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Nourane Abdelshafy (1996-) is an Egyptian Canadian researcher, educator, writer, and artist. She has held positions as a Lecturer at the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo (2018-2020) and the University of Toronto (2024). In addition to her academic roles, Abdelshafy has also occupied various roles in academic and not-for-profit institutions. Committed to education and community engagement, she served as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Waterloo (2015-2018) and Wilfrid Laurier University (2017-2018), as well as a French Language Assessor at the YMCA Greater Toronto Area (2023-2024).

Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, Nourane Abdelshafy completed her primary and secondary education in her native country. In 2014, she immigrated to Canada, where she pursued higher education at the University of Waterloo, earning her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 2014 and Master of Arts (M.A.) degrees in French Studies in 2023. In 2024, she enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Master of Information program, pursuing a career in Archives and Records Management.

As a researcher, Abdelshafy focuses on the use of materiality as a narrative device in francophone autofiction from the 20th and 21st centuries. Her scholarly interests also encompass transcultural representations in French novels. Later in her career, she expanded her research to include ecopoetics in French Canadian literature, exploring the intersection of ecology, poetic expression, and identity. Abdelshafy has extensively written on the works of notable authors such as Annie Ernaux, Patrick Modiano, Riad Sattouf, and Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba. Her contributions to literary criticism and analysis of these authors' works were published in journals such as the International Journal of Francophone Studies and Canadian Literature.

In addition to her academic and research pursuits, Nourane Abdelshafy is a published writer and artist. Her debut autofiction novel Sumac (2022), explores themes of migration, displacement, belonging, and the fluidity of identity, drawing from her own experiences as an immigrant. As an artist, her works were exhibited in galleries across Canada, such as Gallery 44. Her artistic productions often reflect her scholarly interests, incorporating elements of materiality and ecopoetics. Through her photography and paintings, she explores the relationship between nature, culture, and personal narrative. Her exhibitions, such as Bodies of Water (2021) and Transscapes (2023) explore the fluidity of identity as transitional, transitory, and transformative.

Age Friendly GIANTs was a project conducted from 2017 and 2019 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The project was organized via Age Friendly Thunder Bay and StoryCentre Canada and coordinated by Nancy Angus. "GIANTs" stands for "Grand Individuals Aging with Neighbours in Thunder Bay." The project was designed to support strategies for seniors' aging in place in the region and improve the health and well- being of seniors living alone. The project was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 (2017) provided a digital storytelling workshop to ten older adults, with a focus on neighbourhoods, communities, and aging at home. Results of the project included ten videos produced by the participants, posters and tip sheets, and several public events. Phase 2 (2019) included the development of an education kit to accompany the Phase 1 videos, Tea Talks held throughout the summer to develop community, a concluding "Giants Castle" event in October 2019 to share information about aging at home, and a series of cable television spots.

Omar Al-Samadi is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and information professional based in Tkarón:to (Treaty 13) / Toronto, Ontario. Born in 1986 in Burlington, Ontario, to a Seychellois-Creole mother and Iraqi-Arab father, Al-Samadi was raised in a mixed-race household and came of age in the post-9/11 era. They experienced early educational barriers as a result of systemic racism, including academic streaming in high school that delayed access to university level education until their mid-thirties. These formative experiences continue to inform their commitment to equity, representation, and memory work.

Al-Samadi’s early professional life began in wealth management, where they worked as a financial advisor at Scotiabank and Scotia Capital from 2007 to 2009. A departure from the corporate sector led them into the music and cultural industries, where they spent over a decade as an artist manager, event producer, and community organizer. During this period, they held leadership roles at Embrace Presents and Culvert Music, co-founded Rare Beef Records and the monthly dance music event Course of Time, and later founded the consulting firm Ovātus Group while collaborating with the inclusive nightlife collective Deep Gold Presents.

Working under the artistic moniker Abandoned Affair, Al-Samadi has maintained a longstanding creative practice in photography. Using primarily 35mm film, their visual work explores portraiture, landscape, and urban documentation, and has been featured in magazine publications such as PhotoED and NAKID. Their work is rooted in narrative, contemplation, and aesthetic care.

Returning to formal education in 2019, Al-Samadi completed a Social Service Worker diploma with honours at George Brown College, followed by a B.A. in Social Development Studies from the University of Waterloo in 2024. During this time, they worked and volunteered in harm reduction, notably with Breakaway Community Services for their Pieces to Pathways program providing peer support and counselling for 2SLGBTQ+ youth who struggle with substance use.

As of 2024, Al-Samadi is pursuing graduate studies at the University of Toronto in the combined Master of Information and Master of Museum Studies program, specializing in Archives and Records Management. Their research interests include decolonial archival theory, community-driven archiving, inclusive appraisal methodologies, and the preservation of marginalized voices. A significant moment in their archival trajectory occurred in 2022 during a visit to the Seychelles National Archives, where they uncovered historical records of their East-African enslaved ancestors—an experience that continues to shape their scholarly and creative pursuits.

Al-Samadi is fluent in English and French, with additional proficiency in Arabic and Italian. Their work across disciplines is guided by a desire to build bridges between artistic expression, institutional critique, and community memory. Their fonds reflects a layered and evolving narrative of lived experience, creative practice, and critical inquiry.

Born in Toronto, Ontario to Ghanaian immigrants, Alexie Ankomah spent her early childhood between Toronto and Kumasi, Ghana before her family decided to permanently settle in Toronto in 2006. In 2016, Ankomah would begin to attend A.Y Jackson Secondary School where she was a participant in the equity council, curling team, flag football team, photography club, where she began to take portrait photographs of friends and family, and the Black Student Society, where she would develop an interest in learning about Black Canadian and American history. Ankomah would graduate from A.Y Jackson Secondary School in 2020 and would begin to attend Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson University).

Ankomah would major in History before transferring to the Criminology and History major in 2021. During her time at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ankomah continued to develop her interest from high school by taking a variety of Criminology and History courses related to the treatment and experiences of Black Canadians and Americans. During her third year at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ankomah would take a course focused on archives where her interest began to shift to becoming an archivist and participating in archival activism focussed on changing the physical and intellectual structures of archives in order to allow Black Canadians to have greater access to archival material as a means of bringing social change in the archival field. In 2024, Ankomah would graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology and History and would begin to attend the University of Toronto Faculty of Information as a Masters of Information candidate in the Archives and Records Management concentration to pursue her goals.

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