Graduate Students
Kendall Acker
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel
Thesis Title: American History, Indigenous Representation, Tourism
My research interests focus on the intersection of American tourism, Indigenous representation, and cultural commodification. Specifically, my work examines how twentieth-century theme parks, national parks, and living history attractions embedded settler-colonial ideologies into national narratives through curated misrepresentations of Indigenous peoples. These attractions operated as museum-like institutions, blending fact, fiction, and fantasy to naturalize myths of Manifest Destiny, terra nullius, and the frontier as immutable truths. Central to this study is the “Theme Park Indian,” a caricatured construct that contrasts with lived Indigenous realities of dispossession, resistance, and sovereignty. Ultimately, I aim to position tourist spaces as ideological sites to reveal the deep roots of Indigenous misrepresentation.
Emad Afkham
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch
Thesis Title: Power and Resistance: A Comparative Study of Agrarian Unrest in the Habsburg and Safavid Empires in the Sixteenth Century
My research examines the relationship between the configuration of power by dynastic rulers, such as the Habsburgs and the Safavids in the sixteenth century, and agrarian resistance to this consolidation from a comparative and global perspective. The thesis shows that the road toward the formation of imperial “states” in the following centuries faced resistance from the “common people” because of increasingly unitary social and ideological policies. Constant infringements in the countryside turned peasants into political actors with a voice.
Jane Allred
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Thesis Title: Indology, Grammar and Philosophy of Language in Pre-modern South Asia
Khalid Bani Oraba
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Jocelyn Hendrickson
Thesis Title: Political Authority, Accountability, and Resistance in Early Ibadi Thought: Responses to Political Despotism (1st–6th Centuries AH / 7th–12th Centuries CE)
My research focuses on early Islamic political thought, with particular attention to the Ibadi tradition and its engagement with political authority, accountability, and resistance to tyranny. I examine how Ibadi scholars articulated theories of legitimate governance and compare their approaches with those of other Islamic legal and theological traditions. My broader interests include Islamic law, legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), intellectual history, manuscript studies, and the development of religious and political thought in the formative and medieval Islamic periods.
Jeffrey Behrens
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Natalie Van Deusen
Thesis Title: Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse, Re-enactment, Radicalization, Nationalism
My research interests focus on Scandinavia and the British Isles during the Early Middle Ages. I am particularly interested in the Viking Age and the Old Norse corpus. My current research examines the misrepresentation and appropriation of medieval Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon language, culture, and religion by radical and far-right political organizations. This work also explores historical re-enactment in an attempt to understand both its potential as a legitimate mode of historical inquiry through experimental archaeology and living history, as well as its unique role in the manufacture of heritage and national identity.
Samantha Blais
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Piper
Thesis Title: Struggling to Survive: Health Impacts of Hydroelectric Development in Northern Manitoba's Indigenous Communities, 1954-2018
My research analyses the health impacts of hydroelectric development on Misipawistik Cree Nation, Pimicikamak Cree Nation, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, Tataskweyk Cree Nation, Fox Lake Cree Nation, and Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba. By examining the impacts of mega-hydroelectric developments in northern Manitoba and focusing on the social determinants of health, meaning the social, economic, cultural and political inequities that impact the health of communities and individuals specifically in Indigenous communities, I will investigate how hydroelectric development has caused the public health crisis that these communities have struggled with for more than half a century. I will also explore what historical dynamics enabled hydroelectric development to occur and continue with little to no consultation in northern Manitoba despite the enormous health impacts.
Deepro Chakraborty
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Thesis Title: Critical edition of Jagadhara’s Bālabodhinī on the Kashmiri recension of the Kātantra grammar with the subcommentary of Śitikaṇṭha (Book I)
My research interests include Sanskrit philology and textual criticism, codicology, Sanskrit linguistic traditions, Sanskrit literature, Indo-European linguistics and premodern South Asian history.
Tiffany Chan
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Aya Fujiwara
Thesis Topic: My thesis topic is on the Indochinese Refugee Crisis (1979-1997), focusing on policy and refugee resettlement in Alberta
My research examines the immigration and integration process of the Sino-Vietnamese in Alberta during the Indochinese Refugee Crisis. My project investigates how their identity and sense of belonging transformed over two decades and explores how ethnic identity, historical anti-Chinese sentiment and pre-existing community structures shaped the integration of Sino-Vietnamese refugees.
