CERC Migration stipend student receives Viola Desmond Award

At the Viola Desmond Award ceremony on March 23, 2023, the Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion at TMU presented CERC Migration graduate student Georgiana Mathurin with the Sidney & Mettelia Ferguson student award for her exemplary role as leader in the Black community at TMU and beyond.

The Viola Desmond Awards and Bursary Program is now in its 15^th year. Each year, to keep the legacy of Viola Desmond’s courageous stance against racism in the 1940s alive, TMU presents awards to outstanding Black Canadian women to recognize their contributions at TMU or in the greater Toronto community.

Georgiana has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Leadership, a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies, and is currently a Research Assistant completing a second master’s degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies. She will soon have completed two major research projects, the first, focused on legal injustices against Black mothers with precarious migration status in and across the Canadian immigration system, and the second, which is currently underway, using an auto-ethnographic lens to investigate the internal and forced displacement of Black women and mothers based in Canada with precarious migration status. 

Georgiana’s mentor and nominator, Janelle Brady, Assistant Professor, School of Early Childhood Studies, was impressed with Georgiana right from their first encounter, when Georgiana applied to be her Research Assistant. 

“Georgiana blew away the interview panel and proved very early on that she was more of a research coordinator than a research assistant,” said Brady. “People go to her for advice, and she makes herself available. Even though she is a student herself, she supports others, and with a lot of grace. Her scholarship is about justice, and she exemplifies this in her leadership.”

“She also does great research,” Brady added. “Her work is original, interesting and shows a high level of care for the collective, the mutuality that is common in the Black community. For example, when she defended her MRP on the precarious status of Black mothers, Georgiana invited the mentors and community members who supported her project at various stages to hear her presentation.”

For Georgiana, school, community and her own personal journey are closely intertwined.  Her concern for the community began early in her life when she helped mothers care for children in her home community of St. Lucia. She had a burning mission to pursue an advanced education in early childhood education abroad, and so she worked through a third party to find care work in Canada that would provide a base from which she could pursue her studies. That dream hit a significant barrier when she arrived in Canada in 2000, and the work that had been promised didn’t materialize despite the significant fees she had paid. Through years of perseverance, Georgiana was able to finally secure Permanent Residency based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds in 2012. 

Despite the many challenges she faced to establish her life in Canada, Georgiana has found time to volunteer in the community, lending a hand at the local food bank, organizing community events and kid’s camps, teaching children Sunday school at her neighbourhood church, and more. She’s had first hand exposure to the many tragic situations facing Black women in the community, who, like her in the past, live with precarious status, but who also face human right violations, through the detention and deportation practices enforced by the Canadian immigration system. Witnessing these injustices have fueled Georgiana’s inspiration for her research.

To Georgiana, receiving this award is important recognition for her work. “Being recognized for my ways of knowing and being, for the knowledge systems of Black feminist theory is great confirmation of its value,” Georgiana said.

To Janelle, if Georgiana continues in her academic career, she will be a great positive force on the academy and on policy making. “She ultimately has the ability to create spaces for the kinds of conversations about race and justice that need to take place.”

The academy can look forward to much more from Georgiana in the future. She has been accepted into the PhD program in Policy Studies at TMU, beginning in the fall term.