Labour | The Harriet Tubman Institute

Margaret Ofori Asubonteng

rebsl — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:58:59 +0000

Margaret Ofori Asubonteng is a Black African Human Resource Management with interests in Black studies, labour, equity, law, student engagement, and community development. Her academic and leadership interests explore the intersection of Black lived experiences, institutional systems, social justice, and belonging within educational and professional spaces.

She currently serves as a Student Engagement Assistant in Liberal Arts & Professional studies �첥��Ƶ, where she supports student outreach, programming, and peer connection initiatives. Margaret has also contributed to student transition and leadership programming through York’s Student Leadership and Community Development team and has served as an Outreach Lead for a university case competition.

Her commitment to student engagement and service has been recognized through several honours, including a Certificate of Distinction for Excellence from the Student Community & Leadership Development, the Best College Crew Volunteer Award (2024–2025) from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and recognition for her commitment to the Human Resources Student Association community. She also recently presented at �첥��Ƶ’s International Student Conference, where she spoke about navigating life as an international student.

Margaret is passionate about advocacy, and community-centered engagement, and she hopes to continue contributing to conversations that affirm the richness, complexity, and diversity of African and diasporic experiences.

Keywords: Black Studies, African Diaspora, Labour, Equity, Social Justice, Student Engagement, Community Development, Law, Belonging, Youth Leadership, International Students

Salmaan Khan

rebsl — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:06:03 +0000

Salmaan Khan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Islamophobia Research Hub at �첥��Ƶ, with a focus on economic integration of Muslims in Canada. Prior to this role he was an Assistant Professor (Limiter Term Faculty) in the Department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), and Research Program Manager in the Office of the Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at TMU. He completed his PhD in 2022 in the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought at �첥��Ƶ. His research can be framed along four avenues: 1.) the systemic racial and gendered dimensions of capitalist production with a focus on the experiences of racialized workers in the Canadian labour market; 2.) the intergenerational impacts of precarious working conditions; 3.) critical epistemologies and methodologies of the social sciences with a focus on community-based research methods and practices; 4.) critical pedagogies and engaged learning practices. His community, academic and teaching work is underpinned by a political commitment to intersectional, anti-oppressive politics and a desire for social justice.

Keywords: Islamophobia, Black Muslim, anti-Black racism, Labour, Employment, Discrimination

Lorne Foster

rebsl — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 22:38:07 +0000

Lorne Foster is Professor, School of Public Policy & Administration (SPPA). He holds the York Research Chair in Black Canadian Studies & Human Rights (Tier 1). As the Director of the Institute for Social Research (ISR), Dr. Foster oversees the leading university-based survey research centre in Canada. He is past Academic Director, of the York Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC); and the inaugural Chair, Race Inclusion and Supportive Environments (RISE). In his university service, he currently serves as the Chair of the Community Safety �첥��Ƶ Council (CSC); and is a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights (PACHR). Dr. Foster is also the Director of the Diversity & Human Rights Certificate (DHRC), which he established in partnership with the Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA). This initiative is the first academic-industry partnership sponsored by a regulatory organization.

Yvonne Simpson

rebsl — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 21:39:20 +0000

Yvonne Simpson holds a BA from �첥��Ƶ, M.Ed.,(University of Calgary) and PhD (�첥��Ƶ) in Critical Disability studies. Her research interests examine the historiography of records of accountability of First Nations Peoples and racialized immigrant workers. Simpson’s presentation invites reflection on the nation’s historical reliance on a transnational colour-coded system of labour force selection, while maintaining a system of exclusion in accounting for those who experience disproportionate levels of injuries and disabilities. Many questions are prompted, including: How do we learn about who bears the burdens of harms in the nation’s workplaces? What past administrative record keeping practices influence current policies, such that a cycle of deep cuts and unhealing wounds are perpetuated in the messy business of workplace health and safety?

Tii Nchofoung

rebsl — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 01:18:43 +0000

Tii Nchofoung holds a Master’s of Science in Mathematical Economics from the University of Dschang, Cameroon. He also holds a Diploma in Administration from the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), Cameroon. He works as an Administrator with the Ministry of Trade, Cameroon, at the same time, a doctoral candidate in Economics at the University of Dschang. He is also a visiting scholar with the Association of Promoting Women in Research and Development (ASPROWADA), Cameroon. His research works have been published in international peer-reviewed journals among others: Resources Policy, International Economic Journal, Foreign Trade Review, Telecommunications Policy, and International Economics, just to name a few. His research interests are in the fields of international economics, inclusive and sustainable development.

Damilola Adebayo

rebsl — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 15:15:03 +0000

Dr Damilola Adebayo is an Assistant Professor at the Department of History. He is a historian of Anglophone West Africa, particularly Nigeria. His research and teaching interests are at the intersection of three fields namely social and economic history; science, technology and society (STS); and the role of international organizations in the African past.

His current research theme investigates the socioeconomic life of Western technologies in Africa since the 1850s. He is keen to understand the varied contexts within which Western energy, communication, and transportation technologies were adopted, appropriated, hybridized, reinvented, or discarded by the upper class and everyday people; and the ways in which these technologies have been a cause and effect of change in African societies. A product of this theme is his ongoing book project, provisionally entitled “Electric Urbanism: Technology and Socioeconomic Life in Nigeria.”

Dr Adebayo holds a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge-Africa Scholar (2016–20). His work has been supported by many grants and fellowships.