Think Tank Members

    Uzo Anucha is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Director at the School of Social Work, York University. She holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of Toronto and BSW and MSW from York University. Dr. Anucha’s scholarship, teaching and professional activities focus on promoting equity and access for diverse communities within local, national and international contexts. Dr. Anucha conceptualizes her applied research scholarship as a community dialogue that must fully engage the community studied. She actively seeks to bridge the gap between knowledge production and knowledge use by translating and disseminating research findings to end users (policy-makers and practitioners) using multiple channels. She frequently presents her work in diverse forums that are accessible to communities, agencies and policy makers.

    Dr. Sarah Barrett is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University. She has authored several articles on teachers’ professional culture and teacher identity. Her current research revolves around working with new science teachers integrating social justice and ethical issues into their teaching – especially in the physical sciences.

    Laura Wiseman oversees the Jewish Teacher Education Program at York University, where she also teaches courses in Hebrew and literature. Wiseman is a graduate of McGill University. She holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum from the University of Toronto. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Toronto and a collaborative doctorate in Jewish Studies.

    Njoki Nathani Wane, Ph. D. (University of Toronto) is the current Director of the Office of Teacher Support at OISE and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. Professor Wane has a Master of Education (M.Ed.) and a Master’s degree in Management and Organization Development (MSc.OD). She has taught in higher education for more than 15 years in Canada and abroad.

    Mario DiPaolantonio is an Associate Professor of philosophy-of-education at York University. His SSHRC-funded research examines the pedagogical implications of artistic memorial practices that arise amid state sanctioned initiatives to come to terms with historical wrongs, specifically in Spain and Argentina. His work has been published in such journals as the Journal for Cultural Research, Political Culture, Discourse, Culture Machine, Social & Legal Studies, The Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, Philosophy of Education Yearbook.

    Angela Stienen has a PhD in Social Anthropology and an MA in Social Anthropology, Sociology and Geography from Berne University, Switzerland. She is a professor of Sociology and the director of the research department Education and Society at the Institute of Research and Development at the Pedagogical University of Berne, Switzerland. During 2011 she was Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University in Toronto, Canada. Since 1998, she has been an associate researcher of the Research and Human Rights Institute IPC in Medellin.

    Opiyo Oloya was born and raised in Northern Uganda. After the fall of tyrant Idi Amin in 1979, Oloya hoped that the rule of terror, torture and murder would be replaced by democracy. But the election of 1980 brought a repressive regime into power and Oloya, then a university activist, had to flee for his life. In 1981, Oloya left Uganda for Kenya where he applied for refugee status to Canada. Two years after his arrival, he graduated from Queen’s University with a degree in political science and became a teacher. He also hosts “Karibuni,” an African music show on CIUT Radio, allowing him to share his heritage with Toronto’s diverse African community, as well as the wider Canadian audience. Oloya is an educator, writer and a school administrator. He serves as the principal of All Saints Catholic School in Vaughan, Ontario.

    A.J. Lowik has been the Research Assistant for the Jean Augustine Chair since September 2011. A.J. is an MA Candidate in Sociology at York, with research interests ranging from transgender lived experiences, gender equity and accessible health care.

    Honourary Think Tank Member 2013

    Silvia M. Grinberg (MA and Dr.) is a researcher at the National Committee of Science and Technology in Argentina (CONICET), Professor of pedagogy and sociology of education, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Pedagogical Studies (National University of San Martín, UNSAM), and Coordinator of the socio-pedagogic division (National University of the Patagonia, UNPA). Silvia’s interests include questions of educational inequality, specifically processes of subjectivation related to the ways of operating, procedures and mechanisms by which certain local, regional and global dynamics take shape in school life.