Graduate Students

NAME

RESEARCH AREA

Jordan Ashworson (Ashworth)
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
jashwort@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: On the Nature of Doing Glitches in Speedrunning

Glitches, speedrunning, emergent gameplay, metagames, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, EMCA

Research link

Tianyu Bi
MA (Thesis) Transnational and Comparative Literatures
tbi3@ualberta.ca

 

Malou Brouwer
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
malou@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: A Decolonial Poetics of Language: Indigenous Women’s Poetry at the Crossroads of Languages

Research link

Maryna Chernyavska
PhD Media and Cultural Studies

Thesis topic/title: Unorthodox archiving in the archival multiverse

Derya Cinar
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
cinar@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Too Crowded Here: Humanimal Bodies in Flux

Posthumanist and Affect Theories in Contemporary Comperative Literatures regarding onscreen and in-fiction metaphorpic bodies.

Richard Feddersen
PhD Germanic Languages, Literatures and Linguistics

Thesis topic/title: Being German vs. doing German: How pre-sojourn learners of German in Jordan construct and subvert ethnic identity through knowledge displays

Qian Feng
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
qf3@ualberta.ca

Travel writing

Amir Firuzkohi
PhD Applied Linguistics
fazlolah@ualberta.ca

My research interests are multifaceted and span a range of disciplines, including sociology, linguistics, and education. Central to my research is an interest in understanding the complexities of human behavior, particularly as it relates to linguistic, ,social, and cultural factors. I am particularly interested in exploring issues related to language use and language attitudes, and how these impact social dynamics, identity formation, and education. My research is driven by a desire to uncover insights into the intricate relationships between language, culture, and society, with the ultimate goal of improving our understanding of the world we live in and the people who inhabit it.

Research Link

Ana Juana (Anneka) Vicente Foster             
MA (Thesis) Translation Studies
vicentef@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Literary translation

Translation and interpretation (Spanish, English and French), general and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, language teaching

Publication: Vicente Foster, Ana Juana. “Interpreting in conflict zones: do interpreters need to be military trained.” Interpreting in a Changing World: New Scenarios, Technologies, Training Challenges and Vulnerable Groups, edited by Encarnación Postigo Pinazo, Peter Lang, 2020.

Steven Gillis
PhD Applied Linguistics

 

Kenzie Gordon
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
mlgordon@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Press ‘X’ to Crush the Patriarchy: Video Games as Sites for Sexual Violence Prevention

Gender-based violence in video games; intersectional feminist video game analysis; interventionist game design; equity and representation in the game industry; police abolition and abolitionist digital archives; digital humanities

Research link

Wangtaolue Guo
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
wangtaol@ualberta.ca

 

Wanyixiong Hua
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
wanyixio@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: The Decline of the Nation-State

Hongyang Ji
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
hij4@ualberta.ca

Ecology and translation, translation theory

Victoria Kostyniuk
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
vkostyni@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Ukrainian-Canadian Culture

Evgeny Kuznetsov
PhD Media and Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities

Thesis topic/title: Intersections of ADHD and games production culture

I’m interested in ADHD as a cultural phenomenon, and as a condition viewed through the lenses of critical disability and neurodiversity studies. I’m especially intrigued by the intersections of ADHD and media and technology. What is ADHD media? How is it co-produced with and through community culture? What are the experiences of media producers with ADHD? How are views on ADHD reshaped and reformulated through media representations?

Lisa Lawrence
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
ljlawren@ualberta.ca

My area of research involves topics around post-1950 Italy, as well as second-language pedagogy.

Rou Li
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures

Wenzhu Li
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures

Modern and contemporary Chinese literature and media culture; critical theory of techno-human hybridity; abolitionist and transformative studies; contemporary Chinese poetry and poetics; women’s poetry and feminism

Bingli Liu
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures

Ana Magalhaes
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
amagalha@ualberta.ca

Thesis title/topic: Eroticism in Brazilian Cinema (1964-1985)

My research focuses on Brazilian cinema produced during the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and in particular how the form relates to the representation of sexuality, desire, and gender issues. I have presented several times on Brazilian sexploitation and am currently working on an article that explores the marginal filmic production from Boca do Lixo.

