Rinaldo Walcott is an Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and the Director of Women and Gender Studies Institute, as well as a member of the Graduate Program in Cinema Studies of Faculty of Arts and Science University of Toronto. His teaching and research is in the area of black diaspora cultural studies and postcolonial studies with an emphasis on questions of sexuality, gender, nation, citizenship and multiculturalism. From 2002-2007 Rinaldo held the Canada Research Chair of Social Justice and Cultural Studies where his research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust. From January 2010 to June 2010 Rinaldo was Senior Research Fellow at the Warfield Center for African American Studies and the Department of African Diaspora and African Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining OISE UT Rinaldo was Associate Professor in the Division of Humanities, at York University. While at York he serviced as the Graduate Program Director of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Rinaldo Walcott is the author of Black Like Who: Writing Black Canada (Insomniac Press, 1997 with a second revised edition in 2003); he is also the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism (Insomniac, 2000). As well Rinaldo is the Co-editor with Roy Moodley of Counselling Across and Beyond Cultures: Exploring the Work of Clemment Vontress in Clinical Practice (University of Toronto Press, 2010). Currently, Rinaldo is completing The Long Emancipation: Moving Towards Freedom. Additionally Rinaldo is co-editor with Dina Georgis and Katherine McKittrick of No Language Is Neutral: Essays on Dionne Brand Topia: The Journal of Canadian Cultural Studies. Rinaldo is the General Editor of Topia as well. He is also the author of Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies (Insomniac Press, 2016). As an interdisciplinary black studies scholar Rinaldo has published in a wide range of venues. His articles have appeared in journals and books, as well as popular venues like newspapers and magazines. He often comments on black cultural life for radio and TV.

Rinaldo received his PhD. from OISE The University of Toronto in 1996.

Andrea Fatona is an assistant professor in the Criticism and Curatorial program at OCAD University in Toronto. She is the former curator of contemporary art at the Ottawa Art Gallery, and has worked as the program director at Video In, Vancouver, Co-Director of Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver, and Artistic Director of Artspace Gallery, Peterborough. Fatona is concerned with issues of equity within the sphere of the arts and the pedagogical possibilities of art works produced by ‘other’ Canadians in articulating broader perspectives of Canadian identities. Fatona was the primary investigator of the State of Blackness: From Production to Presentation conference, which was held in Toronto in Feburary 2014.