Pursuing a Master of Arts degree 

 Research Areas: Cultural Geography, Urban Geography, Black and African Studies, Diaspora Studies, Migration, East Asia, Critical Race Studies

Supervisor:  Dr. Geraldine Pratt

Degrees:  2018-2022 B.A Contemporary Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada

Entry Date:  September 2022

Expected Graduation Date:  2024

My research revolves around understanding how Black people negotiate space and place when they migrate to East Asia, more specifically to Japan and South Korea. In other words, I am interested in the ways Afro-Asian placemaking can articulate itself, and the role race and ethnicity play in how they are received by their host societies.

By comparing this newer diaspora to more established Black communities around North America and Europe, I would like to see the ways in which “Blackness” can be understood and deployed differently in various parts of the world, as well as how the concepts of multiculturalism and integration can be deployed politically in countries outside of North America.

My research not only seeks to understand how race and citizenship play a role in informing Black people of their positionality in urban Japan but also looks at how their presence may affect Japanese people’s perceptions of their own “Japaneseness”.