Contributors
How do we engage our community in a process of relationship building with the peoples whose land we are on? Where do those relationships already exist? Where are the gaps in our collective Italian-Canadian knowledge about Indigenous Nations? These are the questions our team is engaged with, and which drive our work together.
Collectively we acknowledge that our team is overrepresented by White Italian-Canadians, and is missing the presence of those in the wider Italian-Canadian community who are Black, Indigenous and People of Colour.
We continuously check in with Indigenous folks whom we are in relationship with as we move through our work. We understand the importance of intercultural dialogue and of not centering only the experience of Italian-Canadians in our work. While a major facet of our work is educational and scholarly, we strive to include action-based pieces in our initiatives.
Paolo Frascà (He/They; Lui)
Project Co-Director; Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream), Dept. of Italian Studies, University of Toronto;
Faculty Affiliate, Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto
Dr. Paolo Frascà was born in Calabria (Italy) and lives on Treaty 13/Toronto Purchase territory. He teaches Italian language and culture, sexuality and gender studies, and Italian-Canadian studies at the University of Toronto. He strives to stay active outside of academia and to be involved in activist and community organizations.
Angela Nardozi (She/Her)
Project Co-Director; Lecturer, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education & UTM.
Emilio Goggio Research Fellow at the Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies
Dr. Angela Nardozi is a Settler on Turtle Island, with both sides of her family originating in Italy. She has spent over a decade working alongside Indigenous communities, and speaking with educators about their roles and responsibilities in Indigenous education. She is a certified teacher and received her Ph.D. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2016. To learn more about her coaching, consulting, and teaching you can visit www.angelanardozi.com.
Ariana Magliocco (She/They)
Research Assistant (2020-2021); MA Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto
Ariana Magliocco has an MA in Social Justice Education from OISE at UofT, where her graduate research focused on anti-racist, anti-colonial solidarity building within the Italian-Canadian community. She currently works for a feminist non-profit, with a particular focus on the Canadian state's obligations under international human rights law, to address the violent consequences of white supremacy and colonialism on Indigenous women & girls.
Pamela Arancibia (She/Her)
Research Assistant; PhD Candidate (2020), Dept. of Italian Studies, University of Toronto
(bio)
Jo Billows (they/them)
Research Assistant (2021-2022); PhD Student Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto
Jo Billows is an Indigenous PhD student in Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at UofT. Northern Coast Salish (Homalco & Klahoose), they were adopted out and grew up on Vancouver Island. Though now estranged, the maternal side of their adoptive family was Italian- & French-Canadian.