Graduate Student Profiles
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PhD profiles
Mathew Arthur (he/him)
Mathew is editor-in-chief of Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry and director of Doing STS. He works across feminist technoscience and affect studies to explore ordinary multispecies practices like composting and fermenting.
Nadine Boulay (they/them)
Reserach areas: History of lesbian-feminism in the Lower Mainland in the 1970s and 80s, with a particular focus on rural and island experiences, intentional women’s communities, and the ‘back to the land’ movement.
Nerida Bullock (she/her)
Nerida’s doctoral research is a queer exploration of marriage though the lens of the BC Supreme Court Charter Reference on Polygamy that was conducted in 2011 to determine whether the criminalization of polygamy was consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Her research situates the Charter Reference within an ongoing history of marriage, moral crusades and moral panics in Canada with an emphasis on disentangling the compulsory nature of the romantic dyad at the intersection of law, gender, sexuality and race.
Thuy Do (she/her)
Research areas: Gender politics and identity, migration, multiculturalism, economic development, and Vietnam culturalism.
Reema Faris (she/her)
Research areas: The intersection of popular culture and feminism fascinates Reema. In particular, her research work examines the relationships between women readers and the deluge of “happily-ever-after/happy-for-now” narratives they face. Another issue Reema grapples with is the coupling imperative in public discourse that amounts to an erasure of the single woman and obscures the potentials and possibilities of alternate social arrangements.
Cameron Michels (she/her)
Cameron is interested in exploring the intersection between sports, gender, sexuality, and bodies. Her research is concerned with the limitations and liberatory possibilities in women’s amateur contact sports.
Shanny Rann (she/her)
Shanny Rann is a gold-medallist Taijiquan artist and dance anthropologist. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, she grounds her artistry in the island way of living and intercultural collaborations. She has competed and performed internationally, and teaches at the unceded territories of Coast Salish peoples in Vancouver, Canada. Shanny completed her Bachelor of General Studies at Simon Fraser University and went on to obtain a Master of Arts in Dance Studies from York University and Erasmus Mundus Masters in Dance Knowledge, Practice, and Heritage (Choreomundus). Her previous research on ‘cham, a Tibetan Buddhist dance ritual, was conducted in the Himalayas with refugee monks and was published in ausDance and Recherches en Danse. She is happy to be back at Simon Fraser University and is completing her PhD dissertation on women and Taiji.
KJ Reed (they/them)
KJ's SSHRC-funded doctoral work explores privacy and disclosure decisions in the lives of trans, non-binary, two spirit, and other gender non-conforming youth.
Kexin Hu (she/her)
Kexin obtained her BA in Philosophy and English Literature at McGill University in May 2023. She is especially interested in how minority communities that are often neglected and silenced voice out their rage, sorrow, and demand for social changes through artworks. In her spare time, she writes bad poetry and daydreams about having her own house in B.C. and living with three pugs.
Suwatthi Kandiah (she/her)
Suwatthi Kandiah has majored in International Business Management and possesses over five years’ professional experience specializing in Diversity, Equality & Inclusion (DEI) from Sri Lanka. Suwatthi’s work has been largely rooted in women’s leadership, advancing women in non-traditional jobs, inclusion of marginalized communities at work and fostering respectful workplaces through multi-stakeholder interventions. Suwatthi is driven by her passion to break intersectional barriers and create inclusive communities for all.
Remi Makinde (she/they)
Remi is a feminist, and a human rights lawyer with a keen interest in sexual rights, grassroots LGBTQI+ movement building, and inclusive advocacy. They have effectively promoted and protected the rights of women, and queer persons in Nigeria through engagement with state institutions and stakeholders while tactfully navigating cultural and religious differences in the country. In July 2021, Remi was nominated for the International Visitor Leadership Program on Human Rights and Civic Engagement as an emerging LGBT+ rights leader in Nigeria. At SFU, Remi eagerly anticipates deepening her understanding of feminist theory, especially its intersections with race, sexuality, and political consciousness
Nikita Mitra (she/her)
Nikita is a public relations & social impact communications professional with over five years of international experience. She is passionate about using her professional communications background to develop a stronger voice for HIV-positive individuals, transgender persons and sex workers in accessing basic healthcare delivery in Asia-Pacific countries. She aims to use her time at SFU to refine crafting critical communications for vulnerable and remote communities in Canada for non-discriminatory access to healthcare. In the long term, her aim is to comparatively apply best practices and learnings to advocate for better community health in the Global South. She is the 2023 recipient of the Grace Woodsworth MacInnis Graduate Entrance Award and is originally from Delhi, India.
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