I am currently Policy Officer at Cooperation Canada, a membership-based organization that includes more than one hundred Canadian non-profit organizations working, both in Canada and overseas, on the frontlines of social justice, humanitarian aid, and economic and democratic development. Through the building of network resilience and supporting strategic, multi-sectoral partnerships, I am the point person for three files: (1) Humanitarianism, which includes my role as Coordinator of the Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Group, (2) Civic space and democracy, where I oversee the incubation of Resilient Societies, and (3) Triple Nexus, working with key civil society partners and Global Affairs Canada to develop a robust and coordinated approach towards humanitarianism, development, and peace.
My current research program examines how refugees and host communities living in shared and proximate geographies draw on mutual aid practices for grassroots social innovation. Leveraging insight from critical, anti-racist, and feminist approaches, this comparative and multi-sited work builds on my research with Syrians in Turkey (2014-2016), Venezuelans in Peru (2017-2019), and Congolese in Rwanda (2021-2022). With each research site representing a unique spatial configuration – the slum, ghetto, and camp – I explore the question of how social innovation takes place in different carceral spaces.
Through my recently completed doctoral studies at McGill University, I conducted ethnographic research with Congolese refugees inhabiting Mahama camp, Rwanda, exploring sense of futurity, community development, and environmental peace and justice practices. Outside of this region, I have conducted extensive fieldwork in the Balkans, Latin America, and the Middle East.
I am currently teaching a range of courses as Part-Time Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, following prior teaching appointments at the Universidad del Pacifico, McGill University, and University of Rwanda. I have over ten years teaching experience, having enjoyed a pre-doctoral career as a licensed upper secondary teacher in the disciplines of geography and environmental studies. During this time, I became Head of the Humanities Department at MEF International School and Coordinator of the Environmental Systems and Societies program at Newton College.
My research work, drawing on insight from geography, political science, and anthropology has been published in journals such as The International Journal of Human Rights, Journal of Rural Studies, Current History, and Migration Letters, and through electronic outlets managed by the Migration Policy Institute and the London School of Economics and Political Science, amongst others.
I hold a Ph.D. in Geography from McGill University, M.Sc. in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management from the University of Leicester, and B.Ed. and B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Ottawa.
Please feel free to contact me at:
nik.parent@gmail.com
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nikparent.com 