Université des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Bamako (ULSHB) Researchers

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  Dr. Idrissa Soïba Traoré, ULSHB

  Dr. Idrissa Soïba Traoré holds a doctorate in the Education Sciences from l’Université de Paris 8. He is the author of some twenty scientific articles published in Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Tunisia, France, and Switzerland and of a book entitled École et Décentralisation au Mali, des logiques d’appropriation locale aux dynamiques de conquête de l’espace scolaire. He has successively held the positions of Section Chief and Chief of the Department of Education Sciences, Vice Rector and Rector of the Université des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Bamako. Professor Traoré is, at Africa’s level, the General Secretary of the board of directors of the leaders’ assembly of Aide et Action International. Senior lecturer, he participated in several scientific and research activities including rapporteur at the colloquium on security governance in Mali (2014); mentor of the research team on the mutation of values as a factor of destabilisation of social cohesion at Mali’s Institute for Action Research for PEACE (IMRAP) (2015-2016); and participant at the colloquium on School Governance in the South at Bordeaux in France (2015). He has also been consulting and conducting research on numerous studies including on the following themes: Governance, Security and Human Rights in Mali with NDI (2014-2015; Cross-border access to basic social services with ANDAL Laboratory (2015); Early marriage in Mali with IDRC-WILDAF (2016-2017); The dynamics of local/community conflicts un the urbain communies of Niono and Macina in the Ségou region with ARGA, AMSS, ALERT (2016; The cartography of intervening actors in the National Reconciliation of the Republic of Mali with IMRAP (2018); and an Enquiry in 45 communes in Central and Norther Mali as part of the USAID’s five-year peace consolidation, stabilisation and reconciliation program (2019).

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  Dr.  Moriké  Dembélé

  Dr.  Moriké  Dembélé holds a doctorate in Education Sciences, System Control option. Dr Dembélé is interested in the education and social insertion of marginalized children and youth. In the context of mass education policies, he has recently led a study on the knowledge acquired by children who left the school system early in rural areas with an emphasis on girls’ unique and worrying situation. As Professor of research methodology at the University, he has experimented with different protocols for data collection with children and young people in the African context. In this resepct, his last article jointly published in 2017 about conducting inquiries with and about youths in difficulty in African context using a bottom-up methodological approach develops an innovative research approach directly involving children and youth both as researchers and research subjects. Regarding knowledge of research areas, in May 2019, Dr Dembélé was coordinator of the Ségou and Mopti regions for field studies concerning the FRAMe (Fragility-Resilience Assessment Méthodology) study of a system of local governance, supported by Mali Peacebuilding, Stabilization and Reconciliation Project and conducted by the Université des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Bamako (ULSHB).

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  Dr. Mamadou Dia , ULSHB

  Dr. Mamadou DIA holds a Unique Doctorate in Language Didactic from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) in Sénégal. He was head of the Department of Letters in the Faculty of Letters, Languages and Language Sciences from 2014 to 2019. Member of the Pedagogical and Scientific Commision of the ULSHB, he is also the focal point of the Thematic Program of Research / Civilization, Languages, Literature and Society of Cames (PTR/CLLS- CAMES) in Mali. Working in the field of bilingual instruction, he participated in Dakar to the conception of self-training materials aiming to develop bilingual instruction (November 2017 to January 2018). It involved the creation of teaching manuals allowing teachers in bilingual schools to train themselves. He is the author of a book and several articles on themes such as Teaching French in a multilingual context: the experience of Mali at the Presses Académiques Francophones in 2014 and the factors of gender inequalities at the Université des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Bamako in 2017.