Elora Charabin
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Selina Stewart
Thesis Topic: Myth, Religion and Culture in Ancient Greece
My current focus is on alternative pedagogical research methods, such as videogames and other modern interpretations, as they relate to Classics. I am interested in Ancient Greek poetry, specifically epics and how myth and religion shaped everyday lives of the Ancient Greeks. I am also interested in prostitution in Ancient Greece and the role of women in society.
Gavin Cui
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Ryan Dunch
Thesis Title: Material culture of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the CBI theatre 1942-1945
Benjamin Dompreh Darkwa
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Ann McDougall and Dr Liza Piper
Thesis Title: Environment and Disease in the Era of Colonial Gold Coast (1919-1945)
My research interest is in the history of environment and medicine in pre-colonial and colonial Africa. Primarily, my interest concerns how culture, environmental changes and resilience have shaped the course of disease history across Africa. With a prime focus on the colonial era of Gold Coast (contemporary Ghana), my MA thesis seeks to understand how environmental conditions and African tropical diseases impacted colonial authorities and their general responses toward their new environment. Put differently, the work seeks to examine how the perceived notion of West Africa as “The White Man’s Grave” -due to the mass death of missionaries to Africa in the 19th century- shaped the subsequent colonial responses towards the tropical conditions and diseases in Africa during the 20th century.
Ashland Douglas
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch
Thesis Title: Early Modern Germanic Witchcraft and Occult Practices
My research interests are the cultural history of Germany, in particular the relationship between German peasantry and witchcraft. My prior research has included a case study of the Temple Anneke (Anna Roleffes) in the 17th century, a cunning woman accused of witchcraft, as well as a discussion on apocalypticism and Germany through an examination of Thomas Müntzer and his millennial movement. I am hoping to re-examine early modern Germanic witchcraft experiences through an emotional perspective, emphasizing the importance and power of the history of emotions.
Westin Dowie
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Jeremy Rossiter
Thesis Title: Assent of the Gods: The Legitimization of Conflict through Religious Narratives in Antonine and Severan Rome
I am interested in the ways in which religion was used by the elites of the Roman Empire to legitimize their rule and justify imperial policy and conflicts. Through the study of ancient Roman artwork, architecture, and primary sources, I hope to illustrate the importance of religious narratives in the construction of imperial identities in times of conflict and social strife.
Marissa Duffield
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Adam Kemezis
Thesis Topic: My area of research is the role of women in religion and politics in late republican and early imperial Rome
Patrick Erickson
PhD - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel
Thesis Topic: How Outsider-induced Environmental Harm Impacts Sámi Culture
I am interested in how environmental change, such as climate change or water pollution, impacts the Sámi and other Arctic Indigenous communities, particularly as it pertains to impacting their culture and traditional practices.
I am also interested in how these communities are adapting and helping combat the local impacts.
More broadly, I research the Sámi experience during World War II and post-war reconstruction.
Aolani Eslava
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr David Marples
Thesis Topic: Eastern Europe in the Post-Soviet Era
I am primarily interested in the political dynamics and national identities for countries in Central and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union. From the democratic backsliding in Belarus to the threat of Ukraine’s sovereignty, I seek to explore the causes and effects of these phenomena.
Michael Gillingham
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Robert Brazeau
Thesis Title and Topic: Irish Literature and Religion
I am tracing depictions of Jews and Judaism in Irish literature from 1800 to the present. I am focusing on how these Jewish characters are constructed as maleficent or beneficent strangers in the context of an emerging Irish Catholic nationalism. Central to this project is the character Leopold Bloom from James Joyce's novel Ulysses. Bloom's identity as a Jew, more prescribed than embraced by Bloom, situates Bloom as a test of various forms of Irish hospitality and cosmopolitanism.
Baktash Goudarzi
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Heather Coleman
Thesis Title: Russia Abroad: Iran and the Russian Diaspora, 1917-1939
Averie Graham-Meuchel
Master of Arts - Classical Archaeology
Supervisor: Dr Craig Harvey
Thesis Title: Rome’s Laissez-Faire Economic Policies as Colonial Influence
My graduate research is focused on the production of ceramics in Roman Gaul during the Early Imperial period, analyzing how Rome’s laissez-faire approach to this industry functioned as a form of colonialism. My general research interests include Roman frontiers and provinces, Romanization and imperialism, local economic relations with the Roman military, and the performance of power.
