(Windsor, Ontario, Tues., Nov. 23, 2021) – The University of Windsor’s Office of the Vice-President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion will host the inaugural event in its Distinguished Speaker Series in Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Pedagogies with a lecture by Professor George J. Sefa Dei.
Professor Dei, a renowned Ghanian-born educator, researcher, and writer, is considered by many to be one of Canada’s foremost scholars on race and anti-racism studies. He will present his talk, Race, Indigeneity and Anti-Colonial Education: Making Discursive Links, Friday, December 10 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Microsoft Teams. Register here.
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.
Dei says his presentation focusses on making discursive links between race, Indigeneity, decolonization, and anticolonial education by engaging key concepts of race, [anti-]Blackness, Indigeneity and decoloniality for thinking through and working to create equitable learning outcomes and opportunities for young learners.
He 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.
Dei is Professor of Social Justice Education & Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). He was named Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019, and received the honorary title of ‘Professor Extraordinarire’ from the Department of Inclusive Education, University of South Africa, [UNISA].
In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, academia’s most prestigious award, as well as receiving 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.
Dei received the 2019 Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Chapman University Social Justice Award in spring 2021, and was honoured with the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators [ONABSE] for his long-standing work promoting Black and minority youth education.
He has written 40 books and has more than 70 refereed journal articles to his credit.
In 2007 Dei was installed as a traditional chief and given a stool of authority in the New Juaben traditional area of Ghana as the Gyaasehene of the town of Asokore, Koforidua. His stool name is Nana Adusei Sefa Tweneboah.
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CONTACT:
Lori Lewis
Manager, Communications & Publications
Office of Public Affairs & Communications
University of Windsor
llewis@uwindsor.ca