Join us for Black Presence: Decolonizing research, teaching & health
The Department of Physiology invites all members of the Temerty Medicine, University of Toronto, and the Ontario university communities to join us for our department’s second symposium on Physiology and Black Health. It will take place on June 26th, 9:00am-6:00pm in the Medical Sciences Building (room 2170) and the David Naylor Commons at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus. We would love for as many faculty, trainees, and staff as possible to attend and benefit from what is sure to be an exciting and enlightening afternoon.
This year, in addition to our expert panel, we are including presentations from attendees. We encourage anyone who works on topics broadly related to Black teaching, research, and/or health to submit an abstract for consideration as a poster or oral presentation.
Find full details and RSVP information at this link.
This year's invited speakers include:
Dr. Kafi Ealey is an assistant professor in the School of Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Ealey obtained her MSc and PhD from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. She completed postdoctoral training at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Yokohama, Japan, as well as in the Department of Translational Medicine at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children Research Centre.
Dr. Ealey’s research is focused on understanding the biological and cellular processes that govern the diverse functions of metabolic tissues to promote overall health. By analyzing the cellular composition and functionality of various tissues, particularly adipose tissue, she explores the mechanisms driving fat expansion during the development of obesity. Her work, which employs a range of experimental models, is dedicated to uncovering how nutritional interventions can influence adipose tissue expansion, immune system function, metabolism and chronic metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Dr. Ealey is particularly passionate about examining the biological variations in metabolic systems that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in the prevalence of obesity-related conditions, including type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Ola Osman is an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She earned her Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and holds a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford, where she was supported by a Clarendon Scholarship.
Her research examines the global dimensions of anti-Blackness through the lenses of international relations, political theory, and African politics. She focuses on how racial logics shape state formation, post-conflict governance, and international institutions, with particular attention to Liberia and postcolonial Africa. Her work draws on Black political thought, feminist theory, and decolonial approaches, and engages the intersecting histories of war, migration, and racial capitalism.
Our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Andre Fenton is a Professor and the Chair of Neural Science at New York University. He investigates the molecular, neural, behavioral, and computational aspects of memory. With collaborators he identified PKMzeta as the first molecular mechanism of biological long-term memory storage. His team studies how brains store experiences as memories, how brains learn to learn, and how knowing activates relevant information without activating what is irrelevant. These investigations integrate across levels of biological organization, using genetic, molecular, electrophysiological, imaging, behavioral, engineering, and theoretical methods. This computational psychiatry research is helping to elucidate the neurobiology of memory and mental dysfunction in diverse conditions like schizophrenia, autism, and depression. André just completed his term as chair of the National Institute of Mental Health's Board of Scientific Counselors. André also organizes teams to develop ideas and tools with impact outside of academia. They implemented a CPAP-Oxygen helmet treatment for COVID-19 in Nigeria and other LMICs, and he founded a company that commercialized FDA-approved portable, easy-to-use wireless technologies for recording electroencephalograms (EEGs) to assess brain function in novel medical applications. Having recently developed an extremely inexpensive disposable EEG electrode and amplifier technology, as well as the information technology to allow everyone, everywhere to obtain a medically-valid EEG assessment, André is working to enable LMICs to provide epilepsy and brain health assessment for people in low-resource communities. This is desperately needed to equitably deliver neurological and mental health care. André actively communicates science to the public, appearing in diverse media; he suspects that solutions to many of our greatest challenges will also require that most people correctly understand the nature of our minds.