Kuir Garang is a South Sudanese Canadian author, poet, writer and researcher. He is the author of nine books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (all published un the TNP)and numerous political commentaries on Sudan and South Sudan. Kuir was born in war-torn South Sudan so he’s been living in different places as a result of war: first to Ethiopia, back to Sudan, then to Kenya before settling in Canada in 2002 as a refugee student at McGill University in Montreal. As a result of the war experiences as a child and a teenager on the run in search of refuge, Kuir understands what it means to live as a stateless person, a humanity at the mercy of denigration and subjugation by others.

However, all the horrible war conditions have helped Kuir become a person who appreciates ideas that are challenging but humbling. His experiences in different cultural settings have exposed him to both the challenges and beauties of diversity. Having been a marginalized person in Sudan and exposed to the divisive realities of ethnicity (tribes) in within the African community in South Sudan, he understands the problems diversity can engender. As a result, Kuir’s research centers on the intersection of identity, leadership, power and institutions (especially in Africa). He believes a moral, people-caring leadership, can put in place structures that can mitigate the problems that come with ethnic prejudice and the discriminatory use of power and in-group bias.

Kuir has a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and political science, a Master’s degree in cultural studies and philosophy, and he’s currently a Ph.D. student in the School of Social Work at York University in Toronto where he’s interested in Ethics of Blackness. Since blackness, as a curious historical description of people of African descent, has historically meted out unspeakable horrors on the people of African descent, Kuir is interested in how such a morally questionable identity reality become a positive identity and why it is now used given in immoral past.

Kuir believes that controversial ideas need to be aired out as long as they are not meant to cause harm to people. Having been writing about social justice and human rights issues in Sudan and South Sudan for more than a decade, he is now interested in extending that social justice lens into academic research on a global scale.