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  Dr. Fatoumata Keita, ULSHB

  Dr. Fatoumata Keita holds a doctorate in American Literature from the Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis in Sénégal. Ms Fatoumata Keita is Professor of african literature of anglophone expression and of american literature in the Department of English. Her research focuses on the political and social activism of african women and women of african descent, in particular their struggle for emancipation, agency, empowerment, gender equality as well as their fight against gender-based violence, oppression, racism and discrimination from a feminist perspective. In this regard, her research examines the interactions between gender and education, development, peace, security, migration, regional integration in Africa and their impact on females’ construct of the Self and their ability to act. Dr Keita has participated in several colloquiums on gender where she presented communications on the fight against gender-based violence, African women’s resistance against gendered assignments in their societies, female leadership etc. She is currently working with the Heinrich Böll foundation on intergenerational feminism in Africa. She was the recipient of the American Fulbright Cultural Exchange scholarship, a research program that allowed her, between 2017 and 2018, to participate in several conferences and workshops on the current evolution of gender studies in the United States. She is the gender focal point and member of the internal quality insurance cell (CIAQ) of the ULSHB. She is also member of the Réseau des Femmes Universitaires et Enseignantes du Mali (REFUE-MA) which militates to strengthen the participation of female professor-researchers in university governance, all the while coaching female students so they can continue their education. Dr Keita is author of several academic articles.

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  Dr. Seydou Loua, ULSHB

  Dr. Seydou Loua has a doctorate in Education Sciences from the Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France. He is teacher-researcher and director of Masters in the Department of Education Sciences of the Faculté des Sciences Humaines et des Sciences de l’éducation (FSHSE). He has published several articles in the domain of Educational Policy on topics such as the constraints and challenges to girls and women’s education in Mali, and issues related to girls’ schooling achievement in Mali in the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres. He has also jointly published an article on the impacts of the security crisis on productive activities in the regions of Mopti, Gao and Tombouctou in the journal Recherches africaines. In addition to his teacher-researcher activities and his scientific publications, in 2017 he was senior researcher for a study on the link between development and security in the regions of Gao, Tombouctou and Mopti for the national coalition of civil society for peace and the fight against small arms proliferation. He was also consultant for the NGO Agir et Save the Children, in a formative research on the incusion of grandmothers in the reproductive health of teenagers and youth in Sikasso region. In 2019, Dr Loua also participated in the quantitative analysis of data from the FRAMe (Fragility-Resilience-Assessment-Méthodology) study, conducted by the Université des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Bamako.

 91ÉçÇø Researchers

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  Dr. Claudia Mitchell, 91ÉçÇø

  Claudia Mitchell is a Distinguished James 91ÉçÇø Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies with the Faculty of Education at 91ÉçÇø and holds the title of Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She is the Director of the institute for Human Development and Well Being as well as the founder and director of the Participatory Cultures Lab at 91ÉçÇø, a research and training center in the Faculty of Education intended for masters and doctoral students and funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Her research is about the ways in which participatory visual methods and novel artistic approaches among youth and their communities can help address the most important social questions, such as gender inequality and the challenges related to gender-based violence, in different contexts and in a wide range of regions, including West Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa, as well as East Asia and the Pacific. She is a member of the 91ÉçÇø research team for the PREAM project.  

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  Dr. Kattie Lussier, 91ÉçÇø

  Kattie Lussier is a researcher at 91ÉçÇø university and lecturer at University of Montreal. She works in the field of international development and co-operation since 1998. She holds a doctorate in development studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, in England and a masters in assessment and evaluation from the University of Montreal. Specialized in capacity development and evaluation, she has been particularly active in education, community development and gender sectors and has worked on several projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia. As a consultant and researcher, she worked for UNESCO, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank, UNDP, OIF, different bilateral donors as well as several NGOs and companies specializing in international co-operation. She has conducted fieldwork in over 20 countries including 8 countries in Africa. She has carried out several missions in Mali for the AMC and OIF to carry out studies and provide technical support and training. Before joining 91ÉçÇø in 2019 she occupied the position of assistant professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea and prior to that was a research fellow at the Centre for International Education (CIE) and the Center for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) at the University of Sussex.

