Graduate Students


Abubakar Abdulkadir
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Vanier Scholar
Supervisor: Dr E. Ann McDougall

Dissertation Title: The 'Emergence' of the Verse Tradition in Mauritania: Intellectual History and the Culture of Islamics Scholarship in the "Land of Million Poets".

My research - which focuses on Mauritania's scholarly and literary traditions within Islam, Arabic poetry, intellectual religious thought, and examination of scholarly libraries and archives - brings to the fore Saharan perspectives on knowledge production and transmission.

Emad Afkham
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch

Dissertation Title: The Popular Resistance among German Peasant in the Late 16th Century

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Jane Allred
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk

DissertationTitle: Indology, Grammar and Philosophy of Language in Pre-modern South Asia

Kyla Bansemer
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Beverly Lemire

Thesis Title: Early Modern Alchemy in England

Samantha Blais
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Piper

Dissertation 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.

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Frederik Blank
Exhange Student - Master of Arts - History and Native Studies

Dissertation Title: “They too founded Canada”? Situating the History of German settler-migration to Canada in Settler Colonial Theory

I am interested in Canadian settler colonialism and settler colonial theory. Moreover, I am looking at colonial history and legacies, and the public debates on these topics. This also includes public history and memory in Canada, Germany and beyond.

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Deepro Chakraborty
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk

Dissertation 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.

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Chris Chang-Yen Phillips
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Liza Piper

Dissertation Title: Paleontology and Power in Yoho National Park

Chris is fascinated by fossil sites like the Burgess Shale, their ability to connect us with the deep past, and power relationships exposed by negotiations over access and activities there. He loves learning about science, nature, and history, especially through his local history podcast Let's Find Out.

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Westin Dowie
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr. Jeremy Rossiter

Dissertation 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.

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Benjamin Dompreh Darkwa
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Ann McDougal 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.

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Rowan Drisner
Master of Arts - Ancient Societies and Cultures
Supervisor: Dr Adam Kemezis

Thesis Title: Third Century Roman History
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Karrie Englander
Doctor of Philosophy - Classical Archaeology
Supervisor: Dr Margriet Haagsma

Dissertation Title: Ancient Greek Medical Practices within the Domestic Sphere during the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods (600 BCE - 31 BCE)

Ancient Greek medicine was a varying conglomeration of beliefs and practices that changed due to geography, philosophy, time period, gender, and social class. Medical practitioners in the domestic sphere relied on traditional and local knowledge that varied across geographical bounds, dependent on the local resources available. My research is based on existing evidence that can inform us about ancient care for the sick and the local resources available for use in those medical practices. This will include an analysis of the spatial data to find out what it can tell us with regards to the spread of specific medical knowledge.

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Michael Gillingham
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Robert Brazeau

Thesis Title/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.

Kate Goodhelpsen
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr James Muir

Thesis Title: Canada's First World War Nursing Sisters

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Mack Raymond Harding
Master of Arts - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Peter Sabo and Dr David Quinter

Thesis Title: Heroes of Old, Warriors of Renown: Historicizing the Role of the Nephilim in Popular Culture

To best understand the resurgence of interest in Nephilim, I analyze the various contexts they are found in by focusing primarily on aspects of horror and monstrosity. Doing so helps explain the resurgence of these creatures in popular media and why they have been increasingly associated with esoteric horror narratives as opposed to the biblical tales they originate from. This study explores how these sources (and many others) make claims on concepts of heroism, victimhood, gender, and birthright by utilizing the Nephilim mythos.

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Nathan Hodder
Master of Arts - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Lorne Zelyck

Dissertation Title: Lilith: From Mesopotamian Demon to Wife of Adam

Ancient Judaism, Ancient Christianity, Ancient Near Eastern Religion, Greco-Roman Religion, Hybridization, Historical Criticism, Textual Criticism, Biblical Criticism, Theory of Religion, Lilith, Satan, Demons, Magic, Cosmogony.

Shu-Chen Hsu-Hsiung
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Ryan Dunch

Dissertation Title: Chinese Christianity Globalized: the transnational movement of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and its relationship with the modern Chinese states: 1922-1997

My research interets include the fields of Christianity in China, modern East Asian history, and the globalization of religion. My subject is a Chinese Christian movement variously named as the "Little Flock," the "Local Church," or the Lord's recovery.

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Alla Hurska
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr David R. Marples

Thesis Topic: Arctic, Russia, Icebreakers, International trade

Alla Hurska is an Associate Fellow with the International Centre for Policy Studies (Kyiv), and an Analyst in the Jamestown Foundation (Washington, US) and she is pursuing her Masters degree in History at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her areas of interest include geo-economic and geopolitical issues in the post-Soviet area, including the Arctic region. Together with Prof. Marples she just published a book "Joseph Stalin. A Reference Guide to His Life and Works".

