Jean-Pierre Ayena is a PhD student in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sherbrooke. His research focuses on Canadian immigration law, refugee protection, and the impacts experienced by communities hosting or transiting asylum seekers under the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement. He utilizes critical approaches such as Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and intersectionality. He holds master's degrees in law (University of Sherbrooke), International and European Law (University of Geneva), and Business Law (University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin).

Jean-Pierre has experience in research, teaching, and community action, including work within the United Nations system in Geneva. He is currently a research and development officer at the Corporation de développement communautaire (Coaticook MRC).

E-mail: jayenaad@uottawa.ca

Noémie Boivin is a Banting postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sherbrooke's Faculty of Law. She holds a PhD in law from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico), a master's degree in law from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and a bachelor's degree in international relations and international law from the same university. Her research focuses on legal categories of international migration, the intersection between immigration and asylum systems, the decolonial perspective and legal ethnography in the Mexican context. Her doctoral research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, explored the dichotomy between migration regularity and irregularity in the case of foreign women at Mexico's southern border (Tapachula). Her postdoctoral project explores soft containment of irregular migration in transit territories in Mexico.

E-mail: nboivin3@uottawa.ca

Dr. Ezirigwe holds a PhD in Law from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), an LLM from the University of London (United Kingdom), an MBA from ESUT Business School (Nigeria), and an LLB from the University of Abuja (Nigeria). Her research focuses on the governance of marginalized populations in agricultural systems, with a particular focus on migrant mobility. Her doctoral work explored how the movement of migrant pastoralists generates conflicts in West Africa. Her current postdoctoral research under the Chair examines the legal and practical constraints NGOs face in supporting migrant workers in Ontario. In collaboration with advocacy groups and local NGOs, she is co-developing a practical toolkit to help service providers navigate the restrictions imposed by Section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

E-mail: jezirigw@uottawa.ca

Adjimaël Halidi holds a PhD in Sociology from Laval University and is the author of Délinquance et immigration : un lien avéré ? (L'Harmattan, 2016), a study of minors detained in Bouches-du-Rhône (France). His thesis, based on fieldwork in Mayotte, develops the concept of "differentiated transnationality" to analyze migration strategies from a decolonial perspective. His work advocates for the protection of rights that recognizes migrants as actors of their own history.

E-mail: ahalidi@uottawa.ca

Jennifer Lopes is a legal anthropologist and Part-Time Professor at the University of Ottawa, specializing in children's rights in the context of migration. She develops a critical and decolonial approach to law, combining ethnography and legal analysis. Her research reveals blind spots in Canadian asylum procedures and examines how the law, in its practical application, can create vulnerability in young people. Her work lies at the intersection of legal anthropology and international law, questioning the gaps between norms and practices by proposing avenues for reform based on both the voices of children and best legal practices observed internationally.

E-mail: jlopes2@uottawa.ca

Called to the Bar in Ontario and Nigeria, Christiana holds a BA in Linguistics and an LLB from the University of Nigeria, as well as an LLM in International Legal Studies from American University, Washington College of Law (DC).

Her doctoral research examines Bilateral Labour Agreements (BLAs) in international migration law. She interrogates the framing of BLAs as neutral tools for achieving "safe, orderly migration," showing how their structure, temporality, and selectivity can echo governance logics of extraction and exclusion. Her focus lies in the tension between migration diplomacy — understood as interstate bargaining and foreign policy strategy — and the actual protection of migrant workers' rights. Her research explores how BLAs might be reimagined as sites for redistributive justice and accountability for migrant workers.

E-mail: christiana.sagay@uottawa.ca