Graduate Student Profiles

MA Candidates

	Cameron Duncan In August 2011, Cameron completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts at SFU and immediately began pursuing a Master of Arts degree in the Department of Humanities. His research aims to bring together Marx’s work on capitalism and Heidegger’s writing on technology to develop a framework from which to critique the current global system. Supplemented by avant-garde documentary film from China he hopes to apply this framework to contemporary struggles. He also enjoys studying Lacanian psychoanalysis and watching Seinfeld.
	Matt Hogan Matt Hogan grew up on a farm in Quebec and moved to Vancouver in 2004, where he discovered his love of school and writing. His main concern, and thus his graduate research, is centered on the weakening of the public sphere and depoliticization of the social issues, especially in education. Matt is skeptical of "alternative" politics and would like to see a reinvigoration of conventional politics instead. He is particularly troubled by the popular denigration of everything traditional or "mainstream", a view he regards as anti-democratic, feeding into the increasing corporatization of the public realm. Matt would like to see more university students going into mainstream politics rather than entering the parallel (and rather corporate-style) realm of NGOs and romantic activism, which he believes pulls our best young minds away from real political power, leaving a governance-vacuum to be filled by business people and technocrats.
	Meg Penner Meg is taking a Master's Degree in Humanities with a special focus in Classical Studies. After teaching piano for many years, Meg began her university and school teaching careers. She took her first degree from Simon Fraser University and grduated with a minor in English and a BA Honours in History. This was followed by her enrollment in one of the first Simon Fraser University PDP programes held in two makeshift classrooms. Meg's first teaching job was in Prince George teaching typing, Social Studies and Modern European History to Junior and Senior High School students. Her husband's transfer to Hamilton, Ontario enabled her to teach Modern European and North American History and English in an International High School and take a Master's Degree in History at McMaster University. Another transfer brought Meg to Toronto where she earned a Master's Degree in English and taught Grade Thirteen Evening classes in History and English. A transfer back to British Columbia enabled her to teach History and Political Science in a local College. Teaching is one of Meg's favourite occupations and studying is the other beloved occupation. While teaching History, English, and Political Science she continually ran across Latin and Greek words and phrases. She found it extremely frustrating not to be able to read those languages. While in Vancouver, she had the opportunity to take classes in Latin and Greek. She caught the "bug"; she wanted more. Doors opened and Meg found herself in the Humanities Department. It was a perfect "fit" because it was possible to continue to pursue the classic languages and the Humanities Department introduced a whole new world to Meg on an interdisciplinary level. To provide context for the languages she studied the Ancient World of Greece and Rome and the rebirth and flowering of the Classics in the Renaissance World. Meg found her niche! During her MA she plans to examine the role of freedom in the interplay of culture and politics from the "Histories" of Herodotus, the Father of History, in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.
	Huyen Pham Prior to being introduced to the Humanities at SFU, Huyen was planning to enter the CGA program once she completed her undergraduate degree in General Studies. After taking a few courses in the Humanities, all of her carefully thought out plans changed. Not only did she switch her major, Huyen also decided to pursue a graduate degree instead. Since graduating in the spring of 2008 with a BA in Humanities, she has been waiting for the new Humanities MA program at SFU to begin accepting applicants. Although she is interested in religion and mythology, her true passion lies in the study and analysis of Classical, Renaissance, and modern thought, literature, and culture. For the MA program, Huyen has decided to focus her research on modern European philosophical thought on the human condition. More specifically, she will be focusing her studies on 18th and 19th century intellects and their philosophy on human existence. As for her thesis, she will be writing about the connection between Friedrich Nietzsche and Existentialism and identifying Nietzsche’s influences in the literary works of Existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
	Devon Field Devon returned to SFU in 2007 following five years away spent in child production and sub-minimum wage labour in Ireland. Upon finding the Humanities department, and finishing his BA, he returned again in 2010 to begin graduate studies. Devon's interests are many, but while at SFU he has primarily focused on the study of religion, and on the many irreligious ways in which people attempt to answer those same questions that religious traditions have long sought to come to terms with. There is a wonderful array of possible directions in which one's studies might be turned at any given moment, and Devon is certainly interested, perhaps above all else, in uncertainty. As a graduate he hopes to further his explorations into the intersection of faith, religious and otherwise, of uncertainty, and of the way we arrive at decisions in a milieu of competing truths.
	Daniel Gladstone Daniel Gladstone is in the second year of his MA, having transferred to the Humanities Department after spending a year in SFU’s Philosophy graduate program. He is a University of Victoria graduate with an Undergraduate degree in Philosophy. During this degree he developed a passion for Aristotelian philosophy and its instantiation in Classical Islamic philosophy. Following this passion he continued his studies in the University of Toronto’s Near and Middle Eastern Studies Department. There he took classes in the History of Islam; Islamic religion and mysticism; and Arabic. These continuing studies led him to travel to the Middle East, taking Arabic language courses at the University of Damascus. Daniel is torn between his love for the deeply esoteric and his desire to bring relevancy to his graduate research. As such, fundamental to his enquiry are the material and practical manifestations of metaphysical doctrine. He is now working with professors Angus and Dutton to explore early Islamic medicine and the philosophical underpinnings that contributed to its progress as a science during this period.

cameron duncan

Cameron Duncan

In August 2011, Cameron completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts at SFU and immediately began pursuing a Master of Arts degree in the Department of Humanities. His research aims to bring together Marx’s work on capitalism and Heidegger’s writing on technology to develop a framework from which to critique the current global system. Supplemented by avant-garde documentary film from China he hopes to apply this framework to contemporary struggles. He also enjoys studying Lacanian psychoanalysis and watching Seinfeld.

