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Graduate Students

Justin Stein is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department for the Study of Religion and CDTS.  His research is on the transnational movement and development of the spiritual healing techniques called Reiki, first systematized in 1920s Japan but today taught and practiced worldwide.  His dissertation will focus on Hawayo Takata (1900-1980), a second-generation Japanese immigrant from the Hawaiian Islands, who first brought Reiki out of Japan and is responsible for its transnational success.  Justin received his B.A. in Philosophy from
Hamilton College, a M.S. in Childhood Education from Brooklyn College, and an M.A. in Religion (Asian) from the University of Hawai'i - Manoa.  He can be contacted at justin.stein@utoronto.ca.

Alex Ginnan is pursuing a collaborative Masters of Arts in Cinema Studies and Diaspora and Transnational Studies. His research interests include contemporary Canada, globalization and culture, and theories of aesthetics in film and art.

Noa T. Shaindlinger is pursuing her PhD in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. Her dissertation topic isThe politics of urban frontiers in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. She holds a B.A. in History, Tel Aviv University, and an M.A. in History, University of Toronto. Her areas of interest are (neo) coloniality in the Middle East and North Africa, minoritization, Mizrahi and Sephardi Jewries, urban anthropology, memory, borderland theory. She is a member of MESA - Middle East Studies Association. She can be contacted at noa.shaindlinger@utoronto.ca.