Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani
Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani is a racialized migrant settler who is from rural Japan. Her scholarship and pedagogy are informed by extensive social work practice in the area of health and wellbeing with marginalized communities both locally and internationally. Her research is centred on the politics and policies pertaining to migrant communities, particularly regarding the colonial and racial politics of Canadian citizenship, historical and contemporary immigration, refugee and citizenship policies, social and structural determinants of migrant health and Indigenous-Migrant relations.
Chizuru loves to work with the community and is a member of the National Newcomer Collective for Truth and Reconciliation and Siinqee Institute . Her emerging area of scholarship is earth-based healing grounded in trans-local ancestral knowledge. Chizuru explores earth-centred healing not only at an individual level but also at the community and ecological level. Drawing on her cultural and spiritual upbringings of grassroots animism passed down from her Baachan (grandmother), Chizuru believes deeper connections with the more-than-human world can be a threshold for a better world for all beings. She is a registered social worker, a certified forest therapy guide, and trained in horticultural therapy.
Recent Publications
Nobe-Ghelani, C., & Umadat, N. (2025). Reimaging Canadian citizenship in newcomer serving sector: From white civility to land stewardship (external link) . Social Work & Policy Studies, 8(1).
Nobe-Ghelani, C., & Barnhart, M. (2024). Care as experiential pedagogy: Soil building in social work education (external link) . Access: Critical Explorations of Equity in Higher Education, 12(1), 126–142.
Nobe-Ghelani, C. & Lumor, M. (2022). The politics of allyship with Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian Refugee Serving Sector (external link) . Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees.38(1). 111-125.