Abigail Harding
Master of Arts - Classical Archaeology
Supervisor: Dr Craig Harvey
Thesis Topic: Household Archaeology; Textiles; Economy; Ritual and Religious Practice
I'm interested in the household context, its quotidian objects and spaces, as reflecting themes of religion and ritual practices, gender dynamics, spatial organization, and social and economic statuses. My MA research focuses on household textile production in the Southern Levant to examine these themes while considering regional and individual nuances of cultural expression.
Amilia Hildahl
Master of Arts - Classical Archaeology
Supervisor: Dr Margriet Haagsma
Thesis Title: Kastraki Arabises: Bronze Age Settlements in the Thessalian Hinterlands
My research focuses on Kastraki Arabises, a site documented by the Central Achaia Phthiotis Survey (CAPS), in Thessaly, Greece. My work will examine ceramic material and archaeological evidence from Kastraki Arabises to determine how other similar Bronze Age sites in Thessaly were used, as well as their impact on the landscape of the region.
Malcolm Isaac
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel
Thesis Topic: My area of research is in western Canadian and Indigenous histories with the thematic focus of resistance and activism.
Abbigail Ketsa
Master of Arts - Classical Archaeology
Supervisor: Dr Margriet Haagsma
Thesis Topic: Domestic Archaeology
My research interests include Bronze Age archaeology, as well as constructions of folklore, monstrosity, and Otherness in the ancient world's material cultures.
Amani Khelifa
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Hill
Thesis Title: Islamic intellectual history of North Africa
I am a graduate student currently pursuing my PhD in History at the University of Alberta. My research interests broadly cover the philosophy of medieval/premodern Islamic (Mālikī) thought in North Africa. My goal is to study the classical legal texts of this region with an eye to the deeper epistemology and social theories at work in them. You can think of my project as an effort to translate not only the words of these texts, but also their ideas, concepts, and underlying outlook. In a nutshell, my research intersects intellectual history, North African history, Islamic law, epistemology, and virtue ethics.
Jemima Kiboro
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Felice Lifshitz
Thesis Title: A Sociological Study of the Members of the Roman Catholic Reform Movement Faith Communities Who Attend Masses led by Womenpriests
Catholic women are situated within a patriarchal institution with a long-standing socio-historical context that has historically marginalized women both theologically and sociologically.
This qualitative research therefore aims to explore the Faith Communities of the RCWP reform movement. The rationale behind the study is twofold: First, I want people to understand the agency of women's spiritual authority and the wealth of faith and creativity they can bring to the Church. Assumptions: The study assumes that the followers of the RCWP reform movement value the Roman Catholic traditions hence their decision to remain in the movement rather than joining other reform movements like the Women Church which does not retain any aspect of the Roman Church. 2. The RCWP faith communities believe in the genius of women and so they have hope that the institution might change its structures and admit women into the priesthood
Hannah Kirchenbauer
Master of Arts - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Natalie Van Deusen
Thesis Title: Witchcraft and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Literature
Yasemin Kurt
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr James Muir
Thesis Topic: Legal History
Yasemin is interested in the experience of marriage and divorce in Alberta between 1919-1929.
Steven Langois
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Piper
Nathan Lapierre
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Shannon Bower
Thesis Topic: I study environmental policies in the Prairie West with a special focus on pest control. My thesis will focus on uncovering the ontological foundations of Alberta's Rat Control Program, exposing the connections between animal eradication policies and settler colonialism. One other goal is to highlight historical and recent alternatives and non-destructive control measures.
Lea Lavy
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Stephen Kent
Thesis Title: The Abuse of Women and Children in Hassidic Groups
My research explores ancient customs, devotional religious practices, and religious norms that lead to fanaticism and sectism, bring the practice of listening to the Rabbi to the extreme. The purpose of her research is to raise awareness to issues of abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community as well as abuses that may result from religious affiliations.
Lingshu Liu
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Ryan Dunch
Thesis Title: The Colorful Bridge: Chinese Christian Posters in Modern China, 1876-1949
I am interested in the history of Christianity in East Asia, illustrated prints, and the role of images in conveying information. My doctoral project analyzes the production, circulation, and usage of Chinese Christian posters printed in the twentieth century in China. I investigate posters from a transnational perspective and explore the global network behind using posters for evangelism.
