I saw the obituary in the Montreal Gazette. I could not believe my eyes. I had tried to get in touch with Valerie for the past several years but could not make the connextion. Valeire wrote a very good MA thesis in the Educational Studies Program at Concordia. I was her thesis supervisor:
Stephenson, Valerie (1999) Equal to the challenge : reconstructing ways of thinking, knowing and doing, Re: the schooling of young black women in Metro - Montreal. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
It is freely available on Spectrum, from Concordia University. You can get to it by googling the information I have presented above. This is the acknowledgement page of the thesis:
"My gratitude to the twelve young people without whose cooperation this study would not have been possible. I am especially indebted to Professor Arpi Hamalian for her invaluable assistance and support during all stages of this work. To the many others who believed in me, and who freely gave of their time, effort and skills, (especially Wilmot, Sharon, Andrew and Shauna) I wish to extend my sincere thanks".
The reading of the obituary brought back to me precious memories of time spent with Valerie duing her MA studies at Concordia and deepening of my understanding of systemic anti-black racism in our schools and her valient efforts to document the situation and to shed light in the experience of young blacks in our school system.
As I have Guyanese family members I want to use an expression I cherish: Valerie was a woman you could "tie bundle with". Authentic, sincere, reliable and always helpful and focused on achieving her goals to the best of her abilities.
My sincere condoleances to the family and I will keep Valerie and her loved ones in mind and prayers on the first of January at 2 pm. Arpi Hamalian (arpi.hamalian@concordia.ca).
