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705-949-2301, ext. 4118

Credentials: BA Hons, MA, PhD (Carleton University)

Areas of Expertise: LGBT community, LGBT rights movements, social movements, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, masculinity, male masculinity, health.

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Dr. Jimenez-Estrada is Maya Achi (Guatemala), the EDI Academic Lead (2020-23) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, where she teaches critical and decolonizing sociology. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto and is dedicated to research, teaching, and learning while centering Indigenous knowledges, voices and perspectives in her efforts to decolonize academic and research endeavours. She has worked with Indigenous organizations in Guatemala and Mexico and has led projects that bridge institutional frameworks led by community-centered and Indigenous led needs. She works locally with the Indigenous Women’s Anti-Violence Task Force of Baawaating (Sault Ste. Marie) and internationally with the National Coordinator for Indigenous Women of Mexico (CONAMI) with ally academics on a project called ‘Indigenous Women Storying and Interweaving their Experiences of Gendered and Colonial Violence in Mexico and Canada” funded by SSHRC ($199,980 for 2021-24) Building on a prior SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant (25,000 for 2018-19). Her research centers the voices and recommendations of Indigenous women and gender-diverse individuals to address gendered and colonial violence. She also served as Principal Investigator (on behalf of the Indigenous Women’s Anti-Violence Task Force, in collaboration with NORDIK Institute), for the “Restorative Justice: Anti-Racism Youth Diversion Initiative” (2019-2022), funded by Heritage Canada’s Anti-Racism Action Program (2019-22). Her work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Native Education, the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, the Canadian Journal of Native Studies, Dialogo: An interdisciplinary studies journal, Abya Yala and the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. In addition, she has also co-authored a chapter in Routledge’s Handbook of Central American Governance, in addition to two chapters co-authored with IWAVTF colleagues: Red Dresses on Bare Trees and Feminicide and Global Accumulation: Frontline Struggles to Resist the Violence of Patriarchy and Capitalism and has presented at various academic conferences including the World Indigenous Conference in Education (WIPC-E), the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the Canadian Latin American Studies Association, Latin American Studies Association and others. QUOTE: “As an Indigenous Maya woman, mother, auntie and academic, I am especially bound by the teachings and responsibilities as reminded to us all by Chief Shingewauk’s words. I strive to achieve inclusive excellence, which entails carrying out the responsibility to open doors and create opportunities for historically marginalized voices, perspectives and Peoples for self-determination and social justice that includes individual and inherent/collective rights. My lifetime work is to serve Indigenous and underrepresented communities and I am humbled to call this territory home, with all of the relations that continue to guide me today and tomorrow.”

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Isaac Nortey Darko, PhD is a Ghanaian born teacher and researcher who received his Education from both Ghana and Canada. He is interested in Indigenous knowledge, Sociology of education, spirituality, environmental sustainability, Health, Equity, Policing, Migration and Globalization. As an educator, he is interested in interdisciplinary studies and intersectionalities of knowledge. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Algoma University.

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905-451-0100

Julianne Hazen, PhD is an educator, researcher, and author who has dedicated her work to building bridges between those with different cultural and religious backgrounds. She received her Ph.D. from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East, after which she served as a visiting scholar with the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. In addition to teaching at Algoma University, she has taught religious studies focused on Islam at Niagara University since 2011. Her approach draws from an interdisciplinary background in sociology, peace and conflict resolution, and religious studies.

Dr. Hazen’s book “Sufism in America: The Alami Tariqa of Waterport, New York,” stands as the pioneering research on this Sufi Order. In addition, she has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and presented at national and international conferences on topics including peacebuilding and the religious and cultural aspects of Sufi communities in the West. Her current research interests include Islamic spirituality and the dynamics of Indigenous and Islamic relations. Beyond academia, Dr. Hazen actively engages in community service and volunteer work in interfaith dialogue.