Current PhD Students

Joy Addae-Madzi

Joy Addae-Madzi

Research Interest/Specialization

Feminist disability theories, Post-conflict Reconstruction and Transitional Justice.

Kaya Anderson

Kaya Anderson

Arpana Awwal

Arpana Awwal

Email: aawwal2@uwo.ca

Office: LH 3239

Thesis: The Question of Masculinity in Humanitarian Assistance and Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Refugee Camps in Bangladesh: The Case of the Rohingya Refugee Men.

Research Interest/Specialization

gender representation in South Asian popular culture and cinema; men and masculinity in post-conflict communities; gender and humanitarian aid organizations; gender and transitional justice.

Thesis: The Question of Masculinity in Humanitarian Assistance and Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Refugee Camps in Bangladesh: The Case of the Rohingya Refugee Men.

Sydney Brouillard-Coyle

Sydney Brouillard-Coyle

Research Interest/Specialization

Transgender Liberation, Asexuality, Queer Studies, Feminist Community Care, Arts-Based Activism, Queer Social Justice, Queer Literature, Queer Education.

Lisaann Borden

Lisaann Borden

Peyton Campbell

Peyton Campbell

Research Interest/Specialization

Queer ecology, gender and the environment, queer temporalities, sexual violence prevention, the politics of reproduction, and gender and labour.

Emily Carrothers

Emily Carrothers

Email: ecarroth@uwo.ca

Thesis: (De)constructing Graduate Social Work Education: Understanding Orientations to Poverty and Marginalization in Canada.

Research Interest/Specialization

Discourse; conceptualizations of precarity in helping professions; LGB and T affirmative praxis; gender, sexuality and queer theory; Foucauldian notions of power/knowledge and governmentality; biopower and the taxonomy and governance of life at the site of the body

Teaching

WS 2260 - Women, Law & Social Change (2018/2019) WS 1020E - Introduction to Women's Studies (2017/2018)

Thesis: (De)constructing Graduate Social Work Education: Understanding Orientations to Poverty and Marginalization in Canada.

Sohini Chatterjee

Sohini Chatterjee

Hale Doguoglu

Hale Doguoglu

Email: hdoguogl@uwo.ca

2018 M.A. Philosophy, Western University 2014 B.A. Economics and Philosophy, The University of Nottingham (UK)

Research Interest/Specialization

Feminist ethics; feminist epistemology; feminist moral psychology; institutional (dis)trust within the context of marginalization; collective trauma and trust.

2018 M.A. Philosophy, Western University 2014 B.A. Economics and Philosophy, The University of Nottingham (UK)

Jill Madelynne Hoffman

Jill Madelynne Hoffman

Email: jhoffm46@uwo.ca

Thesis topic: Picturing Disbility: Narrative Resistance in Autobiographical Comics and Zines

Research Interest/Specialization

Feminist disability studies, feminist pedagogy, arts based research, and death and dying.

Thesis topic: Picturing Disbility: Narrative Resistance in Autobiographical Comics and Zines

Cynthia Lam

Cynthia Lam

Email: wlam243@uwo.ca

Dissertation Topic: Women, Queers, and Nature: Thrifting Relations through Revisionist Storytelling

Research Interest/Specialization

Ecocriticism, environmental humanities, medical humanities, posthumanism, and popular culture in East Asia.

Dissertation Topic: Women, Queers, and Nature: Thrifting Relations through Revisionist Storytelling

Erika Lara Vargas

Erika Lara Vargas

Email: elaravar@uwo.ca

As a Colombian-Uruguayan student, my research has been framed within Latin American contexts and considering topics such as menstruation, public policies, social representations, menstrual products, and epistemologies of menstrual discourses.

Research Interest/Specialization

My Doctoral research aims to examine how discourses and practices associated with menstrual activisms in Ontario and Montevideo produce, reproduce, resist, and transform normative understandings of menstruation, menstruators, and menstruating bodies. My previous work has explored social representations of menstruation and their relationship to Value-Added Tax (VAT) on menstrual products, VAT as a form of gender and economic violence, and androcentric and feminist epistemologies in the construction of menstrual discourses.

As a Colombian-Uruguayan student, my research has been framed within Latin American contexts and considering topics such as menstruation, public policies, social representations, menstrual products, and epistemologies of menstrual discourses.

Kelly McGillivray

Kat Newman

Kat Newman

Research Interest/Specialization

Kat's research looks at how climate change effects transgender individuals through quantitative and qualitative methods. Namely, looking into health outcomes, urbanization, and vulnerability risk in social-ecological-geographical terms. Their work draws upon social and queer ecologies viewed through one lens.

Nancy Osei-Kye

Nancy Osei-Kye

Email: noseikye@uwo.ca

Thesis: Centering African Women in Discourses on Campus Sexual Violence.

Research Interest/Specialization

Decolonial theories and epistemologies, African women, Gender and Sexual-Based Violence.

Thesis: Centering African Women in Discourses on Campus Sexual Violence.

Victoria Ocran

Victoria Ocran

Email: vocran@uwo.ca

Research Interest/Specialization

Climate Change and Food/Water Insecurity; Women’s Reproductive and Maternal Health; Sanitation and Waste Management; Physical and Sexual Violence.

Michael Osei

Michael Osei

Email: mosei3@uwo.ca

Research Interest/Specialization

Indigenous Female healers and their contributions to the Traditional Medical System of Ghana, Female Education, Welfare and Community Development in Colonial Ghana. Queer History of Indigenous African Societies.

Jennifer Marie Shaw

Jennifer Marie Shaw

Email: jmshaw@uwo.ca

Thesis: Canadian Jewish Women and the War Effort, 1939-1945.

Thesis: Canadian Jewish Women and the War Effort, 1939-1945.

Shambhavi Siddhi

Shambhavi Siddhi

Email: ssiddhi@uwo.ca

Thesis: Epistemic Resistance: Kashmiri Women and India’s Femonationalist Project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Research Interest/Specialization

My research focuses on the resistance movements of Kashmiri women and how they challenge the Indian occupation in Jammu and Kashmir. My research interests include decolonial studies, resistance studies, South Asian studies, postcolonial studies, and conflict and genocide studies.

Thesis: Epistemic Resistance: Kashmiri Women and India’s Femonationalist Project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehnaz Tabassum

Mehnaz Tabassum

Research Interest/Specialization

I am a first-generation immigrant in Canada from Bangladesh. My research examines the experiences of academic immigrants in North America, with a focus on their trailing partners and their trials and challenges as family members and mothers in the process of migration.

Akola Thompson

Akola Thompson

Email: athom382@uwo.ca

Akola is a writer and researcher rooted in Black-Indigenous Caribbean feminism, bridging activism and scholarship to advance gender equality. She is the current Managing Director of Tamùkke Feminists, a queer-led LBT+ collective in Guyana driving intersectional initiatives in sexual health and reproductive justice.

Research Interest/Specialization

Akola's research explores the intersections of reproductive justice, extractivism, and environmental harm. A 2023 recipient of The Commonwealth Youth Award for Gender Equality, Akola has led impactful projects on LBT+ sex education, GBV+ guide app creation, and policy reform. She holds an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of Sussex and is currently pursuing a PhD in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western University (Environment & Sustainability).

Akola is a writer and researcher rooted in Black-Indigenous Caribbean feminism, bridging activism and scholarship to advance gender equality. She is the current Managing Director of Tamùkke Feminists, a queer-led LBT+ collective in Guyana driving intersectional initiatives in sexual health and reproductive justice.

Nadine Wettlaufer

Nadine Wettlaufer