Asma M'Barek
PhD Applied Linguistics
mbarek@ualberta.ca

 

Sofia Monzon
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
monzonro@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Affective Matters: Translation, Censorship, and the Circulation of Romans-à-clef from Argentina to Franco’s Spain (1960-1980)

Peter Morley
PhD Media and Cultural Studies

pmorley@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Move Faster and Break Everything: A Network Genealogy of Accelerationism and the Dark Enlightenment

My doctoral research concerns the offline and online development of the post-fascist political movement known as neoreactionism (NRx), its position within the Dark Enlightenment pseudophilosophical milieu, and its relationship with accelerationism, occultism, conspiracy theories, and post-ironic internet subcultures. My research also investigates neoreactionism’s disproportionate antidemocratic influence on the broader American political landscape through wealthy, well-connected adherents and sympathizers in the technology, finance, and political communications sectors.

Shahab Nadimi
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
nadimi@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Toward Theorizing Refugee Narrative in Contemporary World Literature

World Literature in English; Comparative Literature; Refugee Studies; Immigrant Literature; Diasporic Literature; Neoliberalism; Biopolitics; Middle Eastern literatures and cultures; Kurdish and Persian Literature

Anna Olenenko
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
aolenenk@ualberta.ca

Monika Pitonak
MA (Thesis) Transnational and Comparative Literatures
pitonak@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: “If you speak it, you can translate it, right?”: An Exploration of Translator Training Offered by Provincial Translation Associations

My main research interest is translation studies, with a focus on official/document translation and community translation, especially within an immigration context. More broadly, I am also interested in the connections between language and culture and intercultural communication.

Illia Pokotylo
MA (Thesis) Media and Cultural Studies
pokotylo@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Representation of Music in Comics media

Haining Ren
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures

 

Saman Rezaei
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
srezaei@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: A New Analysis of Narrative Elements in Suhrawardi's Ishraqi Philosophy

Islamic Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy, Metaphysics, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Semiotics, Narratology, Iranian Ancient Philosophy, Comparative Literature

Laya Soleymanzadeh
PhD Media and Cultural Studies
lsoleyma@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Critical Reception of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

My research interest spans over several fields, including postcolonial migration narratives, African diaspora literature, Iranian diaspora literature, comics and graphic novels, and gender and critical race theory. I am especially interested in the philosophy of Hospitality and multiculturalism and have studied the relationship between the two in my previous research on Abdulrazak Gurnah (the Nobel laureate of 2021).
Currently, I am working on Marajne Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis and its critical reception to see how this work's portrayal of a specific geopolitical space has shaped the scholarship around it in academia as well as popular culture.

Sajad Soleymani
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
ssoleyma@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Muslim Shahada as Queer Desire, Toward a Spiritual Queer Relationality for the Present

How does shahada, the Muslim act of bearing witness, intersect with queer relationality to reconfigure our understanding of spiritual and political resistance? This project excavates the complex entanglements of North American queer Muslims of color, threading together life writings and the profound role of shahada in shaping subjectivities of desire. Through an assemblage of personal narratives, this inquiry traces a spiritual queer relationality that simultaneously challenges and transcends conventional frameworks, ultimately challenging and redefining the possibilities for empowering marginalized voices in the 21st century.

Dominika Tabor
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
tabor@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Canadian multicultural young adult literature pertaining to migration to Canada

Laura L. Velazquez
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures

Thesis topic/title: Through our Immigrant Eyes: Point of View and the (De)formations of Citizenship in Hispanic and Sinophone Literature and Film  

Ningxin Wang
MA (Thesis) Transnational and Comparative Literatures
ningxin1@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Symbolism in Chinese cinema

Yan (Belinda) Wang
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
yan15@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: Swordsmen in/out of the Closet: Queer Bodies and Subjectivities in Chinese Martial Arts Cinema

Meiling Xiao
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
meiling2@ualberta.ca

Maritime literature, modernism

Dmytro Yesypenko
PhD Transnational and Comparative Literatures
yesypenk@ualberta.ca

Thesis topic/title: "Neverending Epidemics” in Ukrainian and Polish Literatures, 1820s–1900s

Dmytro's interests include Ukrainian historical and literary process of the 19th–early 20th centuries, Slavic studies and medical humanities. He co-authored “Lena and Thomas Gushul: Life in Front and behind the Camera" (jointly with Mariya Mayerchyk and Jelena Pogosjan; Edmonton: 2022–2023) and edited “Borys Hrinchenko: Povisti” (Kyiv: Krytyka, 2020), “Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes: Essays in Honor of Marko Pavlyshyn” (jointly with Alessandro Achilli and Serhy Yekelchyk; Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020) and “Oksana Kowacka. Ukrains'ka postkolonialnist' u tekstakh i kontekstakh” (jointly with Karol Kowacki; Brusturiv: Discursus, 2022).

Research Link