February 5, 2025 by
Department of Geography & Planning
The Department of Geography & Planning and the Black Research Network are proud to announce this year’s recipients of the Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning.
Congratulations to Olivia Bernard, Mayara Almeida de Paula, Ja’afar Dirie, and Suad Sidow on their exceptional achievements! These scholars have shown remarkable dedication and innovation in their research, and we are excited to celebrate their contributions to the field.
These outstanding graduate students are engaged in research focused on the intersection of race, gender, and urban planning in Brazil, the educational challenges faced by Black girls in Toronto, the socio-political dynamics of irregular migration from the Horn of Africa to Europe, and much more.
Olivia Bernard
PhD in Geography
Olivia's research investigates the experiences of Black girls in the Toronto education system. Her project’s main aim is to explore the processes of marginalization that include racial stereotypes, streaming, de-streaming, disciplinary actions, class, anti-Black curriculum, and resistance culture. Existing literature demonstrates that the education system in Canada assisted in creating and maintaining policies and procedures that discriminate against Black students while reinforcing negative stereotypes against the group. The topic is important because there is an urgent need to understand the changing ways in which Black girls face discrimination in Toronto and its impact on their educational trajectories.
Mayara Almeida de Paula
PhD in Planning
I am an Architect and Urban Planner (Federal University of Alagoas, 2019), a Master's in Architecture and Urbanism (Federal University of Bahia, 2023), and a current Ph.D. student in Planning at the University of Toronto. I specialized through the course Cities in Dispute: Research, History and Social Processes with a full scholarship at City School (2022). Was a scholarship holder for the Tutorial Education Program (2014-2019) and a volunteer teacher for the State Public Schools Student Support Program (2016-2018) in Alagoas, Brazil. Throughout my bachelor’s degree, I developed several academic activities such as coordinating and designing the periodical ÍMPETO (2016 and 2018), and participating in an exchange program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2016) through the Top China Program with a full scholarship. My bachelor’s thesis was selected by ArchDaily as one of the best in architecture and urbanism in 2019 among Portuguese-speaking countries. During my master’s, I held a scholarship financed by the Ford Foundation for a research project entitled “Private-militarized Control Regimes in Popular Territories and New Civic Engagement Strategies,” coordinated by Professor Raquel Rolnik. Afterward, I received an award from the Lemann Foundation for graduate students (Alcance Program). Recently, I have coordinated a research project alongside Black Planning Project (2024) about the challenges Black Planners face in their field in Canada. Currently, I am part of “Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms” research project coordinated by Dr. Rafael Grohmann, and “Transforming the City from the Favelas and Colonias Populares: Women and Embodied Urbanizations in Latin America”, coordinated by Dr. Anne-Marie Veillete. In the PhD I am researching the interplay between race, gender and urban planning and the possibilities of creating reparative planning aimed at equality, especially in Brazilian Black neighbourhoods.
Ja’afar Dirie
PhD in Geography
Jaafar Dirie is a PhD candidate in the Geography and Planning Department at the University of Toronto and also holds a Masters in Development Studies from York University. His current research interest focuses on tahrrib (irregular migration) from the Horn of Africa to Europe, with a focus on Somaliland and Germany as key research sites. Jaafar’s recently published article in the Journal of East African Studies explores Somaliland's localized political, cultural, and social responses to tahriib, highlighting how the tahriib movement challenges notions of national solidarity within Somaliland. Jaafar’s past research projects include the development of a community toolkit with Urban Alliance on Race Relations to address systemic challenges faced by Somali and Tamil communities in Toronto, using cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue workshops. Additionally, Jaafar has conducted research on the effectiveness of municipal and provincial policies, procedures and programs in Toronto to help with the reintegration process of previously incarcerated Somali youth.
Suad Sidow