Tanya Aminataei, BA Hons (English), MA (Public Texts)
Supervisor: Margaret Steffler
Research: Indigenous literature as works of resistance
Lauren Baranik, BA Hons (History & Anthropology), MA (Arctic & Northern Studies)
Supervisor: Heather Nicol
Working Title: An Assessment of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board
Lauren is currently living in Mayo, Yukon within the Traditional Territory of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun (FNNND). Lauren has grown up in northern Canada, including having lived in the Yukon for close to a decade. During this time, she spent two years in Fairbanks, Alaska where she attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks completing an MA in Arctic in Northern Studies where her final thesis was titled, Indigenous-Crown Relations in Canada and the Yukon, Peel Watershed Case, 2017. She has also taught at Yukon University as an instructor for the course History of Yukon First Nations and Self-Government. She is currently working as an Impact Assessment Officer for the Self-Governing FNNND. Her PhD dissertation with Trent, tentatively titled An Assessment of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board, will focus on the efficacy of the Yukon’s impact assessment process in relation to mining.
Alicia Carefoote, BA Hons (English), MA (Canadian Studies & Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Whitney Lackenbauer
Research: Canadian arctic prison system
Cynthia Clarke, BSW, MSW
Supervisor: Heather Nicol
Working Title: Intersection of Professional Healthcare and Victims of Sex Trafficking in Canada
Nicole Covey, BA Hons (Political Science) MA (Political Science)
Supervisor: Whitney Lackenbauer
Working Title: Canada and Its Alliances: A Case Study on the Evolution of NATO and NORAD in the Arctic
Kathleen Donovan, BA (Criminology & Psychology), MA (Critical Disability Studies)
Supervisor: Nadine Changfoot
Research: Intersections of Indigeneity and notions of learning disabilities - how social architecture shapes both the perception of disability and the experience of access
Sabrina Dourado-Jaffer, BA Hons (Arts & Contemporary Studies), MEd
Supervisor: May Chazan
Working Title: Sexual Exploitation and Violence in State Care: Problematizing Childhoods within the Canadian Context
My name is Sabrina Dourado-Jaffer and I am a PhD candidate in the Canadian Studies department at Trent University. I have completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at Ryerson University where my focus was in Diversity & Equity Studies with a Minor in Sociology. From there I completed a Masters of Education at OISE through the University of Toronto. While studying at UofT I furthered my research within the field of Social Justice Education.
Through both lived and educational experiences, I have gained a heightened interest in the intersectionality of marginalization and how it impacts our lived experience. Bolstered by feminist ideologies, my research thus far has concentrated on issues related to racism, violence, femicide, post-colonialism, problematizing childhood and consent. Through my PhD studies at Trent, I hope to integrate these themes into a cohesive research project that seeks to understand how bodies are produced in certain ways, which creates continuities of marginalization. This will be done through analyzing the systems and structures that sustain violence and are produced through it.
With my work I hope to make a positive change in the world and bring issues to light that are otherwise silenced or forgotten. Although I am passionate about my research, I am cognisant of the fact that as an educator it is my duty to create an environment that focuses on actions of macro and micro-politicization within and beyond the field of academia.
Shelley Hermer, BA (Psychology), MSW
Supervisor: Suzanne Bailey
Research: censorship in Canadian literature
Karen Hicks, MA (Public Texts)
Supervisor: Suzanne Bailey
Research: The creative life and times of a group of women artists in Quebec who were contemporaries of the Group of Seven.
Sarah Jessup, BA Hons (Anthropology) MA (Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Joan Sangster
Working Title: Workplace Bullying, Gender, and the Continuum of Violence in Ontario Health Care
Sarah Jessup is a PhD candidate in Canada Studies at Trent University. Her research examines the relationship between policy, gender, and workplace bullying in Canada's health care settings. In particular, her doctoral project focuses on workplace bullying within the broader scope of workplace aggression and considers the connection between bullying and other forms of hostility in the workplace, including physical violence, domestic violence, and sexual harassment.
