Dr. Wendell Ni Laryea Adjetey is a historian, humanitarian, and social entrepreneur. Dr. Adjetey was a Senior Resident Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Massey College from 2016 to 2017 and is currently an Assistant Professor of post-Reconstruction U.S. and African Diaspora history at McGill University. Dr. Adjetey holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science and a Master of Arts in Political Science and Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies from the University of Toronto. He also holds a Master of Arts, a Master of Philosophy, and a doctoral degree from Yale University in History and African American Studies.
As Senior Resident Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Dr. Adjetey delivered a keynote addresses titled “Why We Celebrate Black History,” and was a panelist for the “Roots, Routes, and Revolution: Black Liberation in the 21st Century” event during Black History month celebrations. During his time at Massey, he worked on his doctoral dissertation titled “From the North Star to the Black Star: African North Americans and the Search for a Land of Promise, 1919 – 1984” which examined the transnational and diasporic dimensions of Black history in North America and brought forward critical research on anti-Black citizenship and nation building in Canada. The positive and encouraging environment at Massey provided him with the space to conduct research and focus on his writing. Dr. Adjetey recalls a turning point in his research and wrote a large chapter of his dissertation during his year at the College. His work and dissertation were recognized with various honors and awards, including the Edwin M. Small Dissertation Prize for “outstanding” contribution to U.S. history, the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Dissertation Prize for African American History, the Canadian Studies Dissertation Prize, and the Willard “Woody” Brittain, Jr. Leadership Award.
Dr. Adjetey scholarship extends over 10 publications, and his research examines Black African North Americans, Pan-African community and movements, Chattel Slavery in the Americas, post-Reconstruction Black Labor, Black Internationalisms, Black Nationalisms, Surveillance and Counter-Subversion, and Civil and Human Rights. His forthcoming publication titled “Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan African North America, 1900 to 2000” is the first scholarly analysis of Black liberation struggles, Black community building, Black transnationalism, and the phenomenon of Pan Africanism in the Americas.
In addition to his extensive scholarship, Dr. Adjetey is the co-founder and President of the Tujenge Africa Foundation (www.tujenge.org), a non-profit organization with the goal to build African capacity through quality, innovative, and boundary-pushing education. The Foundation is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Echoing Green Global Fellowship. Dr. Adjetey serves on many boards and advisory committees, most recently as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee to Address Anti-Black Racism in Research Systems for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and The Road Home, A think tank and advocate for marginalized youth in Canadian society.
