husseina Dinani, Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein and Dr. Notisha Massaquoi – who will bring together Black/African and Muslim students and faculty to listen and to learn from one another through collective mentoring. Moving away from a conventional hierarchical system of mentorship and emulating bell hook’s philosophy of love as being grounded in “care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.”
Harambee will practice mentorship through inter-generational learning and care. Some of the initiatives will include, professional development, self-care, Harambee Tea Parties, Harambee Purpose Dinners and Harambee Student Awards.
About The Members
Dr. Afua Cooper
Dr. Afua Cooper is a multidisciplinary scholar, author, and artist. Her 13 books range across such genres as history, poetry, fiction, and children’s literature.
Afua Cooper recently joined the University of Toronto Scarborough from Dalhousie University where she held a Killam Research Chair in Black Canadian and African Diaspora Studies. She has put Black Studies on the map in Canada by ensuring the infrastructural development of Black studies by founding and launching the Black Canadian Studies Association. She founded and co-ordinated the Black Studies program at Dalhousie University. Afua’s engagement with Black studies, anti-racism, EDI, and epistemic disruptions in the Canadian academy has made her not only a national figure but an international one as well.
In 2021, Dr. Cooper received over one-million dollar in funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to research Black Canadian history across time and space. As the PI for this project A Black People’s History of Canada, Afua led a team of researchers and curriculum developers to explore and mobilize knowledge about Black people’s history in Canada and the African Diaspora.
She is the acknowledged authority on Black Canadian history and a leading expert in Black Canadian studies. Her book on Canadian slavery, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada and the Burning of Old Montreal broke new ground in the study of Canadian and Atlantic slavery, and women’s history. Dr. Cooper has curated and co-curated ten exhibits on Black history and culture. The most recent, “A History Exposed: The Enslavement of Black People in Canada” is the first national exhibit of slavery in Canada and will open at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 on 1 August 2024.
A celebrated poet, Afua is a founder of the Dub Poetry Movement in Canada. In 2020 she was Awarded the Portia White Prize, Nova Scotia’s highest recognition for the arts, and was nominated for the Premier of Ontario’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Her latest book of poetry, The Halifax Explosion, was recently released to wide acclaim.
Afua Cooper was a Fellow at the Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, where she conducted research on slavery and higher education, and was part of an international cohort of scholars engaged in similar work. In 2021, Prof. Cooper was appointed as the Canadian representative for UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee Slave Route Project.
Dr. Cooper received scholarly grants from SSHRC, earned the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award for her contribution to education, the Bob Marley Prize from the City of Toronto, the Harry Jerome Award, and was acknowledged by Maclean’s magazine as one of the 50 most influential Canadians. Moreover, Afua was conferred with honorary doctorates by Simon Fraser University and the University of Ottawa. She also earned Canada’s most prestigious history award, the Royal Society of Canada J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal for outstanding contribution to Canadian history. Afua Cooper’s papers are housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, University of Toronto.
Dr. Caroline Hossein
Dr. Hossein is a Canada Research Chair of Africana Development and Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Global Development at the University of Toronto Scarborough and she is cross-appointed to the graduate program of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is founder and member of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective working to amplify cooperativism and membership institutions. Hossein also holds an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario government since 2018.
In 2024 Hossein was named one of Canada's most accomplished Black Women by 100abc Women. Hossein is board member to the International Association of Feminist Economics, advisor to Oxford University Press, editorial board member to the U.N. Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy, advisor to An Economy of our Own and was a recent fellow at The Postgrowth Institute. Hossein is the author of the multi-award winning ‘Politicized Microfinance’ (2016), co-author of ‘Critical Introduction to Business and Society’ (2017); editor of ‘The Black Social Economy’ (2018), co-editor of ‘Community Economies in the Global South’ (2022) and ‘Beyond Racial Capitalism’ (2023) both by Oxford UP. Her new book is ‘The Banker Ladies: Vanguards of Solidarity Economics and Community based banks' (2024) published by the Univ of Toronto Press.
Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for nine years in a number of global non-profits and 8 years as a self-employed consultant to the World Bank Group, UNDP, USAID, IRC, CIDA, IADB, and the Aga Khan Foundation to name a few.
More can be found at www.africanaeconomics.com
Dr. Husseina Dinani
Dr. Dinani is an historian in the departments of Historical and Cultural Studies and Global Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). She has a PhD in History, with a specialization in Modern Africa, from Emory University (Atlanta, USA). She is currently completing a book manuscript entitled, Women of the Colony: Gender and Resourcefulness in Southern Tanzania, 1930-1985, which is a history of the early African postcolony told from the perspectives of rural women in southern Tanzania. Her research interests on East Africa also include labour, African women and post-secondary education, and Khoja Shia Ithna Asheri girlhood and respectability. Her work has been published in International Journal of African Historical Studies, Gender & History, Journal of Historical Geography and Radical Teacher among others. She is a co-convenor of the working group, "New Approaches to Labour Studies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East." At UTSC, Husseina teaches a variety of undergraduate courses in the programs of History, Women's and Gender Studies, African Studies and International Development Studies. She also teaches the Global Development Studies Collaborative Specialization, "Development, Power and Policy."
Dr. Notisha Massaquoi
Dr. Massaquoi has been a powerful advocate for advancements in Canadian women's healthcare for over 30 years. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto, Scarborough with cross appointments in Faculty of Social Work and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She is also the founder and director of the Black Health Equity Lab (The BHEL) which conducts community-based health research and works with Black communities to develop advocacy tools, strategies and programs to improve health outcomes, wellbeing and success in Canadian systems. She holds a BA in Psychology from Western University, a Master’s degree in social work and PhD in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. Her early health leadership career established several health service organizations which serve Black communities in Canada, and she developed and served for two decades as the Executive Director of Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre in Toronto – the only Community Health Centre in North America specializing in primary healthcare for Black and racialized women. She has consulted globally with the United Nations Social Development Forum on racism and its impact on workforces and she is considered one of Canada's leading experts in developing equity responsive organizations. Her research and advocacy have pushed Canadian institutions to address anti-Black racism and the collection of race-based data.