Biography:

Rachel Fernandes has a PhD in English from Queen’s University. As a #DigBlk Satellite Scholar, she has worked on many components of CBDR’s digital projects since 2020, including preparing Douglass Day materials, and helping organize the 200th anniversary celebrations of the abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd Cary. She currently assists the project management team with planning the #Harper200 events celebrating the life and work of writer and abolitionist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Rachel’s academic research focuses on the experiences of mixed-race people in contemporary North American literature and her dissertation explored expressions of Asian mixed-race identity in Canada in literary forms such as memoir, poetry, and the novel. She currently teaches courses on Asian literature and academic writing at the University of Ottawa.