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  Dr.  Myriam Denov, 91ÉçÇø

  Dr. Myriam Denov is a Canada Research Chair 1 and James 91ÉçÇø Professor at the School of Social Work. Her research explores areas of child and youth adversity, child protection in international contexts, with a particular focus on the effects of gender-based violence on children living in areas of armed conflict, political violence, and high incidences of HIV and AIDS.

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  Dr. Myriam Gervais, 91ÉçÇø

  Myriam Gervais is a professor at the 91ÉçÇø Institute of Gender, Sexuality and Feminism. She has directed a multidisciplinary research project focusing on the use of visual participatory methods to conduct studies with rural girls and women in Africa (Burkina and Rwanda). She has published a guide on how to conceive and realize a participatory research project using visual methods (2018). She is a member of the 91ÉçÇø research team for the PREAM project.

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  Dr. Blane Harvey, 91ÉçÇø

  Blane Harvey is an Assistant Professor and William Dawson Scholar at 91ÉçÇø’s Department for Integrated Studies in Education, where he leads the Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Lab. His research studies how climate change knowledge is produced, validated and communicated, and how participatory research, facilitated learning and knowledge sharing can support collective action in the global South

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  Dr. Lisa Star, 91ÉçÇø

  Dr. Lisa J. Starr is an Assistant Professor at 91ÉçÇø in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE). She completed her doctoral degree in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria. She received a Master of Arts degree in administration and supervision from the University of Phoenix while working as a secondary teacher overseas. Her teaching career led her from Canada to Pakistan, Kuwait, Mongolia and back to Canada. Her travels created a passion for the study of the relationship between identity and culture, particularly in relation to educational effectiveness and school leadership. Lisa strives to facilitate experiences beyond simple show and tell to create transformative learning environments where individuals are inspired and empowered. Her current research focus is the use of autoethnography in the study of leadership philosophy and practice.

 Research Associates

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  Dr. Prudence Caldairou-Bessette, 91ÉçÇø

  Prudence Caldairou-Bessette is a clinical psychologist for children, teenagers, families and adults. She is an associate professor of humanistic psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She is also currently completing her post-doctoral studies at 91ÉçÇø under the supervision of Claudia Mitchell (Education) and Lucie Nadeau (Transcultural Psychiatry). Since 2013, she has been working with the SHERPA University Institute that specializes in the health and social support practices in a multi-ethnic context. She is also a youth mental health psychologist in a Centre Médicosocial in an underprivileged Montreal neighborhood (Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) and in an aboriginal community center in the outskirts of the city (Kahnawame). She holds a doctorate in psychology research/intervention (PhD/PsyD) from UQAM and a doctorate in psychology from Université de Strasbourg (PhD, psychoanalytical studies and clinical psychopathology, Programme international du Collège Doctoral européen). Her thesis was based on a cultural and social study of drawings made by children from 5 different countries (including France, Vietnam and Russia), but more specifically on drawings made by children from Québec and Ivory Coast. In the context of her work, she has lived in or visited several countries in Black Africa (Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon). She has written several articles on the intercultural interpretation of children’s drawings and the use of drawings in research with children. She is now interested in the participatory use of drawings, games and other forms of artistical expression both in clinical research and in social justice.

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  Dr. Jennifer Thompson, University of Montreal

  Jennifer Thompson is a postdoctoral candidate at the Public Health Research Centre of the University of Montreal, within the Chaire de recherche McConnell-Université de Montréal for the mobilization of youth knowledge. Dr Thompson is interested in the methodological questions linked to participatory and visual research. She has worked with methods such as photovoice, participatory videos and cellphilming (cellphone videos) to explore questions linked to gender and water management in Cameroon, teacher training in Mozambique and environmental conservation in Sierra Leone. Dr Thompson has also conducted training workshops on visual and participatory methods to support researchers in Kenya and Myanmar.

Past IHDW-PREAM Interns