Moving Beyond Borders is the first book-length history of Black health care workers in Canada, delving into the experiences of thirty-five postwar-era nurses who were born in Canada or who immigrated from the Caribbean either through Britain or directly to Canada. Karen Flynn examines the shaping of these women's stories from their childhoods through to their roles as professionals and community activists.
Flynn interweaves oral histories with archival sources to show how these women's lives were shaped by their experiences of migration, professional training, and family life. Theoretical analyses from postcolonial, gender, and diasporic Black Studies serve to highlight the multiple subjectivities operating within these women's lives. By presenting a collective biography of identity formation, Moving Beyond Borders reveals the extraordinary complexity of Black women's history.

Grisselda (Sophie) Harding is a student and employee at York University in Toronto. Her writing is an expression of her desire to change the world and help make life better for herself and others. Sophie's first anthology was entitled Our Words/Our Revolutions: Di/Verse Voices of Black Women, First Nations Women, and Women of Colour in Canada. Some of Sophie's work has been used in projects such as the Teen Violence Prevention Initiatives with Women's Habitat and the Women, Violence, and Adult Education Project Source Book, which is aimed at examining the effect of violence in terms of learning and education for women.

Karen Flynn's profile page

‘In this well researched and well-written monograph, Karen Flynn does an excellent job of delineating the ways in which identities of Caribbean and Canadian born Black women have been shaped throughout their life time… Flynn’s work should serve as a spring board for further scholarship into the professional and private lives of women of African descent in the diaspora.’

Histoire sociale/Social History vol 45:90:2012

‘Moving beyond Borders is a valuable contribution to diasporan studies…Flynn’s exploration of Black women’s navigation of identity and power relationships is not only ambitious and valuable but it also directly challenges Canada’s multicultural façade.’

Labour/Le Travail vol 72:2013