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James R. Johnston Chair, Black Canadian Studies, Dalhousie University

Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden (she/her/hers), a Black queer femme and associate professor, is the James R Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies, Faculty of Medicine, Interim Director of the newly established Black Studies in STEM Research Institute at Dalhousie University, and the co-lead of the new national organization – The Black Health Education Collaborative. Dr. Dryden engages in interdisciplinary scholarship and research that focuses on Black LGBTQI communities, blood donation systems in Canada, anti-Black racism in health care, medical education, and Black health curricular content development. OmiSoore has published in peer-reviewed journals and book collections and has an edited collection (with Dr. Suzanne Lenon): Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging (UBC Press, 2015); and the co-authored Commentary (with Dr. Onye Nnorom), Time to Dismantle Systemic anti-Black Racism in Medicine in Canada” (2021) in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), and the article titled, Who Gets To Do Medicine: Black Canadian Studies and Medical Education in the “Special Forum on Black Studies in Canada” in the academic journal, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (2022).

Experience

  • –present
    James R. Johnston Chair, Black Canadian Studies, Dalhousie University

Education

  • 2016 
    Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, PhD Social Justice Education