DTS Alumni Panel and Reception
When and Where
Description
Join us for the annual DTS Alumni Panel and Reception! Learn what DTS graduates are doing now, how the DTS program helped them achieve their goals, and connect with alumni, students, and faculty in the DTS community.
This event will be an excellent opportunity to network and meet people who are currently working or studying in the DTS field. Alumni, graduate and undergraduate students, prospective students, faculty and staff are all welcome.
Light food and refreshments will be served.
Meet the Panelists
Calista Nyembwe is driven by one central question: how do we build systems that create both economic opportunity and belonging?
A 2023 graduate of the University of Toronto with a major in Diaspora and Transnational Studies and double minors in African and Caribbean Studies, she began her career hosting citizenship ceremonies across Canada.
She now works in real estate and technology sales, specializing in relationship-driven growth and market development. She also serves as a Board Member at Women’s Health in Women’s Hands, supporting strategic direction and equity-focused healthcare initiatives.
Semhale Tsehaye (she/her) is a Scarborough-born graduate of the University of Toronto. She earned her Honours Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in 2024, double-majoring in Political Science and Diaspora & Transnational Studies, with a minor in Human Geography. From 2020 to 2024, she served as a Research Assistant in the university’s History Department under the supervision of Prof. Nhung Tuyet Tran, contributing to research on decolonizing political media in post–World War II non-allied states and supporting initiatives aimed at expanding the department’s curriculum beyond Eurocentric frameworks.
Since 2025, she has worked as a Program Assistant at the Zoryan Institute, a Toronto-based academic non-profit dedicated to the study of genocide, human rights, and diaspora–homeland relations. In this role, she supports a broad range of initiatives, including academic publications, archival maintenance, and the coordination of seminars, conferences, and educational programs.
Semhale will begin her Master of Global Affairs (MGA) at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in Fall 2026. Her research interests include postcolonial theory, ethnonationalism, global justice, and institutional precarity, with particular attention to citizenship and belonging in transitional and postcolonial contexts.