Congratulations to Désirée Deneo, our latest recipient of the Career Transition Scholarship! A doctoral student in urban studies under the supervision of Professor Leslie Touré Kapo, Désirée is returning to her studies after a position with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, where she encouraged the political participation of women and young people in 27 cities in Côte d'Ivoire. Her research project aims at concrete actions in favor of a more inclusive and decolonial society.
- What brought you to INRS? What do you remember about your experience?
I wouldn't have come to INRS without the encouragement and support of my director, Leslie Touré Kapo. When I told her about my desire to do a PhD and my fears as the mother of a young child, she reassured me and put me in touch with Caroline Flory-Célini, another PhD student in urban studies who is also a single mother and has been sharing her experience with me since I arrived in Montreal.
I feel supported within the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société community. Before arriving in Quebec, I benefited from the support of the social worker in my search for housing and daycare for my daughter. In addition, my mentor, Freddy, helped me with the various administrative procedures.
My colleagues at La R.U.E Lab support me and help me along my academic path. I take part in the activities of the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société student association. I feel listened to and accompanied by the professors involved in the first year of my doctorate in urban studies, as well as by those I have called upon for my research. I benefit from academic support and a remarkable human experience at INRS. - Can you describe the challenge and impact of your research project?
My thesis project focuses on women's urbanity in Danané, a border town in western Côte d'Ivoire. It has a double impact. Firstly, it provides new insights into a space little studied in urban studies, by questioning how these women from the margins experience their urbanity through the prism of intimacy (maternity, abortion, menstrual health) in a post-colonial city. Secondly, it is in line with my commitment to feminist activism. I wish to highlight the experiences and knowledge of these women from the margins, in terms of sexual reproductive health, but also to understand how they appropriate space and territory in a context of extractivism. Finally, my research, which falls within the field of feminist postcolonial studies, will help to deconstruct preconceived ideas about African women and, more broadly, the Western-centric prism through which we think about African cities; in other words, to decompartmentalize urban studies by opening them up to other narratives and other epistemologies.
In concrete terms, the results of my research will help to provide better support for women in this region in terms of women's rights and sexual reproductive health, through my involvement with organizations such as the ODAS Center (Organization for Dialogue on Safe Abortion), of which I am a member of the feminist research group. I'm also involved with La Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits des Femmes, a feminist organization that fights violence against women. - What does winning this scholarship mean to you?
This scholarship helps me understand that, as a single mother, I also have the right to pursue my dreams by going back to school with the necessary support. It also sends a message to other single mothers who are reluctant to go back to school: it is possible to do a PhD, despite society's judgments and obstacles. - How do you see the future?
I would like to continue my doctoral studies, but also to work within the framework of La R.U.E Lab's activities on the circulation of masculinist arguments that cross the transatlantic francophone space and influence the construction of masculinities among young Afrodescendants in Quebec and elsewhere.
About the Career Transition Grant at INRS
In line with the Institut national de la recherche scientifique's (INRS) goals of equity, diversity and inclusion, members of INRS senior management have created the INRS Career Transition Scholarship. The $5,000 bursary, to be awarded for the first time in winter 2023, is designed to support new students returning to school after a variety of personal and professional experiences. The bursary enhances the conditions of study offered by INRS to the recipient.
The competition, managed by the Service des études supérieures et de la réussite étudiante (SESRE) team, closed on December 9, 2024. The selection committee was made up of Philippe-Edwin Bélanger, Director of SESRE, Joanie Lavoie, Scholarship Liaison Officer, and Professors Ana Tavares, from the Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, and Caroline Côté-Lussier, from the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société.