Chavon Niles
PhD, MA, BEd, HBSc
Dr. Chavon Niles is a Guyanese Canadian researcher, educator, and advocate committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Dr. Niles has a MA degree in Critical Disability Studies (York University) and her PhD (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto). Chavon’s doctoral thesis explored the experiences of racialized immigrant youth with disabilities living in the Greater Toronto Area to better understand how they navigated education, rehab/health, and social services drawing on critical social theories. Dr. Niles completed her post doc in the Department of Physical Therapy where she explored the experiences of caregivers and care receivers with spinal cord injury taking part in a self management program. She was also the inaugural Program Manager, Faculty Development and EDI at SickKids, where she provided leadership in the design, implementation, and evaluation of EDI strategic frameworks and training across the hospital. At the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, she led the national community education program to strengthen the capacity of service providers working with immigrants and refugees with disabilities. Dr. Niles’s academic and community research and teaching intersect as she makes visible systems of inequities embedded in education, rehab, health and social services that further invisiblize underserved communities.
Research & Scholarly Activities
Critical Disability Studies
Critical Race Theory
Postcolonialism
Immigration, Refugee and Racialized Groups
Carework
Disabled Youth
Community engaged research
Capacity Building Training
Teaching
- Co-Lead of SPEC
Appointments
- Assistant Professor (Tenure Stream), Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto
- Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute
Publications
Journal Articles (Published, Accepted and/or in Press)
Noone D., Robinson L., Niles C., Narang I. Unlocking the Power of Allyship: Giving Health Care Workers the Tools to Take Action Against Inequities and Racism. NEJM Catalyst. 2022.
Niles C. Who gets in? The Price of Acceptance in Canada. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis. 7 (1), 148-162. 2018.
Niles C. Examining the Deinstitutionalization Movement in North America. Health Tomorrow: Interdisciplinarity and Internationality, 1, 54-83. 2013.
Book Chapters (Published, Accepted and/or in Press)
Niles C. Teaching Social Values through African Proverbs. Dei, G. J. S. & McDermott, M. (Eds.) Centering African Proverbs, Indigenous Folktales, and Cultural Stories in Curriculum: Units and Lesson Plans for Inclusive Education (pp. 51-87). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier Press 2019.
Other Media (Published, Accepted and/or in Press)
Fudge Schormans A. Mahipaul, S., Niles, C. (First three authors in alphabetical order) Yoshida K.K (SRA), COVID-19 Amplifies the Complexity of Disability and Race. The Conversation. April 7, 2021. https://theconversation.com/covid-19-amplifies-the-complexity-of-disability-and-race-157933. (Impact – 10,085 reads between April 7- Nov. 6, 2022.
Niles C, Goren I. The Price of Acceptance: Immigrants with Disabilities in a System of Disadvantage. Rabble. 2016.