Disability and the Global South: Lessons Learned from Africa

Public Lecture with Brent Elder, hosted by the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing

Please join us for the hybrid public talk “Disability and the Global South: Lessons Learned from Africa” with Dr. Brent Elder hosted by Dr. Karen Soldatic, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.The talk will be followed by a Panel Discussion by Mapheyeledi Motimele and Dr. Funke Oba. This event is free and open to the public.

Abstract

Join Dr. Brent Elder in an engaging talk as he unveils insights from his book, The Future of Inclusive Education: Intersectional Perspectives (external link) , co-authored with Dr. Valentina Migliarini (external link) . The discussion will be centred on his international work on inclusive education, along with the realities of conducting transnational Critical Disability Studies (CDS)-informed research in under-resourced settings, broadly. Specifically, through a compelling case study he will present about his work in Kenya, and how he has applied the theoretical and methodological lessons learned in other countries in the global South. Dr. Elder will unpack the successes and challenges he has encountered while engaging in community-based participatory research (CBPR) in Kenya. In addition to actively exploring various related topics, such as navigating  neocolonial tensions when working with international development organisations, insider-outsider politics of decolonising inclusive “development” work, and collaborating with various government Ministries.

Biographies

Brent Elder, Associate Professor of Inclusive Education, Rowan University

Dr. Brent Elder is an Associate Professor of Inclusive Education at Rowan University. His research and practice focus on the development of innovative and sustainable inclusive education practices in under-resourced schools in the United States and low-resourced countries around the world. Most recently, he has worked on deaf Indigenous rights in Australia, and inclusive education initiatives through USAID, UNICEF, and Inclusive Development Partners (IDP) in Ghana, Rwanda, and Malawi. Through the leadership of IDP, he was also involved in the multi-country study on inclusive education evaluation of inclusive education programs in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal. 

Dr. Funke Oba, Associate Professor of Social Work, Toronto Metropolitan University

Dr. Funke Oba, Associate Professor, Social Work, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), is a celebrated teacher, having received teaching awards from TMU and Wilfrid Laurier University for her experiential learning initiatives that honour African social and cultural capital. She created the TMU School of Social Work’s first anti-Black racism course along with seasoned academic and community knowledge holders. Dr. Oba is a member of the Academic Network of York University’s Youth Research hub and program and curriculum including the Anti-Racism certificate course, which has been offered to thousands of social services professionals and is currently being translated into French.

Dr. Oba, a community-based researcher founded the Community Academic Reciprocal Engagement (CARE) initiative for Black youth in 2015, using art in Afrocentric Sharing Circles with Black elders to facilitate racial justice discussions. She also launched the Leading While Black program in 2020 for Black students in the Faculty of Community Services, and her Carnegie Foundation fellowship in Nigeria focused on contextualising and indigenizing education in Africa through Afrocentric renaissance, using proverbs, stories and art. Dr. Oba is a recognized African elder and former president of the African Canadian Association of Waterloo region and advisor/director of several youth and immigrant-serving organisations.

Mapheyeledi Motimele, Founder and Director, Root Fed Consultancy; Head of People, Ed Tech Industry 

Mapheyeledi Motimele is the founder and director of Root Fed Consultancy, a personal and organisational development initiative that is founded on purpose-based practice and spirituality. She currently works in the Ed Tech industry as a Head of People. She trained as an occupational therapist and previously worked as a senior lecturer in the division of Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Her research interests are focused on healing and violence, as shaped and influenced by context and the implications of this for theory developments in the discipline of occupational science and occupational therapy practice. Her Masters’ dissertation focused on disability and violence, more specifically the role of occupation(s) in the healing journeys of those physically disabled through violence. She is currently a PhD candidate at UCT and is investigating violence within protest during the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) movement that occurred at UCT from 2015 to 2016.   

Registration

Registration is not required for in person attendance. If you plan to attend virtually, please register here (external link) .

Accessibility

The venue is wheelchair accessible; Live captioning will be provided on Zoom. 

For questions and access inquiries please contact Tarndeep Pannu by April 18, 2024.