Who We Are

Dr. Kalan’s work aims to create a sociology of literacy that provides insights into cultural, political, and power-relational dimensions of linguistic and textual practices. He utilizes discourse analysis, ethnography, practitioner research, and narrative inquiry to study the sociological dimensions of reading, writing, and language education. He is particularly interested in learning about the experiences of minoritized and racialized students in multicultural and multilingual contexts. He studies literacy practices that are unofficial, underground, community-based, plurilingual, and multi-semiotic.

Dr. Tabi completed his doctoral degree in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE/Univeristy of Toronto. He has also successful completed a post-doctoral appointment through the Black Child and Youth Studies Network at the University of Windsor. Further, Dr. Tabi holds an M.Ed degree in Human Development and Applied Psychology and has extensive teaching experience in sociology, community education and youth studies. Dr. Tabi’s intersectional Black Studies frameworks, strong arts-based and community-engaged scholarship with/in Black communities, and his wide experience working with school boards to address issues of equity, position him at the cutting-edge of crucial education conversations and school-community-university collaborations in Canada.

Dr. Low has been leading and participating in research, knowledge dissemination, and program and curriculum development projects with a primary focus on how to best support socially marginalized young people underserved by traditional schooling models and practices. Her research interests include the implications and challenges of popular youth culture, “urban arts,” and Hip-Hop culture for curriculum theory, literacy studies, pedagogy, and school transformation; community and digital media projects and pedagogies; translanguaging and the multilingual Montreal hip-hop scene; life stories and human rights education; connected learning and informal education; and, community-school-university partnerships.  

Dr. Lipset is a scholar, author, educator, artist, creative producer and Hip-Hop head. His work sits at the intersections of critical arts pedagogies, education change, pushout re-engagement, teacher preparation, and social justice. He holds a Ph.D. in Education Studies with a focus on culturally sustaining school change from McGill University and an Ed.M. in the Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His writing has been published by Phi Delta Kappan, the McGill Journal of Education, Forbes, Rowman & Littlefield, the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, and more. He produced the Spotify Original podcast RecordEd Arts, which tells stories from the nexus of the recording arts and education. As a Doctoral Intern at the K12 Lab in Stanford University's d.school he produced Sound Practice alongside sam seidel, Jessica Brown and Louie Montoya. He is Faculty Lead for Critical Digital & Media Literacies at McGill University where he teaches pre-service teachers and graduate students

Cátia Martins is a Visiting Professor in the Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian Studies Program at the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at the University of York and at the Camões Institute. She holds a Master's degree in Education and (Multi)Literacies and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Brasília (UnB-Brazil). Throughout her studies, she has conducted extensive field research in (Multi)Literacies and Teacher Education, working as a teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and consultant, with a focus on Portuguese Language Teaching, Genre, and the development of Teaching Methodologies. With 25 years of experience as a university professor, she has specialized in Portuguese Language Teacher Education, Multiliteracies, and Teaching Methodologies. Starting her career in Brazil, she worked for 20 years as a teacher, teacher/researcher, advisor/supervisor, and program coordinator (in Basic and Higher Education, for undergraduates and graduates in Education and Languages). In addition, she has extensive experience in course and material design and consultancy for teaching programs, curriculum review, (multi)literacies, and language teaching in various sectors of the Education System.

Yecid Ortega is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Education, and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom), where he teaches graduate classes in TESOL and applied linguistics. He finished his doctoral program in Language and Literacies Education (LLE) with a collaborative specialization in Comparative International, and Development Education (CIDE) at OISE – University of Toronto (Canada). He has over 20 years of international experience (Colombia, the USA, Canada, and the UK) in the field of language education and research. He explores the linguistic and cultural lived experiences of marginalized migrant communities and the ways in which they assert their identities while integrating and resettling into the receiving societies. He currently focuses on alternative forms of research including but not limited to arts-based, creative, critical, and post-material methodologies to understand one’s place in the world.

Bianca is a Phd student in Educational Studies at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University under the supervision of Amir Kalan. She recently completed her Master's Degree and thesis in Language Education within the same department and with the same supervisor where she investigated the often overlooked language practices embedded within the cultural productions of three translingual women of Montreal’s music community. She completed her Bachelors in Language Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Bianca works as a Research Assistant for Amir Kalan and also works as a Funding and Partnerships Advisor for Wapikoni Mobile, a Montreal-based Indigenous audiovisual production organization. Her research interests lie at the crossroads of out-of-school critical literacies, cultural production, and translanguaging.  