Kristin Jones, MA (Canadian Studies & Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Whitney Lackenbauer
Research: RCAP in the 21st century
Eric Lehman, BA (Music), MA (Public Texts)
Supervisor: Hugh Hodges
Working Title: Starving Artists: Negotiating musical work for a digital age under Canadian copyright reform
Jessa McAuliffe, BPS, MA (Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Nael Bhanji
Working Title: ‘X’ marks the Nation: Documentary Governance of Gender Diversity in Canada and the Settler Colonial Formation of Nonbinary Identity
Jo Mrozewski, MA (History)
Supervisor: Finis Dunaway
David Newland, Bachelor of Fine Arts, MA (Public Texts)
Supervisor: Heather Nicol
Research: Urbanonyms in Cobourg, Ontario
Derek Newman-Stille, BA Hons (Classical Studies), MA (Anthropology)
Supervisor: Sally Chivers
Working title: Bloods and Crips: Canadian Urban "Dark" Fantasy and the Exploration of Disability Through the Lens of the Monstrous Protagonist
Derek’s current research is focused on the role of the monster in current Canadian urban ‘dark’ fantasy literature and the ability of the body monstrous to be inscribed with alterity. Particularly, Derek is exploring the role of monstrosity as a symbol for exploring issues of disability (such as accessibility, accommodating to a normalised world, and bodily difference). The monster, as an extremified symbol of difference, illustrates the ludicrous nature of not creating accessible spaces for people with disabilities. Derek did his BA (hon) in Classics and Anthropology and his MA in Anthropology. He taught a course on “Werewolves as Symbols of the Human Experience” and “Witchcraft in the Greek and Roman World” at Trent University.
Mike Perry, BA Hons (Political Science), LLB, LLM, MSW
Supervisor: Jonathan Greene
Working title: "Not so Fast": Exploring the Alleged Nexus Between Climate Change and Modern Slavery with the Voices of Survivors
Mike's background is in public leadership, law, and social justice policy. His work focuses on exploring any nexus between climate change and modern slavery. Mike is committed to using scholarship to help combat human trafficking, especially interrogating the economic root causes of modern slavery, human trafficking prevention, and innovative aftercare for survivors.
In 2022, Mike was elected Councillor for Ward 3 in his home community in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
During his Ph.D. studies at Trent, Mike has been an Honourary Research Associate at Oxford University and a teaching fellow at Harvard.
Mike is proud citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
Brenda Quenneville, BA Hons (Political Studies & Psychology), MSW
Supervisor: Heather Nicol
Research: methodologies of practice for de-colonizing psychotherapy
Cynthia Rankin, BA Hons (English), BEd, MEd, MA (Public Texts)
Supervisor: Suzanne Bailey
Research: Gendered narrative patterns adopted to impart stories and representations of Canadian girls and women who accidentally died in Northern Ontario winter settings
Christopher Rooney, BA Hons (Indigenous Studies), MEd
Supervisor: Karleen Pendleton Jimenez
Research: CFL as test site for Canadian masculinity
Peggy Shaughnessy, BSc (Psychology), MA (Canadian Heritage & Development Studies)
Supervisor: Janet Miron
Working title: Whose Truth is it Anyways? Over-representation of Aboriginal Offenders in the Justice System
Juanita Spears, BMusic Hons, MA (Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Karleen Pendleton Jimenez
Research: diverse picture books in Canadian schools as tools for inclusion
Luka Stojanovic, BA (Philosophy), MPhil (Film Studies), MA (Canadian Studies & Indigenous Studies)
Supervisor: Nadine Changfoot
Research: Queering Mental Health: Disability Studies, LGBTQ+ Futurities, and Mental Health-User Activism in Canadian Audio-Visual Media"
Ramesh Thapa, BA (Humanities), MA (English), (Political Science), M Phil (English), MA (Social Science)
Supervisor: Bharti Sethi
Research: phenomenon of deskilling from an intersectional perspective of race, gender, and citizenship status in the Canadian labour market and how it impacts skilled South Asian (SA) immigrants' mental health and well-being
Lisa Trefzger Clarke, BA Hons (English), MAdultEd
Supervisor: Karleen Pendelton Jimenez
Working Title: Learning, Listening and Reflecting: A Case for Intersectional Feminist Therapeutic Modalities
Jackson Walling, BA Hons (Political Science), MA (International Affairs)
Supervisor: Whitney Lackenbauer
Research: Security, Sovereignty & Infrastructure in the Canadian Arctic
Jackson graduated from Laurentian University in 2020, where he was awarded the Gord Dickie Political Science award, earning his Honors Bachelor of Arts specializing in Political Science. In 2023, he completed his Masters of Social Science in International Relations at the University of Glasgow. His master's dissertation focused on the public opinion surrounding Canadian Arctic security, and the foreign policy orientations Canadian’s emulated when it pertains to Canadian Arctic Security. In addition to how people shape their foreign policy beliefs all together. Currently, Jackson is pursuing his PhD in Canadian Studies researching Canadian Arctic security and how infrastructure within the Canadian Arctic can be multi-purpose as well as dual purpose, with the specific notion of conjoining traditional national security and sovereignty concerns with human security perspectives and outlooks. Jackson’s other research interests include, Canadian foreign policy and defense, public opinion and survey research, international relations theory and Great Power competition within the Circumpolar north, and defense spending