ɬ﷬

Graduate Profiles

Ph.D. students

Lara Bourdin

is completing a cotutelle/dual doctoral degree in Hispanic Studies at ɬ﷬ and Sorbonne-Université. Her research centres on the theme of hospitality in contemporary Latin American literature and culture. This project is supported by doctoral awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec—société et culture (FRQSC), as well as a 3-year "contrat doctoral" from Sorbonne-Université. After a Joint Honours B.A. in Art History and Philosophy at ɬ﷬, Lara completed an M.A. in Art History at the Université de Montréal (2013) and an M.A. in Portuguese, Brazilian and Luso-African Studies at Sorbonne-Université (2020). Inspired by her interdisciplinary studies and work experience in the cultural and non-profit sectors, her research interests centre on critical migration & border studies, translation, and cultural exchanges between Latin America and Africa. At ɬ﷬, she has taught Contemporary Brazilian Literature & Culture, in addition to working as a TA. Her first book, Caminhos da migrância em Paulo Nazareth, is forthcoming at Edições Carolina (Brazil).

Annika Burkard

Annika Burkard is completing her PhD in German studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in German language and literature with a minor in Middle Eastern studies from Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, and a Master’s degree in German studies from the University of Manitoba. Her Master’s thesis The Flight Across the Sea in the Context of the European Refugee Crisis in 2015/2016: The Political Steering of Recipients in Literature and Film examines Wolfgang Fischer’s film Styx from 2018, Reinhard Kleist’s graphic novel Der Traum von Olympia (An Olympic Dream) from 2015, and Merle Kröger’s crime novel Havarie (Collision) from 2015. Specifically, she analyzed the emotional, cognitive, ethical, and political steerings of the recipients and the depiction of Europe, its responsibilities, and the traces of colonialism as projected in films and literature.

Her research interests include the depiction of flight and migration in current films, literature, and artworks, the relations between literature, films, and politics, and developments in modern Europe.

She currently lectures Beginning German at ɬ﷬.

Meghri Doumanian

Dayana Fernandez Molina

Paul Fritz Gamarra Yanez

Paul Gamarra is a doctoral candidate in Hispanic Studies. He is developing a research on the religiosity and the political proposal of the Israelitas del Nuevo Pacto Universal who develop their activities in Peru and other countries of Latin America. This research is supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - societé et culture. He holds a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Guelph, and a Master's degree and Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru. He has written on indigenous political participation and developed some papers on Borges' short stories. His areas of interest are political philosophy, literature, indigenous and religious studies in Latin America.

Ingrid Lassek

Ingrid Lassek is in her third year of a Doctor of Philosophy in German Studies at ɬ﷬. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree (Honours in English) from the University of British Columbia in 2020 and completed her MA degree in German Studies at ɬ﷬ in 2022. Her MA Thesis, “‘On Your Imaginary Forces Work’: Shakespeare in Eighteenth-Century Germany,” is a historical-literary survey and is the foundation for her doctoral research on the concept of wonder in Shakespeare’s plays in context with his reception in eighteenth-century Germany. She was a lecturer in German at ɬ﷬ from 2022 to 2024.

Her research interests include Shakespeare and the Enlightenment, the literary movements Sensibility and Sturm and Drang, and the concept of wonder. Ingrid’s ongoing project for high school students entitled “Humanities in Action: Shakespeare’s ‘Lucrece’” uses interpretive approaches such as the comparative study of literature in historical context, gender studies, political science, anthropology, and art history to analyze and interpret Shakespeare’s poem. The project’s twofold purpose is to introduce Shakespeare to students and to stimulate their interest in the humanities through engagement with a selection of its varied fields. She first presented this project at Dawson College in the spring of 2024.

Rania Metni

Fernando Pomareda

Fernando Pomareda is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Studies. He holds a master's degree in Advanced Studies in Spanish and Hispanic-American Literature from the Universitat de Barcelona. There he wrote a final project focused on the mythical transformation of the hero in the novelLos detectives salvajes(1998) by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. He also holds alicenciaturafrom Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Hispanic Literature. His thesis focused on the reminiscences of the Andean myth of Inkarrí in the novelAdiós, Ayacucho(1986) by Peruvian writer Julio Ortega, set during the Armed Internal Conflict in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s.

His ongoing Ph.D. dissertation project continues exploring the presence of the Andean myth of Inkarrí within contemporary Peruvian cultural expressions to comprehend the political violence during this tragic chapter in Peruvian history. His research questions how Peruvian creators in the last two decades of the 20th Century and the early 2000s, individually and collectively, used this myth as a conceptual tool to interpret the violence and the possibilities of healingthetrauma.

Samiksha Puri

Samiksha Puri is a doctoral student in Hispanic Studies. She graduated from Delhi University with a B.A. in Advertising, Sales Promotion and Management and an M.A. in Hispanic Studies, focused on Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in 20th-century Peruvian Literature. She has also worked as an English Language Assistant in Spain and as a Spanish language instructor at ɬ﷬.

Currently, her PhD research studies the tales about the privatization and contamination of natural resources and mining activities in Latin America. Her research interests include Eco-criticism, Ambiental Studies, and Colonial and Post-colonial Literature.

Maria Fernanda Riva Palacio Rabadan

is a Ph.D. student in the Program of Hispanic Studies. She holds a Licenciatura in English Literature from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), where she graduated with Honors. She also works as a freelance dubbing translator for production companies such as Disney, Netflix and Universal. Her research interests are contemporary Latin American literature, gothic fiction, and the relationship between the Latin American and the anglophone gothic tradition. She is particularly interested in Argentinian writers Mariana Enriquez and Samantha Schweblin, and the gothic both authors are creating.

