Gada Mahrouse

Gada Mahrouse is an Associate Professor at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University. Her research and teaching focus on critical race studies, cultural studies, transnational feminist and postcolonial theories. Her book Conflicted commitments: Race, privilege and power in transnational solidarity activism (McGill Queens University Press, 2014) won the Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes Outstanding Scholarship Prize in 2016. She completed her PhD in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, University of Toronto. Her doctoral research explored anti-racist challenges to transnational direct action solidarity movements. Building on this, she has also conducted research on political, educational, ethical and/or “alternative” tourism. Others area of her research include humanitarian, social justice and awareness-raising campaigns. She has also researched and written about interculturalism, multiculturalism, and accommodation of differences in Quebec and Canada.

Inspiring and infleuntial Black Indigenous and Women of Colour in Canada (BIWOC)

Black, Indigenous and Women of Colour (BIWOC) have been at the forefront of promoting justice and equity since the inception of what we now call Canada. Yet their contributions have been largely under recognized and overlooked. This research uses oral history methods to intervene into the “social memory” (Fentress and Wickham 1992) of Canadian national identity by collecting and disseminating information on BIWOC’s individual contributions. Informed by anti-racist feminist, intersectional, andanti-colonial approaches to representation and recognition, the research is guided by the following questions: (1) Who are highly influential and inspiring BIWOC at this time in Canada?; and (2) What is their vision of equity and social justice? By compiling their responses to questions about their lives, work, identities, visions, personal and professional moments of struggle and success, the research will offer important insights into both systemic barriers that persist for BIWOC, as well as some of the ways in which barriers can be overcome.