Black Futures in Education: PhD Student Paul Akpomuje

Paul Akpomuje is studying his PhD at the Queen's Faculty of Education.

What are you researching?

My research is on visa stories and the poetics of migration as I seek to extend the notion of “narrative” beyond traditional prose or storytelling to include multimodal approaches and different genres, such as poetry, to explore the migration experiences of African immigrants (specifically from Nigeria) in Canada. Precisely, I am interested in how visa stories inform the identities of Nigerian immigrant graduate students in Canada and how the experience of social injustice impact visa stories.

What is it like working with your supervisor Claire Ahn?

It has been extremely fruitful and productive working with Dr. Claire Ahn as she provides insightful and meaningful guidance and mentorship. She is very supportive, empathetic, painstaking, detailed, and inspirational. These, for me, are the most essentials of graduate supervision.

Why did you choose Queen’s?

The major reason I chose Queen’s University is the social justice framework that undergirds the research agenda of the Faculty of Education. I knew my research would draw a lot from this framework and I thought the best place where I would better be supported is Queen’s University. I also had the privilege of taking a course in the Gender Studies Department, taught by Professor Katherine McKittrick. I must say that the course and the teaching style and resourcefulness of the professor influenced my thinking and research significantly. It was my supervisor, Dr. Ahn who encouraged me to take the course, and I am always grateful for that.

What impact do you hope your research has?

As Canada seeks to develop better immigration policies, this research will help generate conversations and understanding of immigration experiences and the identity development of Black African immigrants in Canada. This will impact the ongoing fight against anti-black racism in Canada. It will also enrich African diaspora discourse in Canadian higher education. I would say that this conversation has begun already through the Poetics of Migration community event that I co-convened and co-curated with Professor Katherine McKittrick on January 25, 2024. As some of the participants of the event acknowledged, it was the first time that members of the Black and immigrant community in Kingston would convene in their numbers to freely and vulnerably talk about their migration and other experiences of antiblackness in Canada, inspired by poetic, sonic, and photographic narratives.

How did you connect with Pedal Works Café & Studios to put on a poetry workshop?

I have the privilege of being a research fellow at the Revolutionary Demand for Happiness (RDH) Working Group in the Department of Black Studies, run by Prof. McKittrick. It was RDH, that offered me the platform to convene the Poetics of Migration which is my first major community-based event in Canada. While planning the event, we thought of a venue that will be outside of Queen’s community and that will provide a good connection between the gown and the town. That is, we wanted a space that will be accessible and welcoming to academics and non-academics. That was how we found The Pedal Works Café, owned by a Black Canadian who is also an immigrant. The café became our safe space where I could perform poetry and invite participants to have honest conversations about immigration and antiblackness in Canada and forge bonds of radical friendships and community. The Poetics of Migration was intellectual, academic/scholarly, therapeutic, and community-based. The event was attended by some of my teachers and mentors in the Faculty of Education namely Drs. Thashika Pillay, Alana Butler, Heather McGregor, who are always supportive of my research journey. Many graduate students of the Faculty were also in attendance. Drs. Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin, Juliane Okot Bitek, and Kesha Fevrier from the Black Studies Department were also in attendance.