Samantha Kallen
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Gerhard Ens

Project Title: Canada and the Cold War

My general topics of interest include 19th and 20th century Western Canadian history, and Cold War history. In combining these interests, the topic of my Master's thesis project is Alberta in the Cold War, in particular, Alberta civil defense and the construction of bomb shelters. I plan to explore multiple questions over the course of my research, such as how the Cold War affected Alberta, why were bomb shelters constructed, and how were bomb shelters a manifestation of cold War reality or consciousness.

Aditi Khare
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Beverly Lemire

Dissertation Title: Industralisation/De-Industralisation of Indian Textile Industry under Early British Colonial System, 1750-1850

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Jemima Kiboro
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Felice Lifshitz

Dissertation Title: Who are they? A Sociological Study of the Faith Communities who Attend Masses led by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests Reform Movement

Intrigued by the presence and activities of the Roman Catholic WomenPriests reform movement in Canada and the USA, I am motivated to investigate the Faith Community of men and women who attend these women priests-led liturgies to determine who exactly they are, what exactly brings them to the women-led liturgy and how they define for themselves the meaning of being followers of the RCWP reform movement. I will further investigate the reasons that lead them to attend these liturgies, the spiritual needs that are fulfilled in by the RCWP, and finally, what they wish for the future of RCC.The rationale behind the study is that 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.

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Hannah Kirchenbauer
Master of Arts - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Natalie Van Deusen

Dissertation Title: Witchcraft and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Literature

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Iaroslav Kovalchuk
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Heather Coleman

Dissertation Title: Sovietizations of Western Ukraine: The Communists Party in Galicia and Transcarpathia

My dissertation project compares the establishment of the Communist Party of Ukraine in the two West Ukrainian regions, Galicia and Transcarpathia, which became the new western borderlands of the Soviet Union after World War Two. I see my study as a culturally and socially informed research of the central political institution of the Soviet system, the Party. In general, I am interested in the 20th-century history of the socialist regimes, their legitimacy, and how they connected with society.

Ana Kupinska
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr David R. Marples

Dissertation Title: Between Glory and Sorrow: building of the national history narrative in post-maiden Ukraine

Steven Langois
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Piper

Lea Lavy
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Kent

Dissertation 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.

Hsiao-Hsuan Lee
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Jennifer Jay

Dissertation Title: Buddhist Culture and Family Violence in Tang (618-906) and Song (960-1276) China

My research interest is family history in Tang and Song China. My thesis will argue that the culture of Buddhism played a significant role, alongside Confucianism, in negotiating domestic violence and building family relationships in Tang and Song China, two dynasties stretching from the seventh to thirteenth centuries.

Bethany McMillan
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Gerhard Ens

Thesis Title: Early Nineteenth Century European Fur Trade Perspective of Indigenous Perceptions of the Rocky Mountains

Ian Miller
Doctor of Philosophy - Classics
Supervisor: Dr. Adam Kemezis and Dr. Selina Stewart

Dissertation Title: Morphophonology and Semantics of Latin Diminutives

I have a general interest in the reading, writing and speaking of Latin and Classical Greek. Neo-Latin (i.e. Latin used from the Renaissance to the modern day) and the Latin from the Late Roman Republic especially interest me. My research, general speaking, focuses on the phonetic development involved in these languages. In my doctoral dissertation I will investigate the morphophonology and semantics of proper Latin diminutives and other words which have only the appearance of proper Latin diminutives.

Frederick Mills
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr David Marples

Dissertation Title: Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power Instruments of Conduct of Soviet Middle Eastern Policy, 1955-1964

Kristina Molin Cherneski
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Beverly Lemire

Dissertation Title: Keeping oneself to oneself: Privacy in 19th-Century Britain

My research explores the changing meanings and manifestations of privacy in 19th-century Britain. I am interested in tracing how the idea of personal privacy was shaped by social forces like urbanization, industrialization and expanding government, as well as by individual concerns and cultural factors like gender, race and class.

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Grace Nicoll
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr John Kitchen

Dissertation Title: The Two Swords: Medieval Popes and the Power of Ritual, 1075-1300

I study the Middle Ages, and my area of research focuses on the papacy during the high medieval period. Papal supremacy came to be expressed in increasingly dramatic ways from 1075 to 1300, and this raises the question of the role that art and ritual played in the popes’ attempts to legitimize their claims to lordship. These claims embed themselves in the symbolism of ecclesiastical artwork and also in the religious rituals described within liturgical texts. The interpretation of such sources requires an interdisciplinary approach, and I will utilize anthropological methods and iconographic analysis in my examination of papal power.

Francois Pageau
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Felice Lifshitz

DissertationTitle: From Turlupins to Vaudois: Heresy and Witchcraft in Arras, 1420-1460

I am interested in the conflation of heresy and witchcraft in 15th century's Northern France. Using as a starting point two trials in the city of Arras, one against heretics in 1420 and the other against witches in 1460, I explore various factors which have influenced the elaboration of the learned theory of witchcraft in the 15th century: the council of Basel, demonological treatises, and the spread of apocalypticism following the growth of Hussitism. I work as Sessional Instructor at Campus Saint-Jean. I am co-author, with Andrew Gow and Robert Desjardins, of The Arras Witch Treatises (Penn State University Press, 2016).

