Student Affiliates
Are you conducting research related to the African diaspora and education?
Consider becoming a student affiliate by completing the form below.
Paola Abril is an MA student in the International Educational Development program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Her academic focus encompasses education in conflict and emergencies, peace education, and youth development. For her integrative project, she intends to explore educational strategies for peace in marginalized communities within Kenya and Colombia.
Recently, Paola was awarded the CAE Travel Grant to support her work as an intern at the Life & Peace Institute’s Global Policy Unit in Nairobi, Kenya.
Alicia Banks, a PhD candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, specializes in decolonial studies, anti-racist pedagogy, and Afro-Brazilian education.
Her research focuses on the instruction of Afro-Brazilian history and culture, as well as the exploration of educational practices in urban and rural quilombo communities in Brazil. Alicia has conducted fieldwork at a quilombo school in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and is actively engaged in ethnomathematics and other decolonial pedagogies.
Theresa Cann is a PhD candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, focusing on decolonial perspectives, gender disparities, and social justice in education policy and practice.
Her research centers on women's roles in decolonization movements in African higher education, addressing historical erasure and activism. Theresa's dissertation examines the intersection of decolonization and women's activism for gender equality in Ghana's higher education.
As a former Graduate Research Assistant at CAE, she spearheaded initiatives promoting academic collaboration, peer advising, and library research orientation. Theresa organized conferences on "Decolonizing the University" and "Erasure and Invisibility in Research," both earning CAE the Provost's Student Excellence Awards. She collaborated with Dr. Mary Mendenhall on a study with UNHCR, leading the Djibouti segment.
Theresa is a Boren Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and recipient of the Baden-Württemberg Seminar Award.
As a member of the Global Mental Health Lab at TC, Tarik has co-coordinated trials of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for Burundian and Congolese refugees with UNHCR, IRC, and MSF in Tanzania and for mothers experiencing depression in Ethiopia and Kenya. He is also working with an international team of collaborators on a scoping review of the intergenerational consequences of racism, xenophobia and discrimination on mental health around the world. Tarik is a proud member of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), where he facilitates Sawubona Healing Circles and is the Co-Chair of the special interest group (SIG) on African-Centered Approaches to Genocide Prevention and Healing.
Publications
Grills, C., Enola, A., Auguste, E., Adibu, F., Bethea, S., Endale, T., Haggins, K., Mendenhall, R., Newland, LK., Primm, A., Spates, K. (2025). Recreating the Circle: A Collective Vision for Radical African Healing in Community. American Psychologist [In Press].
Endale, T. (2022). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy After Forced Migration: Theory, Evidence, and Practice. The Bulletin of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine 56(1), 3-14. https://www.theapmnewyork.org/bulletin-56/
Alexandra Harakas is an MA student at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she focuses her research on several areas within education. Her primary interests include the education of students experiencing liminal legality, the promotion of critical thinking skills, refugee and forced migration studies, and the teaching of languages within these contexts.
Currently, Alexandra is engaged in developing a language arts curriculum tailored for Dominican-born stateless students of Haitian heritage in the Dominican Republic. Alongside this, she is conducting an empirical study examining the attitudes of these students' parents towards acquiring literacy.
Recently, Alexandra received a FLAS Fellowship to enhance her Kreyòl skills, which supports her ongoing research and educational initiatives.
Whitney Hough is a PhD student at Teachers College, Columbia University, focusing on teacher agency in conflict-affected contexts, particularly in Cameroon.
She holds a master’s degree in conflict, security, and development from the University of Bradford and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and cross-cultural studies from Carleton College. Whitney has worked in international educational development, including Fulbright programs, and contributed to UNHCR research in Chad and Uganda.
Recently, she organized a teacher development conference in Ghana and co-developed a peacebuilding curriculum for Liberian youth.
Theo Ntwari is an MA student in the International Educational Development program at Teachers College, Columbia University,specializing in education in emergencies and refugee resettlement.
His research focuses on enhancing education systems to foster academic and personal growth, particularly in areas with high youth unemployment. Theo is passionate about advocating for youth mental health and environmental well-being, collaborating with UN missions in New York.
He leads initiatives like promoting Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in Zambia and Kenya through Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport (2-4-1) Play programming. Additionally, he also been involved in the Ubumwe Project, an initiative that explores arts for education and psychosocial support for refugee children and youth, the UNHCR Typology of Teachers of Persons of Concerns Project, and the Djibouti Student Career Orientation and Well-being Initiative.
Darren Rabinowitz is a PhD candidate and doctoral fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University.
His research spans climate change, peacebuilding, and social movements, aiming to uncover the diffusion and embeddedness of global regimes and educational discourses within the state. For his dissertation, he plans to explore the impact of environmental rights in national constitutions on environmental learning outcomes.
In 2019, he received the CAE travel grant, which supported his research in Rwanda. His work, "Peacebuilding Inc.: Neoliberal Influences on Rwanda’s Vulnerable Youth," will be published in COMPARE: A Journal of Comparative and International Education in May 2024.
Natacha Robert is an educator, activist and artist. Currently, she is a doctoral student at Teachers College Columbia University in the department of curriculum and teaching. Her research focuses on African-centered education with additional research interest in culturally relevant education and decolonization. For her dissertation work, she plans to examine the collaborative curriculum practices between independent African centered schools and families and plans to incorporate the arts into her dissertation.
Publications
Knight-Manuel, M.G., Robert, N., Akin-Sabuncu, S. (2024, June). Social cohesion, belonging, and anti-blackness: African immigrant youth’s civic exploration in a culturally relevant- sustaining, after-school club. Educating African Immigrant Youth: Schooling and Civic Engagement in K–12 Schools. Teachers College Press.
Presentations
Robert, N. (2024, March). What’s in your Hand?: African Centered Education as Community Cultural Wealth. 48th Annual National Black Studies Conference, San Jose, CA. United States.
Robert, N. (2023, December). It takes a village to educate the whole Black child: Independent African-centered institutions and family/community collaboration. [Paper Presentation]. MSTC 5001 Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods in Science Education Mini- Conference, New York, NY. United States.