Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellows
About the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship
The University of Toronto Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program provides funding to increase opportunities for hiring postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups, specifically Indigenous and/or Black researchers. These fellowships will enable postdoctoral researchers to grow their scholarly profiles, undertake academic work at the University of Toronto, and strengthen the research environment at the University with diverse perspectives.

“Prior to beginning this postdoc, my research mainly focussed on female sex workers, who are a highly stigmatised and marginalised population with diverse sexual and reproductive health needs. What I have learned in the first few weeks of my postdoctoral fellowship researching displaced youth and refugees living in informal settlements is that they too face similar structural barriers to the vital healthcare services that many of us routinely take for granted. “
Kalonde Malama
2020 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship recipient
Read more on the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work website ⇨
Fellows in the News

New U of T professor Nadège Compaoré on being Black in academia and why representation matters
Next July, Nadège Compaoré will start as an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She describes the position as her “dream job” – the culmination of an obstacle-filled academic journey that began 19 years ago when she arrived in Canada from Burkina Faso on a full scholarship.
News Links
New U of T professor Nadège Compaoré on being Black in academia and why representation matters (U of T News, July 2019)
‘We need to find the voices of Black males’: Ahmed Ali Ilmi joins OISE as Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow (OISE News, November 2019)
‘Earned, not given’: New Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship recognizes research excellence of Black and Indigenous scholars (SGS News, November 2019)
De-stigmatizing HIV treatment: How Kalonde Malama is working to advance health equity for marginalized populations (Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, February 16, 2021)
Announcing the 2019 Fellows
Cycle 1 Fellows (Spring 2019)
- Nikoli Attai, Women & Gender Studies Institute
- Kilian Atuoye, Department of Geography (UTM)
- Nadege Compaoré, Department of Political Science
- Debby Danard, Women & Gender Studies Institute
- Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora, Faculty of Law
- Ahmed Ilmi, Department of Social Justice Education
- Nemoy Lewis, Department of Geography and Planning
Cycle 2 Fellows (Fall 2019)
- Abdallatif Abdalrhman, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering
- Abdikarim Abdullahi , Department of Physiology
- Gerald Bareebe, Department of Political Science (UTSC)
- Kristen Bos, Women & Gender Studies Institute (A&S)
- Lori Chambers, Factor Inwentash School of Social Work
- Nicole Marie Muir, Department of Public Health Sciences
- Mary Rambaran-Olm, Department of English and Drama (UTM)
- Ian Tobias, Department of Cell and Systems Biology
Cycle 3 Fellows (2020)
- Justin Beland, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (FASE)
- David Green, Department of Applied Psychology & Human Development (OISE)
- Meagan Hamilton, Department of Geography & Planning (A&S)
- Samantha Jackson, Department of Language Studies (UTM)
- Kalonde Malama, Factor Inwentash School of Social Work
- Notisha Massaquoi, Factor Inwentash School of Social Work
- Lisa Ndejuru, Faculty of Information
- Ikenna Okeke, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering (FASE)
- Safia Omer, Department of Biological Sciences (UTSC)
“This program is invaluable because it gives me an opportunity to work with leading experts in my field and provide me with the necessary support to commence my new research study.”
— Nemoy Lewis

Additional Information
- Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program: Supporting Researchers from Underrepresented Groups (March 6, 2019)
- Call for Nominations – Fall 2019 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (July 11, 2019)
- Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program – Congratulations and Call for 2020 Nominations (PDAD&C #38) (February 6, 2020)
- Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program – Congratulations and Program Renewal until 2023 (PDAD&C #22) (November 12, 2020)