Current Graduate Students
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z
A
Hayder Alkilabi
PhD Candidate, Sociology
Area of Interest: Political sociology; propaganda and secrecy as practices of statecraft and power.
B
Ariel Becherer
Ph.D. Sociology with Collaborative Specialization in Political Economy
Areas of Interest: Political Economy. Social Reproduction Theory. Racial Capitalism. Class in settler colonial contexts. History of Energy workers and Energy Infrastructure in British Columbia. Democracy. Power. Dispossession. Intersectionality.
Simon Birch
M.A. Anthropology student
Melissa Black
M.A. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Community, relational sociology; decolonial and ecological knowledge, climate action; social innovation, storytelling, arts-based practices; culture, nostalgia, and belonging.
Deanna Bogaski
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: Environmental anthropology; resource development and management; environmental change; built adaptation; Canadian Indigenous peoples; settler- colonialism; decolonization; food sovereignty; sustainability; policy implications; human- nature relationships.
C
Juan Caicedo
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Juan’s research focuses on how labour, organizational, and political dynamics influence the institutional cultures of North American teachers’ unions. More broadly, he’s interested in how the work done by teachers and others involved in education helps us to rethink the challenges and possibilities of revolutionary social change in the twenty-first century. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from York University, where his major research paper examined the intersection of pedagogy, labour, and governance among Mexico’s Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities and Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Areas of interest include: Marxism, teachers’ organizations, social movement unionism, the political economy of education, education and inequality, and social reproduction.
Hannah Crouse
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Sociology of aging; sexuality; gender; dementia; critical disability studies; community-based research; housing; grief; death and dying; end-of-life.
D
Gabrielle Duval
Ph.D Sociology Student
Areas of Interest: Science and technology studies, social media, social psychology, behavioural studies, actor network theory, social construction of technology, sociology of health and medicine, quantitative and qualitative methodology.
E
Malak El-Outa
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Twelver Shi’ism; pious practice and lived religion; liberation theologies; political violence; Lebanon; Lebanese diaspora; transnational subjectivity
F
G
Gabriela Ludwig Guerra
M.A. Sociology Student
Areas of Interest: Digital Surveillance, Security, Pacification, Marxism
H
Seamus Hodgins
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: middle-classness; Mainstream North American culture; anthropology of consumption; the Ontario craft beer community; identity; political economy.
Denise Humphreys
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Denise is from the plains in Treaty 6 territory. Her previous professional and academic experiences have led to her current research area of genocide education. Her background includes social work, public policy, sociology, and anti-racism education. Some of her more recent projects have included curricular research related to centering Indigenous Survivor Knowledges in Canadian post-secondary genocide education and another project that uses storytelling through film for anti-racism education. Her dissertation project involves genocide education on Indigenous genocides by Canada and is connected to the project of her advisor which focuses Indigenous storytelling, settler colonialism, and horror film. A common thread in Denise’s work includes the aim to centre Indigenous Peoples, Knowledges, and Sovereignties in forms of engagement she is involved in.
I
J
Rachel Jobson
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: crip theory; queer theory; crip/queer futurity; marriage and the family; conjugality and conjugal law; polyamory/ethical non-monogamy; mononormativity; kink studies; gender and sexuality; critical disability studies; chronic pain; disability and sexuality; social constructions of deviance; ethics of care; anticapitalism; parenting; mutual aid; anarchism; care networks and non-normative families; ethnography; law and social regulation.
K
Joy Nyokabi Karinge
PhD in Anthropology with collaborative specialization in African Studies
Areas of Interest: Joy is a writer, researcher, and scholar activist. She holds an M.A in Pan African Studies, International Relations and a C.A.S in Conflict and Collaboration from Syracuse University, USA as well as a B.A in International Relations from USIU-Africa. Joy is passionate about Africa in governance, development, democracy and international affairs and carries out research and advocacy on these issues through her organization, Afrika Yangu. She wrote an award winning master’s thesis, “Towards Decolonization: Migrated Kenyan Archives and the Politics of Knowledge Production”. As a PhD student, Joy hopes to conduct research on youth protests and social movements in Africa, with a focus on how the 2024 Gen Z protests influenced political consciousness and identity among young Kenyans.
Chaeyoung Kim
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of interest: migration and diaspora studies, constructions of citizenship and nationhood, transnationalism, transnational families, marriage, gender and sexuality, media narratives, Korean studies, East Asian studies
L
M
Morgan McAllister
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: Fat women, critical disability studies, feminism, medical anthropology, public health, morality, body size diversity, fat activism.
Christine Moreau
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Rural sociology; political economy of rurality; political activist research; Atlantic Canada.
N
Mohammed Nijim
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Genocide studies, Nakba studies, Indigeneity, North America’s First Nations, Israeli-Arab conflict, culture, social theory, critical political economy, capitalism, power, racism and discrimination, nationalism and Ottoman Palestine.