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Colby Parkkila
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel

Thesis Title: Creating Canada’s ‘National Playground’: Tourism Development, Indigenous Labour, and Representations of Indigeneity in Rocky Mountains Park, 1880-1930

I am interested in post-confederation Canadian history, primarily in the areas of Indigenous and settler relations, the National Parks system, Rocky Mountain history, Rocky Mountain tourism, and prairie history. My research is a historical analysis of the tourism economy in Rocky Mountains Park, now known as Banff National Park, between 1880 and 1930. I seek to explore how Indigenous Peoples were involved and invested in the economy of Rocky Mountains Park, what the relationship between tourism companies and Indigenous labourers was like, and how Rocky Mountains Park and Indigeneity were represented in tourism literature and promotional materials.

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Sean Patterson
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr David R. 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.

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Riley Penny
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Jaymie Heilman and Dr James Muir

Thesis Title: Law and Exile: Cold War Politics, Canadian Law, and Chilean Refugees, 1973-1983

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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.

Madhusudan Rimal
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dominik Wujastyk

Dissertation 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.

Catherine Saffran
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Jane Samson

Project Title: Imperial Masculinity during the British Empire

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Rachel Schmalz
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr David R. Marples

Dissertation Title: Nikita Khrushchev and the Crimean Peninsula

My research will examine the implications of Nikita Khrushchev's transfer of the Crimean Peninsula to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. One of my research questions will be whether ethnicity plays a role in the identity of the people living in Crimea and how that affects the authoritative power over the region. I hope to draw a connection to contemporary events in Ukraine concerning Vladimir Putin’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

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Ashley Sims
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Beverly Lemire

Dissertation Title: “Give over all trade and become a country gentleman:” material culture, masculinity, and social mobility in globalized Europe, 1600-1700

Gender, material culture and global trade in the 17th century are my general research areas.

I am currently expanding my recently completed doctoral project (Fall 2022) and am particularly interested in examining family life on a Scottish estate from c.1650-1680.

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Tulika Singh
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Dagmar Wujastyk

Dissertation Title: (Dis)ordered Bodies in Early India. Perceptions of Normative, Nonnormative, and Disabled Bodies in Indic Context

My research interests are in social, cultural, and medical history of premodern South Asia. In my doctoral project, I engage with the concept of dis-ordered and dis-eased body to examine how identities based on the discourses of bodily "difference" and "otherness" are produced and experienced in the body within early Indian societies and cultures. I look at the insectionality of physical and sensory impairments and disabilities with caste, class, and gender identities.

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Julia Stanski
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Nickel

Dissertation Title: In Service, In Silence: Representations of Edwardian Domestic Servants in Western Canadian Living History Museums

Konstantin Tebenev
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch

Dissertation Title: German Journeymen Associations and the Rise of Misogyny in Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries

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Connor J. Thompson
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Shannon Studen Bower and Dr William Arnal

Dissertation Title: The Pioneer-as-Symbol: Historical Memory and Public Commemoration on the Canadian Prairies, 1945–1976

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Arwen Thysse 陳藹文
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr John Kitchen and Dr Natalie Van Deusen

Dissertation Title: Mixed-race experiences and relationships in medieval Scandinavia

I am interested in intercultural and mixed-race relations in medieval Scandinavia, cross-cultural contacts in the global Middle Ages, as well as questions of personal and social identities.

Sharon Venne
Doctor of Philosophy - History
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Carter

Dissertation Title: Indigenous Treaties: Concentration on Treaties Six, the Crown and International Significance of the Treaty Making
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Salima Versi
Doctor of Philosophy - Religious Studies
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Hill

Dissertation Title: Contemporary Islam & Canadian Ismailism

General focus of contemporary Islamic studies, but research more specifically examines contemporary Nizari Ismailism and Ismaili identity, particularly in Canada.

Natasha White
Doctor of Philosophy - Classical Literature
Supervisor: Dr Selina Stewart

Dissertation Title: Social Gender Norms and the Female Vice in Ovid
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Mike Zhou
Master of Arts - History
Supervisor: Dr Joseph Patrouch

Dissertation Title: French-speaking Regions in the Holy Roman Empire

I am interested in the cultural history of Western and Central Europe, particularly that of the Holy Roman Empire in the early modern period. Previously I have spent substantial time studying Habsburg history, and one of the research I did as an undergrad deals with a wedding ceremony between a Habsburg archduchess and a duke of Bourbon lineage in the Duchy of Parma. That research, along with my interests in reading Francophone history writings, encouraged me to explore the history of French-speaking regions in the Holy Roman Empire as a MA student.