Bethany McMillan
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Liza Piper and Dr Tolly Bradford
Thesis Title: Corporate Power and Imperial Authority in the Fur Trade: The Hudson’s Bay Company in the Athabasca Region at the Height of Competition, 1780-1821
Chartered companies, such as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), played a powerful role in the expansion of the British Empire in what we call Canada's north west today. I am interested in the structures of authority and power systems within the HBC as a corporation. These ideas play into understandings of corporate colonialism and the history of capitalism.
Grace Nicoll
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr John Kitchen
Thesis Title: The Ostentation of Many Crowns: The Medieval Papal Tiara and its Visualization of Ecclesial Power, 1198-1303
My research project concerns the depiction and use of the papal tiara during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Visual and literary evidence for the headpiece increased dramatically during this period, and the growing visibility of the tiara corresponded to a time when papal claims to power were at their most extreme. The tiara demonstrates the central role that objects played in the popes’ attempts to legitimize their claims to lordship. This divisive object encoded the doctrine of papal supremacy, and the tiara is a lens through which I am viewing differing perspectives on the nature of medieval papal authority.
Mitchell Norenberg
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch
Thesis Title: Early Modern social and material culture in Central Europe
I am pursuing my Master of Arts in History with a focus on Early Modern Central Europe, particularly during the eighteenth century. My interests are primarily in social history and material culture where I am intrigued by how different materials were shaped by and, in turn, shaped the world they inhabited and helped to signal, reinforce, or challenge ideas of identity, race, social order, sexuality, and gender.
Nolan Orvold
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr David Marples
Thesis Title: Ukrainian nationalism since independence
Ukrainian history from the Kyivan Rus to present day. Modern Ukrainian politics and culture during the late Soviet period and after Ukrainian independence. As well as Central and Eastern European history under communism.
Sean Patterson
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr David Marples
Thesis Title: "What Do we Strive For? A Transnational History of Makhnovist Ideology and Identities in War, Exile, and Memory"
My dissertation research investigates the Makhnovist movement (1917-1921) as a borderland phenomenon whose ideology and identities were shaped by its unique location at the cultural and political crossroads of southern Ukraine's Zaporizhia region.
Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Natalie VanDeusen and Dr Brandon Alakas
Thesis Title: Memory, Power, and Churching Reform in England: A Bourdieusian Analysis
Early modern ritual reform in England, gender and Reformation, religious reform and the intellectual lives of early modern women, early modern religious conversion, recusancy and church papistry, memory and reform, women and liturgy, liturgical change, medieval England, German, French, and Latin languages.
Meg Rezewski
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Jeremy Rossiter
Thesis Title: Burial Practices as Evidence of Cultural Resilience and the Persistence of Belief Systems Through Periods of Colonization
Madhusudan Rimal
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Thesis Title: A Textual & Historical Study of the Laṅkāvatāra: A Sanskrit Manuscript of Buddhist Medicine
I am broadly interested in the history of Indian traditional medicine called Ayurveda. My proposed research explores the tenth century Nepalese Sanskrit hitherto unpublished manuscript called Laṅkāvatāra. By the textual and historical study of this manuscript, I want to look at the role of this Laṅkāvatāra in the milieu of Ayurveda, how this seemingly Buddhist text came into the medical system, and how Buddhist it is, if at all.
Paul Royer
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Liza Piper
Thesis Title: Project Cauldron or: How Alberta Almost Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
My research interests include western Canadian history (specifically Alberta), military history, American history, and the history of science and technology. I am interested in the use of nuclear weapons for non-military purposes (also referred to as Peaceful Nuclear Explosions or PNEs). For my project, I aim to conduct a scholarly investigation of Project Cauldron. Project Cauldron was the proposed use of nuclear weapons in the Fort McMurray Oil Sands during the mid-twentieth century. I wish to examine Project Cauldron from economic, political and environmental lenses.
Tulika Singh
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dagmar Wujastyk
Thesis Title: (Dis)ordered Bodies in Early India. Perceptions of Normative, Nonnormative, and Disabled Bodies in the Indic Context
I am writing my dissertation on concepts of bodies and disabilities in early South Asia. My research interests include the social, cultural, medical, and disability history of premodern South Asia. In my doctoral project, I draw on textual and visual sources to examine how discourses on bodily disorders conceptualize “disability” in relation to class/caste, gender/sex, age, and religion based identities.