Ricardo Antonio e Silva Afonso Ferreira Filho

Hernan Rojas

Daniel Esteban SALAS HOYOS

Daniel Esteban Salas Hoyos is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He received his B.A. in Literary Studies from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotáand specialized in Spanish chivalric romance.He later completed a B.A. in Arabic studies from the Aix-Marseille and Lyon Lumière universities and participated in the yearly Arabic language program of IFPO at Amman, Jordan. He holds a master’s degree in Medieval History and Literature of the Islamic and Christian Worlds from Lyon Lumière University with a thesis entitled: “La traduction espagnole deséپڲincluse dans laGran Conquista de Ultramar: interpretation des variantes”.

His research interests include medieval and early modern Spanish literature as well as medieval Islamic history and literature in Arabic and Persian languages.He is interested in studying and fostering connections between Latin America and the Middle East.

Aarshiyaa Sharma

Ekaterina Tutatina

Ekaterina Tutatina is completing her PhD in Russian studies. She has a Kandidat Nauk degree in philology from Moscow Polytechnic University in Russia and a Master's degree with distinction in editing and publishing from Moscow State University of Printing Arts. She examined more than 6,000 book titles for her Kandidat Nauk dissertation in order to identify trends in contemporary book naming. A current focus of her studies is contemporary popular literature in Russia, literary heritage expressed in contemporary fiction, and book distribution in Russia.

Roberto Viviani

is a Ph.D. student at ɬ﷬. He received is M.A in Law from the University Of Macerata (UniMc) with a thesis in Philosophy of Law intitled "The Crisis of Western Democracies", inspired by the texts of Norberto Bobbio.

He also holds a M.A. in Philosophy from University of Montreal (UdeM). Here his thesis was based on a cross-reading of Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault reflections on "Power and its Displaying".

The main interest of his current research project is "Pier Paolo Pasolini's Aesthetic and the Representation of Oppression in his Mature Works". He uses "Post-Structuralist" and "Neo-Marxian" approaches as his theoretical frameworks. He promotes an interdisciplinary approach on his research that combines Philosophy, Genealogy, Literature and Cinema.

He is the promoter and organizer of the annual conference Rethinking Gramsci and a member of the International Gramsci Society.

He also teaches Italian languages and Italian Culture at ɬ﷬ and for the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Montreal.

Alexandre Zaezjev

I am a film and media researcher, course lecturer, and multimedia artist based in Montreal, Canada. Ever since completing my MA thesis on the role of new media in the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, I've been delving into the cultural and political landscape of the post-Soviet region.

My PhD dissertation project examines how major traumas of the region’s twentieth-century history – such as the Holocaust and the Stalinist repressions, have been addressed in two site-specific projects by contemporary artist and film director Ilya Khrzhanovsky – the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (Kyiv, Ukraine) and the multimedia project DAU (Kharkiv, Ukraine). Through my research, generously supported by the FRQSC doctoral scholarship, I aim to understand the potential of site-specific artistic practices in processing historical trauma in the post-witness era.

Drawing upon my research expertise and profound understanding of historical discrimination, I also consider community advocacy to be an integral part of my professional activities. In my role as the Equity and Diversity Commissioner at ɬ﷬ PGSS for the 2023-2024 term, my utmost dedication lies in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all marginalized groups, including the newly admitted groups of refugees who have fled from war-torn regions.


MA students

Firuza Huseynova

Anna Legault

Helen Marhoul

Elena Molinari Snel

Sarah Robertson

Sean Weaver

As a student of the Digital Humanities program, I’m interested in what new insights technology, particularly with machine learning and large language models, can bring to our understanding of narrative theory. It’s an interest that’s followed me since completing my undergrad at the University of New South Wales, in English literature and creative writing, where I acquired a deep fascination with narratology.

From a humanities perspective, narratology could be viewed as a study of narrative structure, through the use of literary mechanisms, etc. However, in parallel, I also saw narratology as a study of how information is conveyed, data passed onto the reader, through a considered use of narrative. Consider, as an example, the impact of some of your favourite literary works on your perspective, and the influence of narrative in that impression.

It is with this interest that I aim to explore narrative patterns of certain authors through the use of ML/LLMs, particularly in the comic medium. Though I am excited by the contemporary interest and tools available in this space, my interest isn’t as much in building better narrative machines (i.e. ChatGPT) but in what new insights can be gained about the process of narration through the use of narrative machines.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out or connect if you’re working in similar spaces.

Sophie WU

Sophie Wu is a candidate for the M.A. in Digital Humanities. She arrived at ɬ﷬ after obtaining a B.A. in Humanities and Mathematics at Western University, and since then has enjoyed exploring a variety of data-driven approaches to cultural studies throughout her time here. Her thesis argues that LLMs can be used as an effective tool to study human beliefs in novel contexts. She is a recipient of an SSHRC Master's Canada Graduate Scholarship and an FRQ Society and Culture Master's scholarship. She is happy to connect with anyone who has questions about the program or is interested in similar research areas!

Firuza Huseynova

Is a candidate for the MA in Digital Humanities, researching digital infrastructure in the music industry. With experience working in campus/community radio, Firuza’s research aims to bolster democratically-governed alternatives to extractive music streaming platforms, to create a healthier music-listening environment for artists and listeners alike. Firuza is the recipient of a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, and the first McCall MacBain scholar in the Digital Humanities program. Her most-used words are ‘dope’, ‘awesome’, and ‘epic

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