Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, Wilfrid Laurier University
Associate Professor
Director, Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa
Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs
Research Theme Ambassador for Indigeneity, Decolonization, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Waterloo, Ontario
swilsonforsberg@wlu.ca
Office:
(519) 756-8228 ext. 5509
Expert In
Asylum-seekers in Mexico
Black African youth, discrimination in education, schools
Canada’s Latin American foreign policy
Immigrant and refugee youth
Immigration
Intercultural learning in higher education, universities
Migrants with precarious immigration status
Multiculturalism, diversity
Refugee determination process
Bio/Research
Prior to completing a PhD at the University of New Brunswick in 2010 and joining the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University, I worked for several years in the government and non-governmental sectors of Canada, the United States and Mexico in a number of areas including Canada’s foreign policy towa...
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Bio/Research
Prior to completing a PhD at the University of New Brunswick in 2010 and joining the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University, I worked for several years in the government and non-governmental sectors of Canada, the United States and Mexico in a number of areas including Canada’s foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, North American integration, the inclusion of non-governmental actors in international organizations and Summits, social policy and poverty eradication, and foreign qualification recognition. I have spent and continue to spend some of the best moments of my life working, studying and traveling in Mexico, and and I am developing academic connections and research projects in continental Africa.
My research examines migration, with a specific focus on immigrant and refugee youth, migrants with precarious immigration status, and the securitization of the international refugee determination process. I am currently leading a SSHRC Insight Grant-funded study of the postsecondary transition of African Refugee youth across Canada. The national project involves African scholars and education specialists at six Canadian universities along with several community organizations. Four SSHRC-funded community engaged projects involving families with refugee backgrounds from the Horn of Africa in Waterloo and Hamilton, ON are connected to the larger national study.
In addition to my Canadian-based research, I have ongoing projects in Mexico including studies of Central American and African asylum seekers with colleagues at el Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and El Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), and narratives of stranded migrants in Mexico and Morocco with WLU colleague Dr. Abderrahman Beggar. I am also deeply involved in ongoing research on the intercultural competence of university students and the ethics of conducting international field courses and internships in Mexico and Ghana.
I consider myself a qualitative researcher who loves to listen to people’s stories. I believe in George Marcus’s (1995) exhortation to “follow the people, not just the places that they are going, but also to the places they happen to go along the way.” I am a member of several research institutes and networks including the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa (WLU where I serve as current director), the Balsillie School for International Affairs, The Centre for Research on Security Practices (WLU), the International Migration Research Centre (WLU), the Centre for Refugee Research (York), Pathways to Prosperity, and I am on the organizing committee for the annual Strangers in New Homelands Conference at the University of Manitoba.
I have published two books: “Getting Used to the Quiet: Immigrant Adolescents’ Journey to Belonging in New Brunswick, Canada” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012), which made a valuable contribution to the academic literature on immigration to small cities and rural communities, and “Immigrant Youth in Canada: Theoretical Approaches, Practical Issues, and Professional Perspectives” (Oxford University Press, 2018), the first university-level textbook on immigrant youth in Canada. I have also published several articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and frequently contributes short articles and opinion pieces to newspapers. I am the recipient of the 2018 Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in Internationalization.
Funded Research:
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, with Oliver Masakure (CI) and Adventure4Change - “Brighter Futures: Equipping African Mothers with Refugee Backgrounds to Effectively Engage with Middle School”
- 2021-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, with Oliver Masakure (PI), Christopher Kyriakides (CI York University), Alpha Abebe (CI McMaster University), and Empowerment Squared, “Empowerment Squared Youth Council: Building a Platform for Newcomer Youth Engagement”
- 2021-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Grant, with Oliver Masakure (PI) and Ardavan Eizadirad (CI), “Paths Less Traveled: Experiences of Young African Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Southern Ontario”
- 2021-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-PI) SSHRC Insight Grant, with Abderrahman Beggar (Co-PI), “Life in Unintended Destinations: Stories of Irregular Migrants Stranded in Mexico and Morocco”
- 2021-2024 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Fevelopment Grant, with Charles Gyan (PI McGill University), Oliver Masakure (CI), Ginette Lafreniere (CI), Lamine Diallo (CI), Funke Oba (CI Ryerson University), and Michael Baffoe (CI University of Manitoba), “From Vulnerability to Resilience: Highly Skilled African Immigrants' Experiences in the Quebec Labour Market”
- 2020-2021 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) The Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition (CYRRC) Grant, with Oliver Masakure (CI) and Adventure4Change, Weathering the Storm: Assisting African Refugee Families with School Work During the Covid-19 Self-Isolation.
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Development Grant, with Robert Ame (PI), Andrew Robinson (CI) and James Sefa Dzisah (CI), Assessment of host-country perspectives on key impacts of reciprocal bidirectional North-South student mobility arrangements (Canada-Ghana).
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) CIHR and Association for Canadian Studies, with Lori Wilkinson (PI), Kiera Ladner (PI), University of Manitoba, Jack Jedwab (PI) Association of Canadian Studies and several co-investigators, COVID-19's differential impact on the mental and emotional health of Indigenous Peoples and Newcomers: A socioeconomic analysis of Canada, US and Mexico
- 2019-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Insight Grant, Promoting the Transition to Postsecondary Education for African Refugee Youth in Canadian Schools with: Oliver Masakure (WLU), Edward Shizha (WLU), Paul Banahene Adjei (Memorial University of Newfoundland); Marie-Odile Magnan (Université de Montréal), Michael Baffoe (University of Manitoba), Funke Oba (University of Regina), Gillian Creese (University of British Columbia) and collaborators Ginette Lafrenière and Lamine Diallo.