O
Kemal Ördek
Ph.D. Sociology Student
Areas of interest: I am an academic enthusiast who has their B.A. on International Relations at Bilkent University and M.S. on Sociology at Middle East Technical University (both in Ankara, Turkey). I have deep interest in working on gender and sexuality, with specific focus on trans and queer studies. I have extensive experience in working with queer/trans people and sex workers with diverse gender backgrounds both in my home country and globally, through my activist engagement in I/NGOs, and academic work. My master’s thesis focuses on sex worker trans women’s navigation of femininities and masculinities in response to cis-gender oppression in Turkey. I have carried out field work on sex worker mothers’ management strategies of dual roles in their professional and family contexts. I also engaged in a field study to inquire about how gay male saunas are reproduced as heteronormative spaces in the context of male sex work in Istanbul. I have also been experienced in working with migrants and refugees as a humanitarian professional working with the UN system in Turkey. I have expertise in working with refugees and migrants who are LGBTIQ+, who sell or exchange sex or who live with HIV.
Key areas of interest: gender, sexuality, (re)production of space, masculinities, sex work, trans, queer, migration and refugee studies.
P
Arlette Martinez Parra
Ph.D. Anthropology
Areas of Interest: Food studies, mediatized representations, culinary tourism, digital ethnography, globalization, sensory ethnography. Arlette’s research focuses on the impact of culinary tourism in Oaxaca, Mexico by exploring the intersections of tourism, digital technologies, national identity, and consumption. She is particularly interested in the commodification of ‘cultural authenticity’ through food and destination marketing.
Reyhab Mohmed Patel
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Storytelling; Art and Religion; Islamophobia; Fashion; Sartorial Practices; Arts-based methodology; research creation; social movement
Dante Pio
M.A. Sociology with Collaborative Specialization in Accessibility.
Research Interests: Accessibility; Critical Autism Studies; Critical Disability Studies; Film, Television, and Video Games; Hermeneutic Phenomenology; Higher Education; Neurodiversity Studies; Popular Culture; Social Media.
Q
R
S
Rana Saadi
M.A. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: EDI, the perspectives of allyship from BIPOC students, and the experiences of International students living in Canada
Erin Scott
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: Canadians’ relationships with nature, environmental degradation, and nature tourism, and the impact of those factors on environmental activism in younger generations.
Joanis Sherry
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Citizenship education; critical pedagogy; critical multiculturalism.
Kirsten Stacey
M.A Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: As a non-Indigenous person with lived experience in an Indigenous foster system, my research focuses on the impact of Canadian policies—particularly those governing the Indigenous foster care system in Toronto—on the identities of biracial youth. I aim to explore the intersections of race, culture, and policy, by investigating how state-driven categorizations influence self-perception and cultural connection. By focusing on youth’s lived experiences, I would like to highlight the gaps in current policies and advocate for a more inclusive approach that respects the complexities of biracial identities.
Faith Stadnyk (she/her)
PhD Sociology student
Area of Interest: feminist social transformation, cross movement solidarity, critical disability studies, mad studies, fat studies, critical eating dis/order studies, critical health studies, intersectionality, political and relational orientations to cure
T
Carole H. Therrien
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: Carole’s academic interests focus on those phenomena and factors that create the forces of change and resilience. Over the course of a Master’s in Philosophy (Humanities) at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Carole looked at the concepts of empire and postmodernism and how they wove into language and art. Her final thesis addressed how contemporary experiential art is a harbinger for political change and may prove to be the new “church” for young generations. Her interests now lie where climate change meets political and cultural change, how the political deals with ever-happening environmental changes, and how cultures address the concept of resilience. Carole is a Fellow with the School of Graduate Studies at Memorial University and completed undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Ottawa.
Cheyanne Thomas
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Cheyanne Thomas is a band member of Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3. She has recently received an MA in Social Justice Studies from Lakehead University and has an undergraduate degree in Indigenous Studies from Trent University. Her research interests are Indigenous Women’s Roles, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Reconciliation, Social Justice, and Post-Colonial studies. She has experience with many social justice organizations; as an employee of the Kinna-aweya Legal Clinic, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario and the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.
Jaclyn Tompalski
Ph.D. Sociology student
Areas of Interest: Originally from Edmonton, Jaclyn worked in corrections throughout her undergraduate degree. Her broad research interest is in vulnerable groups in Canada. As a proud member of the Indigenous community, she is specifically interested in initiatives that support Indigenous communities and reconciliation. Her past research experience has focused on housing challenges for urban, Indigenous youth; housing challenges for formerly incarcerated seniors; incarceration of Indigenous persons, and the lived experience of persons living in long-term care. Her other research interests include corrections, alternatives to incarceration, institutions, long-term care, and Indigenous methodology.
Vanessa Turyatunga
Ph.D. Anthropology student
Areas of Interest: Religion and Modernity; African Feminism(s); Religion and Spirituality in Africa; African Traditional Religions (ATR); Public narratives around religion, witchcraft, and traditional religious practices in Uganda (and Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly); Practitioner narratives and lived experiences of traditional religious practices.
U
V
W
X
Weiyuan (Caddie) Xia
Ph.D. Sociology Student
Areas of Interest: Caddie is a professional educator, with over fifteen years of field experience. As a first-generation immigrant to Canada, Caddie is passionate in the pursuit of immigrants’ integral well-being. Caddie holds Master of Education (University of New Brunswick) and Master of Arts in Sociology (Carleton University). She is currently undertaking a PhD in Sociology at Carleton University. Her research interests include migration, transnationalism, anti-racism, multiculturalism, globalization, political economy, governmentality, and education.