Casey Ellis Johnson is a PhD candidate at Indiana University-Bloomington in African American Studies. His dissertation, entitled “Borders as Both Barriers and Conduits: How Black Organizations Transcended the US-Canadian Divide,” examines the transformative role of Black organizations in challenging and reimagining national boundaries between the United States and Canada during the 19th and 20th centuries. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates archival research with digital humanities, Johnson investigates how Black organizations strategically constructed transnational networks of resistance, solidarity, and liberation. Analyzing over 100 organizations, with particular focus on the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the research illuminates how marginalized communities leveraged cross-border connections to challenge systemic racism, pursue economic justice, and redefine citizenship. Additionally, it reveals the US-Canadian border not as a static geographic demarcation, but as a dynamic ideological space where Black activists developed sophisticated strategies of collective empowerment. Through comprehensive archival investigation and digital mapping, this dissertation significantly contributes to emerging scholarship on African diaspora in Canada, demonstrating how organizational infrastructures enabled complex forms of resistance that transcended national limitations and constructed alternative political imaginations.