Nakita Valerio

Nakita Valerio, ‘09 BA, ‘17 MA
Faculty of Arts Representative

Nakita Valerio, based on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, is a Vanier Scholar completing doctoral studies in Religious Studies at the University of Alberta, specializing in Muslim women’s religious leadership and Qur’anic literacy in Morocco. With a background in Islamic-Jewish Moroccan history, she serves as an academic strategist/mentor to graduate students in the social sciences and humanities.

Previously, she served as the Research Director at the Institute for Religious and Socio-Political Studies for three years. She remains the current Editor of the Religious and Socio-Political Studies Journal published through the UAlberta Libraries OJS and founded The Nusaibah Collective, a Muslim women's study group. Nakita is also engaged as a student of traditional Islamic sciences. In various capacities, Nakita serves the UAlberta community including as an advisor to the Chester Ronning Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life (Augustana), as the Faculty of Arts representative for Alumni Council, and as an alumni representative on the GFC University Teaching Awards Committee and Arts Faculty Council.

Additionally, Nakita is the secretary of the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims (CASIM) and the co-founder of a primary school in rural Morocco where she lived for several years before returning to Canada. Nakita is currently writing a novel.