Current Students
Asha Edwin,PhD Student, Research Assistant
Asha Edwin is an interdisciplinary researcher and doctoral candidate at Brock University. A Black feminist scholar who approaches theory as praxis, her research and creative practice span embodiment, leisure, sport, culture, aesthetics, and visual media, including photography and video. Grounded in a commitment to collective liberation and embodied experience, her work explores Black women’s wellness and expansive orientations toward pleasure. Asha is also a certified yoga teacher and the founder and executive director of scholHER, an initiative dedicated to intergenerational mentorship and leadership, academic and creative education, scholarship, and community-based impact. She is also the founder and lead researcher of Body is Home, a multidisciplinary project that explores what it means to be at home in our bodies.
Daniel Uy, PhD candidate, Research Assistant
Daniel is a mixed-race queer man with research interests in queer anthropology, critical race theory, and sociology of sport. Daniel’s qualitative ethnographic research is on racialized queer people within health and physical fitness, and sport. Daniel is also in the collaborative specialization in Sexual Diversity Studies through the Mark S. Bonham Centre at University of Toronto.
Jasmine Lew, PhD Student, Research Assistant
Jasmine has a master’s degree and has conducted collaborative autoethnographic research on biculturalism and sport in Canadian contexts and is the coordinator for the Learning to Lead Program: Navigating Physical Cultures and Building Life Skills for BIPOC Women at University of Toronto. Jasmine is studying for a PhD related to somatics, embodied learning, and leadership using a decolonial lens.
Saidur Rahman, PhD candidate, Research Assistant
Saidur works in the area of decolonizing sport studies and physical activity at University of Toronto. His research interests include: physical cultural studies, sociology of sport, nationalism, sport for development and peace, and public policy and he is conducting a PhD related to Bangladeshi diasporas and cricket.
Zeana Hamdonah, PhD candidate, Research Assistant
Zeana is a Muslim Palestinian-Canadian woman with research interests pertaining to Critical Race Theory, Health policy, global health, war and peace, sociology of empires, imperialism and colonialism, political theory, health equity, and critical qualitative methodologies at University of Toronto. She is also the recipient of the 2021 Bruce Kidd Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship.
Jordan O’Dell, PhD candidate
Jordan is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist-practitioner working in the municipal sector. His current lines of critical qualitative research broadly engage in/across the disciplines of Black Canadian Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Critical Leadership Studies, and Critical Race Studies. The overarching goal of his scholarly agenda is to the advance disability, racial, and social justice approaches to leadership, management, and governance in community-based sport, recreation, and related human service contexts. When not working, he enjoys engaging in the leisurely little pleasures of life: streaming a good show, sharing a good laugh, and savoring authentic moments of connection with loved ones.
Talia Jermyn, Master’s student
J’mi Worthen, PhD candidate
J’mi Worthen is a 4th year PhD candidate studying perfectionism in sport and the experiences of racialized athletes. Her research seeks to explore how racialized athletes experience perfectionism and examine critical perspectives of race in sports psychology. J’mi is a passionate baseball fan and uses her applied sport psychology knowledge in her work with baseball players.
Samantha Damille, Master’s student
Masters of Applied health science with a focus of nursing research.
Current Staff
Dr. Asma Khalil, Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Asma Khalil is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the IDEAS Research Lab. She holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, where her research drew on decolonial theory and Islamic feminist approaches to examine Muslim women's experiences in sport leadership in the Sultanate of Oman. Her work focuses on qualitative and decolonial methodologies, with a commitment to centering embodied knowledge, lived experience, and community-engaged research. Across scholarly and community contexts, she explores how sport and physical activity can foster collective care, deepen belonging, and sustain forms of resistance that (re)imagine health, leadership, and ethical ways of being together.
Idiakhosa Onaiwu-Osayi, Executive Assistant
Idiakhosa supports Dr. Janelle Joseph in her research, knowledge mobilization, and student mentorship work
Aayah Amir, Lab Coordinator
Aayah is a Sudanese-Canadian PhD student in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research interests include theorizing racial justice, arts-based social justice education, and oral literacies. Aayah enjoys dancing and playing basketball in her free time.
Maame De-Heer, Lab Manager
Maame De-Heer has overcome many barriers and emphasizes the importance of stepping into leadership with confidence. De-Heer is a lecturer in Brock University’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, specializing in equity and health and is committed to bridging the health gap for marginalized and underserved communities.
Alex I. McKenzie, Research Assistant
Alex conducts and consults on research projects addressing gender and racial equity in sport and sport psychology. Alex helped secure a SIRC Researcher-Match Grant to conduct research on the first of its kind in Canada – a mentorship program for Black women coaches.
Braeden McKenzie, Research Assistant
Dr. McKenzie is a Post-doctoral Fellow working under the supervision of Dr. Kaleigh Ferdinand Pennock at University of Waterloo in partnership with IDEAS Research Lab projects. Dr. McKenzie’s research focuses on equity, injury, and the conceptualization of risk in sport and physical activity spaces.
Chrris Lowe, Photographer
Chrris Lowe is a director & photographer with a focus on telling stories that are visually driven and injected with both deep authenticity and colourful expression. Her work focuses on the varied experiences of BIPOC folks, an intentional choice that she has made as a Black, queer, woman director. Chrris’ stories explore humanity with a distinct style and perspective, adaptable to commercials, music videos, branded documentaries and everything in between. She creates striking worlds and immersive narratives that capture the raw and honest facets of the human experience. Ultimately leaving a lasting impact, empowering viewers to delve deeper, ask questions, and explore their own curiosity, establishing her as a compelling force in the world of storytelling.