Anya Smolny
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Adam Kemezis
Thesis Title: Pluto Wept: The Representation of the Chthonic in Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae"
Erin Swartz
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr David Marples
Thesis Topic: 19th- to 21st-century Ukraine
I am primarily interested in the Ukrainian National Revival and how both the public & intelligentsia utilized this renewed interest in traditional Slavic culture to define a Ukrainian national identity. Additionally, I am interested in the significance of a “usable past” in the post-Soviet period where Ukraine’s sovereignty as a nation is threatened.
Zhu Tang
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Jocelyn Hendrickson
Thesis Title: Contestation in Silence: Intrareligious Interactions Between the Tijaniyya and the Qadiriyya Sufi Brotherhoods in Contemporary Mauritania
I'm mainly interested in the intellectual and sociocultural history of the Tijaniyya and the Qadiriyya orders in Mauritania. I hope to further investigate how these two prominent Sufi brotherhoods interact/compete with each other in contemporary times. I'm also curious on Muslim discourses on slavey and entangled racial relations, and how these discourses keep shaping Mauritanian society.
Charlotte Taylor
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Liza Piper
Thesis Title: The Bighorn Dam and Abraham Lake Reservoir
Konstantin Tebenev
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch
Thesis Title: German Journeymen Associations and the Rise of Misogyny in Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries
Connor J. Thompson
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Shannon Studen Bower and Dr William Arnal
Thesis Title: The Pioneer-as-Symbol: Historical Memory and Public Commemoration on the Canadian Prairies, 1945–1976
Alex Throndson
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel
Area of Study: First Nations political organizations
My research interests are in the political history of First Nations in Canada, particularly in political activism in the 20th century. My MA thesis is focused on the rank-and-file of the Indian Association of Alberta. I am further interested in the way the problems of individual reserves manifested in such an organization.
Arwen Thysse 陳藹文
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr John Kitchen and Dr Natalie Van Deusen
Thesis Title: Simply Being: Mixed Race Experiences in Medieval Scandinavia and the Norse Diaspora
I am interested in mixed race experiences, intercultural relations, and cross-cultural contacts in the global Middle Ages, as well as questions of personal and social identities.
Lily Trivett
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Frances Pownall
Thesis Topic: Alexander the Great
My research interests focus on Alexander the Great and understanding what he might have been like as a person rather than as the heroic figure he’s perceived as. I am interested in looking through primary and secondary sources to find the influences those close to him (his parents, teachers, friends) would have had, and whether or not they directly impacted his behaviour in life and battle.
Nicholas Tsui
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch and Dr Ryan Dunch
Thesis Topic: Jesuit missionaries in China and Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries
Nakita Valerio - Vanier Scholar
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Hill
Thesis Title: Keepers of the Qur'an: Moroccan Women's Religious Literacy and Leadership
My research examines the development of religious literacy, leadership, and socio-political standing of Moroccan women Huffāẓ (Keepers of the Qur'an) and the roles of religion, religious texts, and practices in shaping their experiences, communities, and lives. My research is comparative in its approach (being cross-regional and looking to urban and rural women/girls Qur'anic schools) and I seek also to understand how the gendering of these spaces in traditional communities impacts personal (religio-political) identity and community, especially within a global context of growing pious resistance to encroaching secularity as well as local iterations of patriarchy.
Sharon Venne
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr James Muir
Thesis Title: Indigenous Treaties: Concentration on Treaties Six, the Crown and International Significance of the Treaty Making
Adrian Wawrejko
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Liza Piper
Thesis Title: "Blueprints for Tourism": State Intervention and the Tourism Industry in Alberta and British Columbia, 1945-1980
The development of the tourism industry in post-1945 Western Canada, specifically Alberta and British Columbia, is inextricably linked with notions of modernization, standardization, and professionalization. Central to these concepts is the state, which, through direct and indirect interventions, played a multifaceted role in steering and shaping policies and frameworks that facilitated transformations of the industry.
My research will analyze the interplay between state intervention and the development of the tourism industry in the West between 1945 and 1980. It will examine why tourism was identified as an industry requiring state intervention and how the postwar belief in modernism influenced government approaches to this sector. By considering different levels of government (municipal, provincial, and federal) in this process, this study will also explore the coordination efforts in shaping not only provincial tourism but also regional tourism. Furthermore, the dynamics between the state and private stakeholders – businesses, entrepreneurs, industry associations, and residents – will be investigated to analyze how private actors both participated in and responded to state-led tourism initiatives.