Founder and Director

Zehra Naqvi is an educator, a Rhodes Scholar, and an award-winning writer. Her book The Knot of My Tongue: Poems and Prose was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Her writing has been commissioned by Amnesty International Canada and UNHCR Canada. She studied anthropology at Oxford University. Her current research is focussed on regenerative agriculture and the ecological relationship between humans and the more-than-human world.

Instructor

Chiyi Tam (she/her) is an urban planner and anti-displacement organizer practicing in Tkaronto's Kensington-Chinatown neighbourhood. She is currently a visiting expert with the School of Cities’ as an Early Career Canadian Urban Leader. Chiyi is the managing director of the recently established Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. Her goal is to reciprocate knowledge and wealth into community ownership.

Course: Introduction to Community Land Trusts

Instructor

Serena Alagappan received her A.B. in comparative literature and creative writing from Princeton University in 2020. She then studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. A recipient of the 2022 New Poets Prize, her pamphlet ‘Sensitive to Temperature’ was published by The Poetry Business under the Smith|Doorstop imprint.

Workshop: Land, Body & Voice: Writing for Self-expression & Social Justice

Instructor

Nayani Jensen is a historian of science, writer, and Rhodes Scholar from Nova Scotia, Canada. Originally a Mechanical Engineer working in climate research, she is interested in merging arts and sciences in interdisciplinary approaches to history, climate and fiction.

Course: Art & Wonder: How to Talk About Science

Instructor

Sarah Munawar (She/Her) is a visiting professor at the Elizabeth Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership (EDR) at the University of Houston. Having earned a PhD in political science at the University of British Columbia, as a researcher and educator, she advocates for health equity, culturally-safe care and disability justice.

Course: Health Equity, Disability Justice, and the Politics of Care

Instructor

My calling in life is to learn as much as I can, then share those learnings with other people. I’ve done this many different ways: starting a walking tour company, creating university courses, recording podcasts, filming YouTube videos, and delivering exuberant public rants. My academic background is in the history of science and technology.

Course: How Technology Transforms the World

Advisor