Itai Kuwodza (she/her)

Itai Kuwodza is an interdisciplinary master's student at Saint Mary's University with aspirations to pursue a PhD. Her current research work in Atlantic Canadian Studies, including an original thesis titled "Performing Diversity: Black Bodies in Atlantic Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions," has been a two-year passion project driven by a desire to understand how race permeates higher education to shape and exploit the experiences of Black students.

Itai sees herself as an academic activist because decolonizing education is an act of activism and advocacy. Her approach to conducting and sharing research is to incorporate accessible material, authors, scholars, and more into the traditional rigid system to push back the boundaries of colonialism. Her process rightfully identifies that anti-Black racism today is steeped in historical context. As a result, she continues to question, understand, and then express that legacy as the reproducer of adverse realities of Black bodies as they interact with colonial institutions and their agents that stand as "permanent statements of fact, culture, truth and tradition that can never be touched, removed or recast." This is all in service of a larger goal of earnestly and accurately articulating the experiences of Black people, not as a universal group but as individuals treated as a universal identity and shared experience.

Katerina Allan (she/her)

Katerina Allan is an educator and researcher passionate about accessible education, particularly mathematics education. She is a private practice tutor who supports learners with diverse needs, including learning difficulties and disabilities, in achieving their high school and university mathematics and statistics goals. Katerina has an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and another in statistics and has worked as a health sciences research assistant before switching her focus to education. At Mount Saint Vincent University, she is studying towards a Master of Arts in Education, General Curriculum Studies. Katerina is writing her thesis on a validity assessment of mathematics and statistical placement at MSVU. 

Syed Adnan Hussain (he/him)

Syed Adnan Hussain has degrees from McGill (BA), Emory University (JD, MTS) and University of Toronto (PhD). He is an associate professor in the department for the Study of Religion at Saint Mary’s University. He works on modern Islam, colonialism, Queer studies, and law and religion. He has served as the co-chair of Religion, Colonialism and Postcolonialism at the American Academy of Religion. His publications include a note on Civilizational Sexualities in the Journal for the American Academy of Religion and a chapter on Anglo Muhammadan law in the Oxford Handbook of Islamic law, as well as an entry in the first book devoted to Star Wars and Religion (Star Wars: The Myth Awakens, Derry 2018). His more public facing work includes a TedX talk on decolonizing the past. 

Fallen Matthews (she/her)

Fallen Matthews (She/Her) is an Afro-L’nu demigirl and graduate candidate from Dalhousie University's interdisciplinary doctorate program. Her research and positionality as a demigirl offer a unique lens through which she explores the intersection of gender and identity within the context of her academic pursuits. Her work, which incorporates these perspectives, has been featured in both peer-reviewed and non-refereed publications, highlighting the multifaceted nature of her contributions to fields such as Cinema and Media Studies, Africana Studies, Artificial Intelligence, Bollywood, Gender Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Nollywood. 

Violet Paul (she/her)

Violet is a Mi’kmaq woman from Indian Brook (within the Sipekne’katik First Nation). She is a lifelong learner who has attended three post-secondary institutions and knows firsthand what’s required to foster academic and professional success.

Violet has worked in policy and programs with municipal and federal governments, the Assembly of First Nations, Shubenacadie Band Council and others. She played an essential role in the 2008 historic apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Survivors and all Indigenous persons for the multi-generational impacts of the residential school system. 

Nailah Tataa (she/they/we)

Nailah Tataa (She/They/We) is a pleasurist and community facilitator active in Mi'kma'ki. Their facilitation centers liberatory practices around care work, communal love and pleasure as a praxis and center to create community spaces.

Their community facilitation work is an amalgamation of theory, studies and life experiences drawing primarily on their life as a Black Genderqueer refugee living on L'nu territory and the implications of our existence on stolen land.

Her facilitation has been sharpened through various pleasure workshops at Venus Envy Halifax with workshops touching on Queering the Tarot, Dirty Talk, Consent, Sex Toys 101 and many other spaces like the Tatamagouche Centre through their ASPIRE program, LivingWorks, Melanated Mama's, Dalhousie University, Wonder'neath, the Khyber Centre for Arts and many grassroots organizations found throughout Mi'kma'ki. 

Collaborative work is central to her work. Reach out to her through email

nailahmoonkjipuktuk@gmail.com with subject matter 'Collaboration' to co-create a space with her. Ilale!

Suhnandany Goswami