Renee Davy is a PhD student in Educational Studies (Language Acquisition) at McGill University. She completed her undergraduate degree in Linguistics and Spanish and her masters in Linguistics in Jamaica. She has had extensive international experience teaching languages across Colombia, Jamaica and the United States to secondary and tertiary level students. Her research investigates the transformative potential of engaging marginalized youth with authentic writing and community publishing, and how these experiences can shape their social and academic identities.

Sitong Wang is a PhD student at McGill University, specializes in Educational Studies at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE) under the supervision of Dr. Amir Kalan. Her research focuses on exploring linguistic prejudice against multilingual writers in the academic writing context. Her academic journey commenced in mainland China, where she completed her Bachelor's degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. She then pursued a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics, deepening her knowledge of language and its practical applications. Sitong also studied as an exchange student at Chung Yung Christian University, exposing her to diverse educational environments. Her passion for language teaching and learning has been a driving force in her career, as she aims to facilitate effective communication and intercultural understanding.

Cris is a PhD student in the Educational Studies program at McGill University. He currently serves as the Principal Editor (’23-’24) of the Journal of Language & Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Supervised by Dr. Amir Kalan, his research interest is at the intersection of urban immigrant youth identities, out-of-school critical multiliteracies and queer pedagogies. Prior to emigrating to Québec, he earned an MA in Education from the University College London, an MA in Applied Linguistics, and a BA in Linguistics & Literature from the Philippines. He served as school administrator and English teacher at an international school in southern China for almost a decade. In Canada, he has worked as course lecturer and English language teacher and is a senior examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Komal Waqar is a PhD student in Educational Studies at DISE. Her research focuses on the transmission of cultural capital in English language teaching in Pakistan. She completed her MPhil in Education from the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) in 2018. Her dissertation was on how middle schoolers conceptualised literacy in English and Urdu. She has extensive experience working in the educational development sector in Karachi, Pakistan with a focus on improving English language instruction in public schools in Karachi.

Mama Adobea Nii Owoo is PhD Candidate in Language and Literacies Education at OISE|UT and currently Research Trainee at McGill University’s DISE. Mama’s dissertation, Language Policy as Personal Experience: A Southern Perspective of Language Policy via Ghana’s Practice of Medium of Instruction Policies, uses a Southern theoretical lens, qualitative methodologies and film to investigate how Language Planning and Policy processes shape the African educational experience in urban classrooms in Ghana. Mama’s interests, which are primarily medium of instruction policy for minoritized language learners, teacher education for multilingual English learners, and African literacies, are inspired by the linguistic and cultural complexities and ideological, historical and contemporary challenges that accompany the literacy teaching, and language learning needs of students of Black/African heritage. Her research has won multiple awards, including the TIRF’s 2020 Russell N. Campbell Prize. Mama’s publications include a co-authored book, Centering Multilingual Learners and Countering Raciolinguistic Ideologies in Teacher Education: Principles, Policies and Practices with Multilingual Matters, and a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Language and the Global South and her first film, No Vernacular, a docufilm about African Multilingualism and Language policy in Ghana. 

Anita Hagh is a doctoral student in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Her research interests include all things digital and Web-based. Through the lens of a member-researcher, Anita is particularly drawn to digital literacies and platform cultures; as well as online communities and discourses. Previously, she has explored the discursive power of memes, with a special focus on their affective implications towards recovery and resilience. Currently, Anita’s research centres disruptive platform practices and literacies in algorithmic contexts.

Emily Mannard is a high school language teacher and PhD candidate in McGill University’s Department of Integrated Studies in Education. Her research explores adolescents’ literacies, pleasurable play, and collaborative socialization through their engagement with digital popular culture texts like video games, fanfiction, and live streams. The past four years have drawn Emily’s focus towards informal learning ecologies like youth centers and online fandoms, where she collaborates with community partners to design culturally-sustaining programming for youth. Emily has taken findings from this work to advocate for the value of adolescents’ everyday literacies and experiences in digital culture, especially those that are commonly devalued in popular discourse and formal education.