Persons

    Yasmine Abdillahi

    Yasmine Abdillahi is a corporate transformation leader based in the US. She is currently Executive Director in Cybersecurity Governance, Risk and Compliance at Comcast NBC Universal ( a US-based media company), where she is responsible for policy governance, security certifications & attestations. She has worked with global organizations in the technology, finance, and media entertainment sectors to transform and automate their operations. She has a BrightTalk about Cybersecurity Governance, Risk & Compliance, she mentors women, and advises startups. Yasmine is a member of the Executive Women Forum (EWF), the Information System Audit & Control Association (ISACA), the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), and the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA). Of Algerian and Comorian descent, Yasmine is a dual French-American citizen. She holds a BSc in Finance and an MSc in Information System from Paris Dauphine University.

      

    Menna Agha

    Menna Agha is an architect and Assistant Professor at the University of Carleton. She has recently been coordinating the spatial justice agenda at the Flanders Architecture Institute in Belgium. She is a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian, a legacy that infuses her research interests in race, gender, space, and territory. Among her publications are: Nubia still exists: The Utility of the Nostalgic Space; The Non-work of the Unimportant: The shadow economy of Nubian women in displacement villages; and Liminal Publics, Marginal Resistance.

    Noureddine Amara

    Noureddine Amara is a historian and the author of a thesis which examined Algerian nationality: Faire la France en Algérie: émigration algérienne, mèsusages du nom et conflits de nationalité dans le monde. De la chute d’Alger aux années 1930. He is a research Fellow at the Abdallah S. Kamel Center at Yale Law School, from August 2021-2022. In January 2021, he wrote an article titled Sur le rapport Stora. Une mémoire hors contrat, commenting on the famous report commissioned by President Macron from the historian Benjamin Stora that addressed remembrance issues relating to colonization and the Algerian war.

    Sihem Bensedrine

    Sihem Bensedrine is a writer, journalist, and a figure in the fight for human rights in Tunisia. She has worked for more than three decades to denounce human rights violations. Under the despotic regime of Ben Ali, deposed in 2011, she was imprisoned, persecuted, and subjected to smear campaigns and slander. From June 2014 to December 2018, Sihem Bensedrine was president of the “Truth and Dignity Instance” which implemented the law on transitional justice and published a comprehensive report on human rights violations, including recommendations on institutional reforms. In this report, Tunisia addressed a memorandum to France asking for reparations for colonial crimes.

    Magali Bessone

    Magali Bessone is Professor of political philosophy at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, member of the ISJPS (Institut des Sciences Juridique et Philosophique de la Sorbonne, UMR 8103) and associate researcher at Centre International de Recherche sur l’Esclavage et les Post-esclavages. Her research focuses on theories of justice and critical theories of race and racism. She is the author of Faire justice de l’irréparable (Vrin, 2019), Sans distinction de race? (Vrin, 2013), the co-editor, with Daniel Sabbagh, of Race, racisme, discriminations: une anthologie de textes fondamentaux (Hermann, 2015), and with Myriam Cottias, of the Lexique des réparations de l’esclavage (Karthala, 2021).

    Michel DeGraff

    Michel DeGraff is Professor of linguistics at MIT, co-founder of the MIT-Haiti Initiative and founding member of Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen. His writings engage intellectual history and critical race theory, especially the links between power-knowledge hierarchies and (mis)representations/(mis-)uses of Creole languages and their speakers.

    Amah Edoh

    Amah Edoh is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the production of knowledge about Africa, and on how "African-ness" is produced across West Africa and Western Europe, both through objects and in bodies. Amah was Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at MIT from 2017 to 2022, where she was recognized with multiple awards for excellence in teaching. She has taught courses on the politics of knowledge production, contemporary francophone Africa, African migrations, and contemporary movements for racial justice and reparations. Amah's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. She holds a PhD in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society from MIT, a MSc in Population and International Health from Harvard, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Zambia. Amah is Togolese-American.

    Adèle Frise

    Adèle is a Sociology student specializing in "Migration and Cultural Diversities" at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, currently pursuing her Master's degree.

    With a background in Sociology and Anthropology from the Université de Mons, Adèle brings a diverse set of skills to her role in the Lab. She contributes to various aspects of the Lab's operations, from scientific research to logistical support.

    Passionate about understanding social phenomena and cultural dynamics, Adèle is committed to making meaningful contributions to her field.

    Hélène Himmer

    Hélène is a French national, of Guadeloupean descent. She is a committed activist and professional with a diverse background in racial justice and international development. She holds a Master's degree in International and European Law from the University of Rouen, complemented by an MBA from ISCTE Business School.

    Her involvement in activism began in her early teens, when she became involved with the Fédération Indépendante et Démocratique Lycéenne, a youth organization focused on education, youth rights and inclusion, and served as its Executive Director for over three years. She then spent seven years advocating for racial justice in France with SOS Racisme, where she was a member of the Board of Directors for over four years.

    Before joining AfaLab as Program Assistant, Hélène worked for the British Council and the Council of Europe. At these organizations, her work focused on a range of initiatives related to climate change, peace, anti-corruption, women's empowerment, youth cooperation and the promotion of inclusive societies in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

    Geneviève Kaninda

    Geneviève, born in Belgium, is of Congolese origin and holds a Masters degree in International Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

    For the past seven years, she has been working on issues of racial injustice against people of African descent with the Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations, where she served as Co-coordinator and Communications Officer.

    Geneviève has also worked on issues of gender equality for six years with Aire de Femmes Expertise Afrique-Europe, a non-profit organization that brings together the expertise of African and European professional women to promote the fundamental rights of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 1325.

    Prior to joining AfaLab as Advocacy and Policy Officer, Geneviève was working as a Parliamentary Assistant for the Green Party in Belgium.

    Liepollo Lebohang Pheko

    Liepollo Lebohang Pheko is a Decolonial Afrikan Feminist and Senior Research Fellow at Trade Collective. Her research Interests are in African political economy, coloniality, States & nationhood, international trade & global financial governance, feminization of poverty, regional integration and impacts of globalization on labor migration. Her work is grounded in a race, class and feminist analysis and she is committed to grounding academic research in community struggles & contexts.

    Kenda Mutongi

    Kenda Mutongi has been a Martin Luther King Visiting Professor of History at MIT, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam. She is currently writing a book tentatively titled, Reading Under the Covers, which focuses on the history of secondary schooling in post-colonial Kenya. Kenda also teaches a wide range of courses in African history, world history, and gender history.

    Shaany N'sondé

    Shaany N’sondé joined AfaLab’s team as Program Administrator in 2023. She supports the Lab in the areas of communications, administration, and project implementation. Shaany comes from a dual cultural background (France and the Republic of Congo), and holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the University Paris-Sorbonne, as well as a Masters in Political Science and International Relations from the Free University of Brussels. After working on a project that aimed to decolonize the Free University of Brussel's colonial legacy, Shaany completed her Masters thesis on movements to decolonize the public space in Brussels. Most recently, before joining AfaLab, Shaany worked for the Africa-Europe Diaspora Development Platform on projects concerning the role of the African diaspora in migration and international development policies. 

    Mame-Fatou Niang

    Mame-Fatou Niang is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Carnegie Mellon University and the author of Identités Françaises (Brill, 2019). Mame’s research focuses on race, immigration and national identity in contemporary France.  In 2015, I co-directed the documentary film, Mariannes Noire. She is also a photographer and the co-author of a photo series on Black French Islam. Prof. Niang is currently working on a second manuscript tentatively titled Mosaica Nigra: Blackness in 21st-century France.