Dr. Julie Young, Grace Wu, and Johanna Reynolds have worked collaboratively on a number of projects over the last decade related to critical border studies, migration, and human rights. Young and Wu previously collaborated on a workshop at the Allied Media Conference (Detroit, June 2018) on building migration justice across border communities between Canada and the US. Reynolds and Young co-organized a workshop on borders in North America highlighting the work of migration and indigenous studies scholars (McMaster University, October 2016). Along with Dr. Peter Nyers, they published a special issue titled, Dis/placing the borders of ‘North America’ in the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (May 2019).

Bios

Dr. Julie Young is Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Critical Border Studies and Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. She holds a doctorate in Geography and a Graduate Diploma in Refugee and Migration Studies from York University. Her research to date has focused on how refugees, migrants, and advocates in Canada-US and Mexico-Guatemala border communities interact with and challenge those borders.  She has extensive experience in planning and conducting qualitative and community-based research with a specific focus on border communities, making use of methods including focus groups, narrative interviews, and archival research.

Grace Wu is an interdisciplinary researcher and strategy consultant who works at the intersections of technology, design research, and public engagement. She previously worked with Amnesty International in the Refugee and Migrant Rights division, the Canadian Council for Refugees, and other civil society organizations in the Global North and South building civic technologies. She recently taught a course on Decolonizing Design and Human Rights at the Ontario College of Arts and Design University in Toronto. She holds an MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies from Ryerson University. www.graceyawu.com/

Johanna Reynolds is formerly Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies professional development summer course and Managing Editor of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees. She has experience in research, teaching, and project management and is fluently bilingual (English-French). Johanna’s research focuses on spatial strategies of exclusion and their implications for migrant mobilities. Her dissertation (in progress in York University’s Department of Geography) considers the use of technology (e.g. DNA and biometric testing) in border and migration management with an emphasis on the scale of the body. Johanna is co-editor (with Drs. Julie Young and Peter Nyers) of the special issue, "Dis/placing the Borders of North America," in the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (2019).