Queen’s University has announced the recipients of its 2025 alumnae fellowships, spotlighting outstanding female-identifying and non-binary graduates whose projects are set to drive real-world change through storytelling, advocacy, and academic research.
Among the honourees is Halima Wali, a Nigerian PhD candidate whose work shines a powerful light on the lived experiences of women and girls in Northern Nigeria.
Awarded the prestigious Marty Memorial Fellowship, Wali will use the funding to take her doctoral research beyond the academic world and into classrooms, communities, and policymaking spaces in Nigeria and beyond.
“I applied for this fellowship because it aligns with the heart of my work, which is bridging research and community through storytelling,” said Wali. “I wanted the chance to carry my PhD research beyond the academic space and into the hands of educators, communities, and women whose stories shaped it.”
Her dissertation, titled “Women’s Lived Experience of Education in Northern Nigeria,” delves into the daily tensions many girls face—between restrictive domestic expectations and the liberating promise of education. Grounded in feminist and intersectional frameworks, Wali’s work draws from interviews with women across the region to build a collective narrative of resilience, constraint, and aspiration.
“It’s an opportunity to honour the voices at the core of my research and ensure they spark dialogue and change far beyond the dissertation,” she added.
With the support of the fellowship, Wali plans to develop workshops and storytelling resources that will be accessible to teachers, students, women’s groups, and policymakers across Nigeria, Africa, Canada, and globally.
These tools are designed to ignite conversations around gender, culture, education, and empowerment.
Born in Northern Nigeria and raised between the north and south, Wali’s personal journey mirrors the complexity she explores in her research.
She brings to her academic work a deep understanding of the nuanced social pressures that shape the lives of women and girls, especially in contexts where “silence is often expected over brilliance,” as she puts it.
Wali joins two other fellowship recipients this year: Ani Colekessian, a human rights advocate and writer focused on the legacies of genocide, and Megan Pfiffer, a legal scholar working to reform administrative justice.
The fellowships—Jean Royce Fellowship, Marty Memorial Fellowship, and the Alfred Bader Fellowship in Memory of Jean Royce—are awarded annually to support graduates pursuing projects that foster creativity, critical inquiry, and social impact.
