Dr. Paul Banahene Adjei is Interim Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research).

He works closely with the Vice-President (Research), senior leaders from the research portfolio and from across the university, and partners, including Indigenous leaders and governments, focusing on research involving and relating to Indigenous communities. He also provides leadership related to Memorial’s Research Impacting Indigenous Groups policy. Dr. Adjei was appointed to the role in May 2022. 

Learn more about Indigenous Research at Memorial here.

You can follow Dr. Adjei on Twitter.

Biography

An award-winning scholar, educator, researcher and public speaker, Dr. Adjei’s expertise is in the areas of social justice, anti-black racism, critical race, critical whiteness studies, anti-colonial theory and Indigenization. Dr. Adjei draws on his African indigeneity to fashion new answers for social work education.

In 2022, he was honoured as one of the Most Inspiring Immigrants in Atlantic Canada.

Dr. Adjei has more than six years in his tenure as an inaugural member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Indigenous Affairs, as well as his extensive involvement in the development of the Strategic Framework for Indigenization.

A member of the Committee on Ethical Research Impacting Indigenous Groups, Dr. Adjei is an associate professor in the School of Social Work, where he is a member of a joint Visiting Indigenous Elders pilot project with the Indigenous Student Resource Centre, and a member of the Nunavut Arctic College partnership.

As a community builder, Dr. Adjei serves with the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District Provincial Anti-Racism Advisory Committee and is a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador RCMP Black Engagement Steering Committee.

He’s also the director of the Ghanaian Community of Newfoundland and Labrador Association. He says he is reminded by his Akan Elders of Ghana "that not so much what we are called -- but what we answer to -- is what matters.”

An active researcher, Dr. Adjei has secured funding for his work from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; published several essays in scholarly journals, written book chapters and co-edited a publication; and has presented at national and international conferences.

Dr. Adjei received his undergraduate degree in Social Work from the Department of Social Work of the University of Ghana. He received his Masters’ and PhD degrees from the University of Toronto, specializing in social justice education.