Dr. Tya Collins is an Assistant Professor in the Black Youth Studies program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Her activities as an educator span more than two decades in a range of contexts including teaching and administration at the preschool, elementary, secondary, ESL, FSL, special education, vocational and university levels. 

She holds a doctorate in education from the Université de Montréal and was a Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at McGill University. Her research and pedagogy emphasize an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the fields of education, sociology, critical youth studies, Black Studies and Disability Studies. She conducts research in English and French, and mobilizes Black radical traditions and decolonial theories and methodologies to uncover systemic barriers in students’ educational journeys, to challenge social, political and cultural norms, to position young people as creators of knowledge, and to foster creativity in terms of imaginating a school and society that emphasize healing, safety, joy and caring. 

Some of her recent work focuses on the intersections of Blackness, disability, language, systemic trauma, youth resistance to structural barriers and inequalities, and post-secondary outcomes in Quebec. Professor Collins is also a community activist, consultant, researcher and partner in several community and government organizations, as well as a founding member of the Re-Membering Us initiative, which supports mental health and radical love in Black communities.