Bryon Maxey is a PhD student in Religion at the University of Toronto. He previously completed his BA and MA at the University of Michigan. Bryon’s leadership approach builds on his years of experience as a facilitator and co-creator of open online learning and digital humanities projects with the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation and its Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum.
As an educator and interdisciplinary researcher of Islam and premodern Africa, Bryon interprets and seeks to facilitate greater awareness of the centuries-old Black intellectual and cultural heritage bridging communities in Africa and the Americas. His research focuses on the dynamic and diverse history of interpreting the Qur’an in Africa as a foundation for understanding this rich and pluralistic heritage. Bryon is a new arrival to Toronto from the United States, but no stranger to Canada because of generations of close and transnational family ties between the U.S. and the historic Black communities of Southwestern Ontario. As an emerging scholar, Bryon also draws on his earlier experiences as a secondary educator in Detroit and Chicago, and as a direct-action organizer of multifaith communities to inform his approach to engaged scholarship.
