Dr. Riisa Walden

Riisa Walden is a writer, educator, curriculum designer, facilitator, and co-founder of Talking Together for Change. She has an M.A. in Comparative Literature (Thesis – “Telling Tales: French-Canadian and English-Canadian Women’s Autobiographical Narratives of Child Sexual Abuse) and a Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies (Dissertation – Altered States of Rurality: Cultural Forays into Southern Ontario Country and Other Rural Rides). Her academic and creative interests include rural culture, multiculturalism, decolonization, the environment, critical whiteness studies/critical race theory, queerness, feminism, and social justice. She is an experienced designer and facilitator of white, anti-racist and 2SLGBTQQIA+ affinity groups and other equity, diversity, and inclusion professional development training. Walden was raised in Canada and abroad as part of a military family and currently resides in Southern Ontario on the Haldimand Tract, territory promised to the Haudenosaunee people of Six Nations, which includes six miles on each side of the Grand River, land that has been home for centuries to the Chonnonton, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples.