Supervisor: Dr. Gillian Creese
Awards
Arts Graduate Student Research Awards
Charlotte Douglas Fee Graduate Award
Katherine Fobear
Contact Information
Supervisor: Dr. Leslie Robertson / Dr. Erin Baines
Bio
M.A., Honors Research Masters in Social Science,University of Amsterdam (2010)
B.A., Honors Anthropology, Sociology, & Russian and Eastern European Studies, University of Michigan (2008)
C.S.S., Certificate in Social Science, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Budapest (2006)
A.A., Honors Liberal Arts in Science, Delta College, USA (2005)
Ph.D., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC (2016)
Dissertation Title: Accordion homes: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) refugees’ experience of home and belonging in Canada
Research
“Accordion Homes: Embodiment, Memory, & Relatedness in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Refugees’ Settlement in Vancouver, BC”
This research explores sexual and gender minority refugees’ settlement in Vancouver, Canada, based on one year of in-depth oral history interviews with eleven sexual and gender minority refugees and a participatory photography project with six sexual and gender minority refugees. The issues examined lie at the intersection of two ongoing discussions in migration scholarship and practice and contribute to each of them: sexual orientation and gender identity in refugee settlement in Canada, and relatedness and home-making in queer migration.
In this study, sexual and gender minority refugees construct home and belonging through constructions of relatedness. Relatedness involves the relationships that individuals make and maintain with their bodies and emotions, as well as to other persons, places, and objects. Relatedness is a multi-sited and multi-temporal endeavor in which individuals situated themselves between their past country of origin, their present settlement in Vancouver, and their future desires in Canada. It is through participants’ stories and pictures of settlement that we can see how embodiment, memory, identity construction, and place-making are situated within interconnected webs of relationships. These webs of relationships inform sexual and gender minority refugees’ construction of home and belonging.
Selected Publications
Fobear, K. (2016). Unsettling Interpretative Authority: Connecting Critical Indigenous Methodology with Feminist Oral History. Journal of Feminist Scholarship (Accepted with publication in Spring 2016).
Fobear, K. (2014). “Whose Peace Are We Talking About?” The need for critical gender analysis in peace education. Peace Studies Journal. 7 (3), 98-114.
Fobear, K. (2014). Telling Our Truths: Oral History, Social Justice, and Queer Refugees. Oral History Forum. (Accepted December 14, 2013).
Fobear, K. (2014). Queer Settlers: Questioning settler colonialism in LGBT asylum processes in Canada.Refuge 30(1), 47-56.
Fobear, K. (2014). Queering Truth Commissions. Journal of Human Rights Practice (Accepted May 03, 2013).
Fobear, K. (2013). “A Privilege Shame” Elspeth Probyn’s Construction of Shame and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. INK, 2(1), 16-19.
Fobear, K. (2012). Beyond A Lesbian Space? Public lesbian social spaces in Amsterdam as sites for the production of visibility, identity, and community. Journal of Homosexuality 59, 721–747.
Awards
2012 IASSCS-Ford Foundation Emerging Scholar Award, International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society
2013 Barbara Roberts Memorial Fund: Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement for Women
2014 Oral History Association International Scholarship
Luna Ferguson
Biography
LUNA M. FERGUSON (Ph.D.) is a trans (they/them) filmmaker, writer, artist, and advocate. Their advocacy for non-binary legal recognition has contributed to policy changes in Canada. Ferguson’s filmmaking includes the award-winning Whispers of Life (2013); Limina (2016), which was shown at festivals around the world and praised for its trans inclusivity; and the queer love story Henry’s Heart (2019). Their writing and advocacy efforts have been featured in international publications including HuffPost, VICE, BuzzFeed, Teen Vogue, OUT Magazine, NBC News, The Guardian, and the Toronto Star. Ferguson lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with their partner Florian. Their first book, Me, Myself, They, a memoir, was published by House of Anansi in May 2019.
Supervisor: Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh
Education
PhD
Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, The University of British Columbia
Dissertation: Non-Binary Trans Subjects: Exiting the Attachment to the Transgender Metanarrative of Man/Woman
Master of Arts,
Film Studies, Department of Theatre & Film, The University of British Columbia
Thesis: Queer Japanese Cinema: A Rich and Diverse Cultural History’s Challenge to Hegemonic Ideologies of Gender and Sexuality
Bachelor of Arts with Honours Specialization,
Film Studies and Minor in Gender, Sexuality and Culture Studies, Department of Film, The University of Western Ontario
Thesis: The Exclusionary Production of Transgendered Bodies in Transnational Cinema
Ontario College Certificate with Honours,
General Arts and Sciences – One Year, Algonquin College
Research Interests
Cultural studies, diaspora studies, film studies, trans cinema, queer methodologies, Japan’s cultural history of genders, Japanese queer cinema, ideology and gender(s), female superheroes in comic books (cinema), documentary cinema, autoethnography
Selected Publications
November 2017 “What It Means To Transition When You’re Non-Binary”Teen Vogue.https://www.teenvogue.com/story/non-binary-transitioning
October 2017 “I’ll Keep Fighting Until I’m Legally Recognized as a Non-Binary Canadian” HuffPost.http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-m-ferguson/ill-keep-fighting-until-im-legally-recognized-as-a-non-binary-canadian_a_23255775/
August 2017 “We Should No Longer Be Erased” VICE News. https://news.vice.com/story/its-time-for-non-binary-options-on-id
May 2017 “Why I’m Applying for a Non-Binary Sex Designation on my Canadian Birth Certificate” OUT Magazine. https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2017/5/11/why-im-applying-non-binary-sex-designation-my-canadian-birth-certificate
March 2017 “I Imagine a Time When You See Me” BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/joshuamferguson/i-imagine-a-time-when-you-see-me
January 2017 “Living With Depression And Empathy As A Non-Binary Trans Person” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-m-ferguson/depression-empathy-non-binary-trans_b_14043296.html
November 2016 “My Grandmother Recognized me as Trans the Day We Said Goodbye.” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-m-ferguson/recognize-non-binary-transgender_b_12829474.html
October 2016 “We are Non-Binary Trans People And Yes, We Exist.”
The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-m-ferguson/non-binary-trans-people_b_12443154.html
Ferguson, Joshua Mark. Non-binary trans subjects: exiting the attachment to the transgender metanarrative of man/woman. Dissertation. The University of British Columbia, 2016.
Ferguson, Joshua Mark. “Queering Methodologies: Challenging Scientific Constraint in the Appreciation of Queer and Trans Subjects.” The Qualitative Report. 18:25. 1-13. 2013.
Ferguson, Joshua Mark. “The Haunting of Cronenberg’s Cinema: Queer Monsters, Colonized Bodies and Repressed Desire in M. Butterfly and Eastern Promises.” Cinephile. 2010.
Ferguson, Joshua Mark. Queer japanese cinema: a rich and diverse cultural history’s challenge to hegemonic ideologies of gender and sexuality. Thesis. The University of British Columbia, 2010.
Evelyn Elgie
Contact Information
Research
I am interested in the intersections of asexuality, queer discourse, and the impact that language plays when navigating queer identity theory, particularly asexual discourse, as well as the implications the existence of an asexual population must have for an amatonormative culture.
I am specifically interested in the gendered subject, particularly in how asexual women’s experiences are shaped by omnipresent Western cultural expectations of motherhood, family, and marriage. I believe that these expectations can be redefined and reexamined to create more diverse and authentic family and community structures that are not based around sexual understandings of the self. By theorizing the asexual subject, I think it will be possible to more clearly understand the ways in which our understanding of romantic and platonic bonds is shaped by our cultural narratives. I seek to address the following questions: What does it mean to identify as an asexual woman when women are so sexualized in our culture? What language do we use about asexual women and their relationships, and can it be improved? What social pressures exist around sex, marriage, family norms, and singlehood, and how can we redefine the ways we think about intimacy to combat those social pressures?
Publications
Elgie, Evelyn. “The Identity Paradox: Coming to Terms with Asexuality”. Imagining the End of Allosexual Dominance, NWSA Conference 2018.
Elgie, Evelyn. “Trinity Test”. Hinge: Journal of the Contemporary XXII, 2016 (26-28) (x)
Awards
Canada Graduate Scholarships Program Master’s Scholarship (SSHRC 2018)
Faculty of Arts Graduate Award (2018)
Margaret & Elwin Malone Memorial Scholarship (UKC 2017)
Claire Fooshee Poetry Prize (2016)
Amel Eldihaib
Contact Information
Supervisor: Dr. Gillian Creese
Biography
Amel Eldihaib is a researcher and social activist. Over the last ten years she worked and volunteered with different international and national civil society organizations in Sudan (both South and North), as well in other countries in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. Her work and activism is mainly around areas of social justice, active citizenship, peace building and environment.
Education
Master of Arts, “Gender and Peace Building”, Department of Gender and Peace Education-UN Mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica (2007-2008)
Post-Graduate Diploma, “Development Planning”, Development Studies and
Research Center (DSRC)- University of Khartoum (1999-2000)
B.Sc. in Economic- Development Planning, monitoring & Evaluation, Sharq El Niel College- School of Economics, Administration& Planning, Sudan 1996
Intermediate certificate, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, 1993
Research
Colonialism, racism, patriarchy and capitalism have negatively impacted Third World women to varying degrees. Colonialism, racism, patriarchy and capitalism have negatively impacted Third World women to varying degrees. Amel is studying the everyday experiences of racialized women in war zones and the way in which their experiences are accounted for by the feminist national women’s organization in Sudan. She also explores how these agendas and strategies inform discourse around the the imagined Sudanese “decolonizing” national identity.
Selected Publications
Aldehaib, A. (2017). Channels of Change in South Sudan: Youth Civil Society Organizations and Critical Empathy in Nation-Building. gnovis: a journal of communication, culture & technology.
http://www.gnovisjournal.org/2017/05/02/channels-of-change-in-south-sudan-youth-civil-society-organizations-and-critical-empathy-in-nation-building/
Aldehaib, A. (2013). Customary Law and Women’s Rights in a Changing World: The case of Southern Sudan. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. http://www.amazon.ca/Customary-Womens-Rights-Changing-World/dp/3659435708
Aldehaib, A. (2010). Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement Viewed Through the Eyes of the Women of South Sudan. Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Published by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town South Africa
http://www.restorativejusticeonline.com/RJOB/IJR%20AP%20Fellows%20OP3%20Sudan.pdf
Conference Presentations:
Public presentation: “Democratizing “Women’s” Identities – We are Same, Yet We Are Different”- UBC – Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice Graduate conference, April 2012.
Public Talk: “The Role of Sudanese Youth in Peace Building in Sudan” Speech given at the MDGs Global Youth Leadership Summit- UNDP-New York. November 2006.
Awards
UBC- Graduate Global Leadership Fellowship
UBC- Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4 YF)
UPEACE International Masters Scholarship
Award of Excellency, Pan Africa Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Youth Leadership
Aidan Davis
Bio
Supervisor: Dr. Ayesha Chaudhry
BA, Women’s Studies, Colgate University (2016)
M.A., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC (2019)
Pedro Daher
Contact Information
Supervisor: Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva
Bio
B.A., Journalism – Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) (2013)
Postgraduate in Literature, Art and Contemporary Thought
M.A., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia (2018)
Thesis: Finish the eulogy, Brazil: A call for the end of the subject
Research
I will research around the complex and never ending concept of difference. How can we create a society that’s based on our differences, the only and exact aspect that makes us equal? What are the paths that we can pursue in order to develop relationships based on diversity and not on sameness? Those are some of the questions.
Awards
Rogers Film Prize for ‘Coming to Love’ (2017)
Chany Chea
Bio
B.A., Double Major Political Science and Pacific & Asian Studies, University of Victoria 2007-2012
M.A., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC (2015)
Thesis: Postmemory work in the Cambodian diaspora: Using the past to access the present
Research
Chany Chea’s research examines postmemory work on the Cambodian genocide produced by second generation Cambodian diaspora members in North America. Postmemory work includes literature, film, visual art and music that represents living with the memory of a genocide which was not experienced first-hand (by the second generation producer), but by their parents. Her analysis questions how the second generation negotiates the production of postmemory work in an environment of culturally explained silence, fragmented narratives (due to dislocation, the passing of time and the nature of intergenerational transmission), politics, and the difficulty of representing familial memories. She approaches her work through an autoethnographical perspective.
Awards
SSHRC Joseph Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship
UBC College of Interdisciplinary Studies Award
Graduate Student Initiative Scholarship
Presidents Scholarship
Center for Asia Pacific Initiatives Language Fellowship
University of Victoria International Activities Award
Kristi Carey
Contact Information
Supervisor: Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva
Bio
B.A., Educational Studies & Peace & Conflict Studies, Colgate University (2015)
M.A., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC (2017)
Thesis: Resistance in and of the university: Neoliberalism, empire, and student activist movements
Research
In a time of neoliberal global precarity that follows from perpetual war, flexible labor, the in/exclusion of certain bodies, there has been a noticeable rise of protest both nationally and also localized to university campuses in the United States. Experiencing the historical weight of racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and nationalism on college campuses, students are claiming public and digital spaces as sites of resistance. These movements trace connections to the accomplishments of the civil and academic rights movements of the 1960s, by again and still asking for institutional responses to white supremacy and systems of oppression (Ferguson, 2012) while realizing they take different shapes due to the international, national, and local forces that call them into being. Additionally, and with the recent rise of national social movements for racial equity, campus activism harnesses that energy in its movement against institutionalized racism within university politics. This proposal calls attention to student activism on campuses that are both historically and contemporaneously situated in cultures of whiteness and heteropatriarchy.
My research interests in these productions lie in the construction of the moral economy for the political subject of the student (i.e. good citizen, bad activist), and particularly, the management of the student-activist. If, as Harney and Moten further suggest, “governance is the management of self-management,” I aim to provide some preliminary mapping of the student activist, as traced from 2009 and 2015, and what their movements look like both against and within the institutional response to that activism. Recognizing the gap of United States’ student protest movements from the 1960s until the early 2000s during the Clinton Era, this paper will historicize the emergence of the university as directly affected by national and global political and economic violences and structures—namely, neoliberalism and empire.
Publications
Carey, K. (2015). “Marriage equality and ‘It Gets Better’: Neoliberalism and the absence of political feeling.” Sprinkle: An undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies, 8: 10-20.
Carey, K. & Melendez, M, “On Cleaning: Activism as Contagion,” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, November 11-13, 2015, Milwaukee, WI.
Carey, K., Melendez, M., Torres, N., & Strother, K, “Slacktivist or Nah? Using Social Media to Create Change,” Syracuse University’s NAACP Blacktivism Conference, November 14-15, 2015, Syracuse, NY.
Awards
UBC International Tuition Award Scholarship September
Green College R. Howard Webster Foundation Fellowship
Faculty of Arts Graduate Studies Award
Shruti Buddhavarapu
Contact Information
Supervisor: Dr. Dina Al-Kassim / Dr. Judy Segal
Education
B.A., English (Hons), Delhi University, India (2009)
M.A., English Literature, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India (2011)
M.A., Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC (2017)
Research
Shruti’s intended area of research is in the field of health and rhetoric, when seen especially through the lens of feminism and popular culture. She intends to investigate the discourse around, and representation of, Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) in today’s world, especially when accessed through (medical, and non-medical) literature and digital media.