yang tang

Yang Tang

Yang Tang received her BA from Beijing Normal University (BNU) in China, where she developed her interest in modern Chinese literature under the prevalent atmosphere of humanism and a rich cultural ambience. She pursued graduate study at BNU and specialized in modern drama. The conviction that anyone in Humanities studies should not be subjected to a restricted field drove her to apply for this program as an international student. For the MA program, Yang plans to focus her research on literature and media in China. More specifically, she will discuss web-based time-travel fantasy and the relevant cultural, social and historical factors that contribute to its unprecedented popularity in order to analyse youth culture in contemporary China.

gordon gray

Gordon Gray

Gordon received degrees from Stanford (BA) and UCLA (MFA). After working in media, post-secondary teaching and accounting, he returned to university at SFU in 2006 to study languages. However, HUM 101 convinced him that Humanities was a better fit and he completed requirements for a Post-Bac Diploma in Humanities in 2010. His MA research interest is medieval philosophy, specifically the impact of Aristotelian rationalism in northern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.

hogan

Matt Hogan

Matt Hogan grew up on a farm in Quebec and moved to Vancouver in 2004, where he discovered his love of school and writing. His main concern, and thus his graduate research, is centered on the weakening of the public sphere and depoliticization of the social issues, especially in education. Matt is skeptical of "alternative" politics and would like to see a reinvigoration of conventional politics instead. He is particularly troubled by the popular denigration of everything traditional or "mainstream", a view he regards as anti-democratic, feeding into the increasing corporatization of the public realm. Matt would like to see more university students going into mainstream politics rather than entering the parallel (and rather corporate-style) realm of NGOs and romantic activism, which he believes pulls our best young minds away from real political power, leaving a governance-vacuum to be filled by business people and technocrats.

meg penner

Meg Penner

Meg is taking a Master's Degree in Humanities with a special focus in Classical Studies. After teaching piano for many years, Meg began her university and school teaching careers. She took her first degree from Simon Fraser University and grduated with a minor in English and a BA Honours in History. This was followed by her enrollment in one of the first Simon Fraser University PDP programes held in two makeshift classrooms. Meg's first teaching job was in Prince George teaching typing, Social Studies and Modern European History to Junior and Senior High School students. Her husband's transfer to Hamilton, Ontario enabled her to teach Modern European and North American History and English in an International High School and take a Master's Degree in History at McMaster University. Another transfer brought Meg to Toronto where she earned a Master's Degree in English and taught Grade Thirteen Evening classes in History and English. A transfer back to British Columbia enabled her to teach History and Political Science in a local College.

Teaching is one of Meg's favourite occupations and studying is the other beloved occupation. While teaching History, English, and Political Science she continually ran across Latin and Greek words and phrases. She found it extremely frustrating not to be able to read those languages. While in Vancouver, she had the opportunity to take classes in Latin and Greek. She caught the "bug"; she wanted more. Doors opened and Meg found herself in the Humanities Department. It was a perfect "fit" because it was possible to continue to pursue the classic languages and the Humanities Department introduced a whole new world to Meg on an interdisciplinary level. To provide context for the languages she studied the Ancient World of Greece and Rome and the rebirth and flowering of the Classics in the Renaissance World. Meg found her niche! During her MA she plans to examine the role of freedom in the interplay of culture and politics from the "Histories" of Herodotus, the Father of History, in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.

pham

Huyen Pham

Prior to being introduced to the Humanities at SFU, Huyen was planning to enter the CGA program once she completed her undergraduate degree in General Studies. After taking a few courses in the Humanities, all of her carefully thought out plans changed. Not only did she switch her major, Huyen also decided to pursue a graduate degree instead. Since graduating in the spring of 2008 with a BA in Humanities, she has been waiting for the new Humanities MA program at SFU to begin accepting applicants. Although she is interested in religion and mythology, her true passion lies in the study and analysis of Classical, Renaissance, and modern thought, literature, and culture. For the MA program, Huyen has decided to focus her research on modern European philosophical thought on the human condition. More specifically, she will be focusing her studies on 18th and 19th century intellects and their philosophy on human existence. As for her thesis, she will be writing about the connection between Friedrich Nietzsche and Existentialism and identifying Nietzsche’s influences in the literary works of Existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Devon Field

Devon returned to SFU in 2007 following five years away spent in child production and sub-minimum wage labour in Ireland. Upon finding the Humanities department, and finishing his BA, he returned again in 2010 to begin graduate studies. Devon's interests are many, but while at SFU he has primarily focused on the study of religion, and on the many irreligious ways in which people attempt to answer those same questions that religious traditions have long sought to come to terms with. There is a wonderful array of possible directions in which one's studies might be turned at any given moment, and Devon is certainly interested, perhaps above all else, in uncertainty. As a graduate he hopes to further his explorations into the intersection of faith, religious and otherwise, of uncertainty, and of the way we arrive at decisions in a milieu of competing truths.

Daniel Gladstone

Daniel Gladstone is in the second year of his MA, having transferred to the Humanities Department after spending a year in SFU’s Philosophy graduate program. He is a University of Victoria graduate with an Undergraduate degree in Philosophy. During this degree he developed a passion for Aristotelian philosophy and its instantiation in Classical Islamic philosophy. Following this passion he continued his studies in the University of Toronto’s Near and Middle Eastern Studies Department. There he took classes in the History of Islam; Islamic religion and mysticism; and Arabic. These continuing studies led him to travel to the Middle East, taking Arabic language courses at the University of Damascus. Daniel is torn between his love for the deeply esoteric and his desire to bring relevancy to his graduate research. As such, fundamental to his enquiry are the material and practical manifestations of metaphysical doctrine. He is now working with professors Angus and Dutton to explore early Islamic medicine and the philosophical underpinnings that contributed to its progress as a science during this period.