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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The University of Waterloo recently launched the
</span><span style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);"><u><a data-auth="NotApplicable" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" class="OWAAutoLink" id="OWAa511098a-3fa1-39f2-3017-608abdd26463" href="https://uwaterloo.ca/pan-african-initiative-for-research/">Pan African Initiative
for Research</a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (PAIR), a new interdisciplinary research initiative designed to advance collaborative, community rooted, and globally engaged scholarship across Pan African contexts, including Africa, the Caribbean,
Latin America, and Afro-diasporic communities worldwide.</span></div>
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PAIR is proud to launch <b>Speculative Futures Visiting Writer Series with Shingai Njeri Kagunda</b>, an award-winning Afrosurrealist/Afrofuturist author from Nairobi, Kenya. Kagunda is the author of
<i>We Who Will Not Die</i> (2025 Ignyte Award, Outstanding Novelette) and <i>& This is How to Stay Alive</i> (2022 Ignyte Award, Best Novella), co-Editor-in-Chief of
<i>Fantasy Magazine</i>, and co-founder of Voodoonauts, an Afrofuturist writing workshop for Black writers. Their work, which has appeared in
<i>Best American Sci-Fi and Fantasy</i>, <i>Year's Best African Speculative Fiction</i>,
<i>Lightspeed</i>, and <i>Africa Risen</i>, explores themes of social memory, resistance, and transformation.</div>
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Kagunda's residency will include classroom visits, hosted conversations, and a public reading--engaging students and faculty across disciplines with speculative fiction as both creative practice and critical methodology.</div>
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<b>Schedule of Events, March–April 2026</b></div>
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<b>Monday, March 16</b>, 11:45 am–12:45 pm | <i>Storytelling & Social Justice</i> (Online) Kagunda visits Dr. Katy Fulfer's Arts First course, "Inquiry and Knowledge Creation: Gender on the Edge of Time."</li><li class="elementToProof" style="font-family: Aptos, "Aptos_EmbeddedFont", "Aptos_MSFontService", Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">
<b>Monday, March 16</b>, 6:30–8:00 pm | <i>Storytelling & Social Justice, Continued</i> (Online) Theorypractice Lab hosts an extended conversation with Kagunda following the morning guest lecture.</li><li class="elementToProof" style="font-family: Aptos, "Aptos_EmbeddedFont", "Aptos_MSFontService", Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">
<b>Thursday, March 19</b>, 4:00–5:00 pm | <i>WISH Reading Group Short Story Discussion</i> (Hybrid) The Waterloo Initiative of Solarpunk and Hope (WISH) gathers to discuss Kagunda's story "The Once-Girl Made of Mycelium," with Kagunda joining virtually for
an author reading and group discussion. | Modern Languages Building, Room 245 + Online</li><li class="elementToProof" style="font-family: Aptos, "Aptos_EmbeddedFont", "Aptos_MSFontService", Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<b>Tuesday, April 7</b>, 6:00–8:00 pm | <i>Public Reading + Conversation</i> (In Person) Kagunda reads from recent work, followed by conversation shared over food and refreshments. | EC5, Room 1111, 305 Philip St., Waterloo</li></ul>
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<b><a data-auth="NotApplicable" title="https://uwaterloo.ca/pan-african-initiative-for-research/events/pair-speculative-futures-visiting-writer-series" class="OWAAutoLink" id="OWA2329d7e0-14dc-3659-5b86-bf4a94c0a362" href="https://uwaterloo.ca/pan-african-initiative-for-research/events/pair-speculative-futures-visiting-writer-series">Register
for the Visiting Writer Series</a></b></div>
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The Visiting Writer Series is co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts, the Department of English Language and Literature, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (through a research grant held by Brianna Wiens), WISH: Waterloo
Initiative of Solarpunk and Hope, Theorypractice Lab, and the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism.</div>
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