Joanne Naiman is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ryerson University. Naiman earned her Bachelor of Arts (1967), Master of Arts in Sociology (1969), and Bachelor of Education (1970) from the University of Toronto. She was a member of the faculty at Ryerson from 1971 to 2004. During her thirty-three years there she taught a variety of undergraduate courses in urban sociology, women's studies, social change, and gender roles, in addition to introductory sociology. She is the author of a number of academic articles, and has been involved for many years in a variety of activist organizations, including the anti-apartheid movement, as well as efforts to preserve publicly-funded education in Ontario. She is a member of Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), a former Chair of Canadians Concerned about South Africa, and is a co-author of "Relations Between Canada and South Africa," a report prepared for the United Nations Centre Against Apartheid in 1984.