Conceived by non-white, queer, trans, and woman identified sociology graduate students from York University, and now run by under/graduate students and community orientated alumni of the same, New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis is comprised of board members with the shared goal of publishing the works of emergent scholars, creatives, and community organizers who are routinely silenced, exploited, and ignored by academia, especially non-white authors and creatives, as well as those who are queer, trans, disabled, and femme. Below, please find biographies of each of our board members along with their role title.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Jade Da Costa, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Guelph
My name is Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa (they/them/she) and I am a gender nonbinary queer woman of colour scholar, community organizer, creative writer, educator, and knowledge mobilizer across Central Southern Ontario. I am currently employed as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph and have a PhD in Sociology from York University. My research, organizing, art, and teaching all converge on topics of race and ethnicity; decolonization and intersectionality; qualitative, digital, and arts-based methods; collective memory and pedagogy; critical health studies and/or food justice; and social movements. Website: jadecrimson.com.
Special Editor (Editor-in-Chief in Training)
Naiomi Perera, PhD Student, York University (2023 - )
Naiomi Perera is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at York University. Her research interests include youth, political socialization, radical politics, digital cultures, surveillance, and carceral logics. She received the Canadian Sociological Association’s Outstanding Graduating Student Award for her MA research on the use of anti-radicalization internet filtering software in schools. During her PhD, she plans to explore how young people develop and express radical political identities both online and offline. Naiomi is an abolitionist who has been organizing with the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project since 2020. She has been the recipient of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master's Scholarship and York University’s Graduate Entrance Award for Black and Indigenous Students, and her research is currently being supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
Chief-Deputy-Editors
Tigist Wame, MA Student, York University (2023 - )
Tigist Wame (she/her) is an Ethiopian Canadian woman who is currently completing a Master of Arts in Sociology at York University. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from York University. In her sociological research, Tigist uses critical race and post-colonial theory to apply the history of the Black experience in North America to contemporary societal structures and systems that restrict Black liberation. In addition, she searches for solutions and feasible ways that Black people can address and overcome these barriers to achieve Black social change. Her undergraduate thesis that was published in the Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology and Criminology revealed successful organizational strategies for Black social movements, gathered from interviews with Black activists in Canada and the United States. Presently, Tigist’s MA thesis is investigating liberal reform strategies, specifically equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in Canada, to assess if they are productive in creating an anti-racist space for the Black employees who work within them.
Editorial Board
Copyeditors
Namitha Rathinappillai, MA, York University (2022 - Present)
Namitha Rathinappillai (she/they) is a queer, disabled, Tamil-Canadian woman, artist, workshop facilitator, and organizer currently based in what is colonially known as Toronto, Canada. They completed their Masters in Sociology in 2022 from York University, completing a Research Review Paper through conducting a genealogy of the weaponization of white women victimhood and the legitimization of white supremacy through the archetype of the “Karen”. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice, with a concentration in Sociology and a minor in English Language and Literature from Carleton University, where she wrote her undergraduate thesis on the ways in which policing and reporting in Canada are historically anti-Black, through analyzing and coding almost 100 articles written by the CBC about the murder of local Ottawa man, Abdirahman Abdi. Beyond their academic work, Namitha is a highly decorated spoken word poet. She made history as the first female and youngest director of Ottawa’s Urban Legends Poetry Collective (ULPC), and has competed nationally as a two-time Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) team member with ULPC, and a finalist in the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS). They published their first chapbook titled ‘Dirty Laundry’ with Battleaxe Press in November of 2018. They currently work as the Youth Network Project Coordinator with the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, as well as a Digital Studio Facilitator for BEING Studio.
Michelle Molubi-Johnson, PhD Student, York University (2024- Present)
Isaac Abban, MA Student, York University (2024- Present)
Isaac Abban (He/Him) is an MA student in York University’s Social and Political Thought program. He holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Saskatchewan and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Geography from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He is a creative writer, political activist, educator, and scholar in post-colonial discourses and linguistic ethics, as well as a recipient of numerous awards; key among these awards are a Graduate Entrance Fellowship from York University, an International Graduate Student Award from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Best-Graduating Student Award in sociological theory from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research examines the discursive construction of Black and Indigenous life through the lenses of postcolonial theory, postmodernism, and Black critical theory. He explores key issues such as the discursive construction of colonialism, the colonial subject, imperialism, anti-Black racism, and anti-Black immigration policies and how these are reproduced and sustained within discourse. He will continue to the PhD program in Social and Political Thought in Fall 2025.
Eric Goodchild, MA Student, York University (2024- Present)
Eric Goodchild (they/them) is Two-Spirit, and of Ojibwe White mixed heritage, originally from the northern Ontario. They have always had a passion for the humanities as well as for artwork, completing their bachelor’s in criminology, with plans of applying for a PhD program once their master’s thesis has concluded. In their rare moments of free time, they enjoy musicals, fantasy, and cats.
Social Media Manger
Evania Pietrangelo-Porco, PhD Candidate, York University (2024 - )
Evania Pietrangelo-Porco (she/her) is a PhD candidate, a sex worker ally, a trained historian, and a blogger. She focuses on 20th-century Canadian, 19th and 20th-century feminist, 20th-century North American Indigenous, and contemporary sex work history. Evania won the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS-Master’s Scholarship (2019) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Grant (2022). She currently holds various professional affiliations with the Centre for Feminist Studies, Robarts Centre, and the History of Indigenous Peoples Network. Most significantly, Evania has worked with folks in the sex work community, including the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) and Sex Workers Outreach Project Los Angeles (SWOP LA).
Past Chief-Deputy-Editors
Shreyashi Ganguly (2023-2024)
Muskaan Khurana (2023-2024)
Beatrice Anane-Bediakoh (2019-2023)
Ritika Tanotra (2021-2023)
Faezeh Esmaeili (2022-2023)
Giovanni Hernandez-Carranza (2019-2021)
Kaitlin Peters (2019-2020)
Editorial Board: Inaugural Issue to 2022
Jana Borras
Janice Phonepraseuth
Editorial Board: Inaugural Issue to 2021
Nadiya Ali
Gizem Cakmak
Editorial Board: 2022-2023
Alireza Gorgani Dorcheh
Editorial Board: 2021-2022
Bea Waterfield
Jesse Tailor
Leigha Comer
Meaghan Edwards
Editorial Board: Inaugural Issue Only
Ramanpreet Bahra: Media manager.
Rawan Abdelbaki: Consultant.
Christine Ensslen, Peer Review Manager
Joshua Armstrong: Website Coordinator
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Advisory Board
Audrey Tokiwa, Graduate Program Administrative Assistant
Luin Goldring, 2019 York Sociology Graduate Program Director
Tomasz Mrozewski, York Libraries
Special Thanks To:
All Peer Reviewers
York University Sociology Department
York Sociology Graduate Association (YSGA)
Western Journal of Social Thought for permission
Audrey Tokiwa, York University Sociology
Carlo Fanelli, York University, for guidance, resources and support
Andrew Nevin, University of Toronto, for guidance and support
Robyn Cheung, McMaster University, for guidance and resources
Lara Termos, Cover Designer: laratermos@gmail.com
Ashna Ray, Web Designer
Tomasz Mrozewski, York Libraries
Erika Mulder, Journal Designer
Amy Y. Poon, York Libraries
Anna St.Onge. York Libraries
Will Sloan, Faculty of Graduate Studies
Frank Myers, York University Print and Mailing Services