- 2019-2021 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Development Grant, with Funke Oba (PI), Amanda Gebhard, and Daniel Kikulwe University of Regina, Exploring Equitable Educational Outcomes for Black Youth in Saskatoon.
- 2015-2016 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Connections Grant, with Andrew Robinson. Immigrant Youth in Canada Conference.
- 2015-2017 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator), with Edward Shizha (PI), Oliver Masakure, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Ginette Lafrenière SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Enhancing Access to Post-Secondary Education for Male African Immigrant Youth in Ontario.
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My research examines migration, with a specific focus on immigrant and refugee youth, migrants with precarious immigration status, and the securitization of the international refugee determination process. I am currently leading a SSHRC Insight Grant-funded study of the postsecondary transition of African Refugee youth across Canada. The national project involves African scholars and education specialists at six Canadian universities along with several community organizations. Four SSHRC-funded community engaged projects involving families with refugee backgrounds from the Horn of Africa in Waterloo and Hamilton, ON are connected to the larger national study.
In addition to my Canadian-based research, I have ongoing projects in Mexico including studies of Central American and African asylum seekers with colleagues at el Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and El Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), and narratives of stranded migrants in Mexico and Morocco with WLU colleague Dr. Abderrahman Beggar. I am also deeply involved in ongoing research on the intercultural competence of university students and the ethics of conducting international field courses and internships in Mexico and Ghana.
I consider myself a qualitative researcher who loves to listen to people’s stories. I believe in George Marcus’s (1995) exhortation to “follow the people, not just the places that they are going, but also to the places they happen to go along the way.” I am a member of several research institutes and networks including the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa (WLU where I serve as current director), the Balsillie School for International Affairs, The Centre for Research on Security Practices (WLU), the International Migration Research Centre (WLU), the Centre for Refugee Research (York), Pathways to Prosperity, and I am on the organizing committee for the annual Strangers in New Homelands Conference at the University of Manitoba.
I have published two books: “Getting Used to the Quiet: Immigrant Adolescents’ Journey to Belonging in New Brunswick, Canada” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012), which made a valuable contribution to the academic literature on immigration to small cities and rural communities, and “Immigrant Youth in Canada: Theoretical Approaches, Practical Issues, and Professional Perspectives” (Oxford University Press, 2018), the first university-level textbook on immigrant youth in Canada. I have also published several articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and frequently contributes short articles and opinion pieces to newspapers. I am the recipient of the 2018 Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in Internationalization.
Funded Research:
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, with Oliver Masakure (CI) and Adventure4Change - “Brighter Futures: Equipping African Mothers with Refugee Backgrounds to Effectively Engage with Middle School”
- 2021-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, with Oliver Masakure (PI), Christopher Kyriakides (CI York University), Alpha Abebe (CI McMaster University), and Empowerment Squared, “Empowerment Squared Youth Council: Building a Platform for Newcomer Youth Engagement”
- 2021-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Grant, with Oliver Masakure (PI) and Ardavan Eizadirad (CI), “Paths Less Traveled: Experiences of Young African Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Southern Ontario”
- 2021-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-PI) SSHRC Insight Grant, with Abderrahman Beggar (Co-PI), “Life in Unintended Destinations: Stories of Irregular Migrants Stranded in Mexico and Morocco”
- 2021-2024 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Fevelopment Grant, with Charles Gyan (PI McGill University), Oliver Masakure (CI), Ginette Lafreniere (CI), Lamine Diallo (CI), Funke Oba (CI Ryerson University), and Michael Baffoe (CI University of Manitoba), “From Vulnerability to Resilience: Highly Skilled African Immigrants' Experiences in the Quebec Labour Market”
- 2020-2021 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) The Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition (CYRRC) Grant, with Oliver Masakure (CI) and Adventure4Change, Weathering the Storm: Assisting African Refugee Families with School Work During the Covid-19 Self-Isolation.
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Development Grant, with Robert Ame (PI), Andrew Robinson (CI) and James Sefa Dzisah (CI), Assessment of host-country perspectives on key impacts of reciprocal bidirectional North-South student mobility arrangements (Canada-Ghana).
- 2020-2022 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) CIHR and Association for Canadian Studies, with Lori Wilkinson (PI), Kiera Ladner (PI), University of Manitoba, Jack Jedwab (PI) Association of Canadian Studies and several co-investigators, COVID-19's differential impact on the mental and emotional health of Indigenous Peoples and Newcomers: A socioeconomic analysis of Canada, US and Mexico
- 2019-2023 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Insight Grant, Promoting the Transition to Postsecondary Education for African Refugee Youth in Canadian Schools with: Oliver Masakure (WLU), Edward Shizha (WLU), Paul Banahene Adjei (Memorial University of Newfoundland); Marie-Odile Magnan (Université de Montréal), Michael Baffoe (University of Manitoba), Funke Oba (University of Regina), Gillian Creese (University of British Columbia) and collaborators Ginette Lafrenière and Lamine Diallo.
- 2019-2021 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator) SSHRC Insight Development Grant, with Funke Oba (PI), Amanda Gebhard, and Daniel Kikulwe University of Regina, Exploring Equitable Educational Outcomes for Black Youth in Saskatoon.
- 2015-2016 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Principal Investigator) SSHRC Connections Grant, with Andrew Robinson. Immigrant Youth in Canada Conference.
- 2015-2017 Stacey Wilson-Forsberg (Co-Investigator), with Edward Shizha (PI), Oliver Masakure, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Ginette Lafrenière SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Enhancing Access to Post-Secondary Education for Male African Immigrant Youth in Ontario.
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