Roberta K. Timothy

B.A., M.A., M.Ed., Ph.D.

“I am the daughter of my mother, and she is the daughter of her mother, who is the daughter of her mother, my great grandmother and so on…I fight in the colonial war, I speak the language of resistance, dance in it’s glory, and sweat, bleed in her challenges, Africa her name is embodied in me, grounding me, humbling me, and asserting her persistent wind filled will.”

Roberta K. Timothy

B.A. M.A. M.Ed. Ph.D.

I am a creative and revolutionary thinker, who believes that decolonizing our self, communities, and world can lead to real justice and not “just us” practices. I identify as an African/Black woman, poet/playwright, survivor of African enslavement via the Caribbean and Latin America, from working class roots, mother, living with a visual disability, and resisting in Turtle Island (Canada). I draw from my over 30 years experience of health-based activism, working with survivors of violence and trauma. I have worked in frontline community health agencies and in grassroot initiatives for over 20 years coordinating projects and programs from an anti-racist, anti-oppression lens. Currently, I work as a professor at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. I am also a co-founder, registered psychotherapist, and consultant at Continuing Healing Consultants. For over 11 years I have trained community practitioners and agencies in “Anti-Oppression Psychotherapy”, a mental health model, created and developed by myself and Mercedes Umana.

I have worked with children, youth, women, men, trans, and purposely marginalized populations from intersectional identities such as: Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTTQ, underhoused, refugee, and immigrant populations. I have a BA in Political Science and Sociology with a specialty major in international justice and human rights (McMaster); an MA in Political Science (Guelph); a PhD. in Adult Education, Community Development and Gender Studies (OISE, University of Toronto); an M.Ed. in Counselling Psychology in Community Settings (OISE, University of Toronto); and a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship (2011-2013) in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development (OISE, University of Toronto). My work and praxis are grounded in Transnational Indigenous knowledges, African/Black feminisms, Intersectionality, decolonization frameworks, and art-based resistance.

Welcome to my website, I hope we can learn from each other and continue to create empowerment for oppressed people everywhere. Resistance is inevitable!

In Solidarity,

Roberta

It takes a village

I am identity

Wrapped in a warm blanket

I am adorned with Grandma’s homemade coconut oil.

Twisted is my hair in braids done tightly by my mother,

Secured in brown wood beads

Given to me by my Aunty.

I am named after my

Father’s mother,

Ruchina is my Kikuyu name.

I am from the womb of red soils

And the land of smiling suns and tall palm trees.

I am the earth’s sweat

And the rain’s dance.

I breathe.

I feel.

I cry.

I am an African woman. (Timothy, 2001)

I am identity

Wrapped in a warm blanket
I am adorned with Grandma’s homemade coconut oil.

Twisted is my hair in braids done tightly by my mother,

Secured in brown wood beads

Given to me by my Aunty.

I am named after my

Father’s mother,

Ruchina is my Kikuyu name.

I am from the womb of red soils

And the land of smiling suns and tall palm trees.

I am the earth’s sweat

And the rain’s dance.

I breathe.

I feel.

I cry.

I am an African woman. (written in 2011)

Dr. Roberta’s reflections – Coming soon

Illustration by Niti Marcelle Mueth

Older entries