Black Graduate Spotlight Initiative

Adeerya Johnson

PhD: Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice

Having recently defended, her dissertation, Saltshakers: Black Women’s Cultural Production in Southern Hip-Hop Dance, introduces “dirty south feminism” as a framework for understanding Black women’s creativity, agency, and cultural labor in Atlanta’s hip-hop landscape.

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Adeerya’s research foregrounds Black women’s contributions to music, performance, and community-making, extending into museum curation and public scholarship.

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As an advocate for equity in higher education, she emphasizes the importance of supporting Black graduate scholarship to sustain critical research, amplify marginalized voices, and create pathways for future generations.

Amanda Senam Ntow

MSc: Population and Public Health

Amanda Senam Ntow is a recent graduate who has previous work experience in water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) implementation, HIV management, malaria prevention, and, most recently, mental health promotion.

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Her research focuses on the ways health policies shape inequities among Black African immigrants accessing mental health services in Canada.

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She strongly believes that supporting Black graduate scholarship has the potential to translate research findings into evidence-based policy strategies that improve the well-being of diverse populations, including Black People.

Eric Boateng

PhD Candidate: Genome Science and Technology

Eric’s research focuses on integrating microscopy tools with a microfluidic confinement platform to characterize individual suspended nanoparticles and investigate their interactions with live cells, advancing applications in drug delivery and nanomedicine therapeutics.

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By working in collaboration with therapeutic developers, clinicians, and interdisciplinary scientists, he is excited to translate these new biophysical insights to help improve delivery efficiency, formulation design, and treatments for challenging medical conditions.

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He is committed to mentoring and expanding research access for Black students and communities.

Ihomehe Agbebaku

MFA Candidate: Creative Writing

Ihomehe Agbebaku is a Nigerian-born storyteller. Her thesis explores the intersections of Blackness, diaspora, gender, and performance.

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Blending personal experience with cultural critique, her work examines how Black individuals navigate systems of power, memory, and survival.

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Ihomehe’s creative practice spans filmmaking, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid forms, often exploring themes of belonging, healing, and self-reclamation.

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She is committed to amplifying Black voices through research, performance, and community storytelling.

Nancy Ofori

MA Candidate: French Studies

Nancy is originally from Ghana, and her academic and professional background includes creating engaging learning materials to teach French and English as additional languages.

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She brings this background to her research, which explores linguistic insecurity among Black African English language assistants in French classrooms, focusing on how accent, race, and native-speaker ideologies shape their experiences.

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Through this work, Nancy seeks to amplify the voices of Black educators and challenge systemic biases in language teaching.

She believes strongly in supporting Black graduate scholarship as a means of promoting equity, representation, and transformative change in academia.

Samuel Ayoolu Oguntimehin

PhD Student: Botany

With a background in Pharmacognosy, Samuel’s research explores African medicinal plants for antimalarial, anticancer, and antidiabetic properties.

He is currently engineering tomatoes to produce montbretin A, a potent antidiabetic compound originally isolated from Crocosmia crocosmiflora native to Southern Africa.

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His work aims to improve access to this natural product for diabetes treatment, a major health burden in Africa.

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As a Black researcher addressing health disparities, support for this project will enhance its impact and help translate the findings into usable therapeutic forms.​​​​​