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.
John Bessai, BA Hons (History), MA (Political Science)
Supervisors: Liam Mitchell, Heather Nicol
Working Title: The National Film Board of Canada in the Digital Age: A Case Study
John Bessai is a researcher, writer, producer, director, and educator. While completing his MA at York University in International Relations he started making TV documentaries on Canadian politics, art, health care, and the environment. In the mid-1990s - “Greenpeace: A Canadian Discovery was shown across Canada documenting the extraordinary accomplishment of Canadian activists founding a political powerhouse. In the next decade, he developed and produced Green Heroes which took a multiplatform approach to storytelling about change. He also co-produced the authorized TV biography of Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Holly Brant, BA Hons (Psychology), MA (Social Work)
Supervisory: Heather Nicol
Working Title: Lifting up the Voices of Tyendinaga’s Health Care Professionals
Karennahawe is a proud Ihstha and Totah and a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte enrolled in the Canadian Studies Doctoral Graduate Program. She holds a diploma in Social Services from Loyalist College, an Honours BA with a Certificate in Law and Justice from Laurentian University and graduated in 2009 with her Masters in Social Work from Carleton University. Karennahawe has opted to investigate the harmonious or contested emergence of Indigenous people and Social Work. Her research interests lie in the full engagement of Indigenous people in navigating a holistic journey that is inclusive of emotional, physical, spiritual and physical healing with settlers who may be involved in this journey. Effective communication, respect, dialogue, understanding and implementation will be at the root of this quest between Indigenous and Settler relations with the Indigenous person’s optimum vision of wellness as their guide.
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
Sarah Cullingham, BA Hons (Women's Studies) MA (Planning)
Supervisor: Mark Skinner
Working Title: Out of the Weeds and into the Smoke: Accessing cannabis under legalization in Ontario, Canada
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.
Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, BA Hons (English & Cultural Studies), MA (English & Transitional Justice)
Supervisor: Suzanne Bailey
Working Title: A Study of Twentieth-Century English Canadian Nationalism and Auto/Biography in the work of Margaret Laurence, Mordecai Richler, Peter Gzowski, and Gord Downie
My main research interests concern the connections between auto/biographical narrative forms across a variety of popular media and the formation of mid-twentieth century English-Canadian cultural nationalism. The four main figures whose work I consider in my dissertation exemplify a form of celebrity that is mediated through their cultural production and the role their work played in the production and maintenance of nationalist sentiments and discourse over the course of the latter half of the twentieth century in Canada. In my study of life-writing and auto/biography, I propose an approach to investigating specific questions surrounding the power of authorial self-representation and celebrity culture in Canada by considering not only the artistic or professional works and achievements of these individuals, but also the ways in which their lives were understood, written about, and narrated through a variety of media over the course of their respective careers.
Outside the academic sphere, I write and produce a weekly radio show on Trent Radio called Great Canadian Covers, past episodes of which are archived here.
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: The Environment, Climate Change and Modern Slavery
Mike's background is in law and public policy. His work focuses on exploring any nexus between climate change, migration, increased vulnerability and slavery. Mike is committed to using scholarship to help combat human trafficking, especially through the use of quantitative data. His broad interests in this area also include human trafficking for forced labour in Canada; the implications of capitalism in slavery today; and innovating aftercare for survivors, especially in mental health.
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