The following directory includes University of Toronto graduate students who are enrolled in the Ethnic and Pluralism collaborative program, as well as those who have completed the program.

Students who wish to be included in the directory, or who wish to have their biographies updated/removed, should contact the Program Administrator.

Michelle Majeed is doctoral candidate in the Collaborative Ethnic and Pluralism Studies program in Geography at the University of Toronto. In 2002, Michelle completed a Hons BA at the University of Toronto in Peace and Conflict Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In 2005, she received her MA in Migration Studies at the University of Sussex in England. Her MA thesis was entitled “Continuity and Change in Approaches to Mental Health Among Chinese-Canadians: The Role of Migration” and examined how cultural understandings of health and individual help-seeking behaviours were affected by the settlement process and racism experienced by this community. In 2006, she has also completed the Immigration Practitioner Program at Seneca College. Michelle’s current research focuses on how transnational spaces are created and used to support understandings of health and well-being and to meet health needs within the Indo-Guyanese community in Toronto, Canada.

HISTORY

Andriata Chironda
Andriata.chironda@cic.gc.ca

Andriata Chironda received her Master's degree in History and the Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies in June 2009. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in History, Diaspora and Transnational Studies and African Studies. Andriata is interested in how memories and understandings of home held by immigrants within both past and present African Diasporas affect the politics of race and cultural pluralism in Canada. Andriata's Master's research sought to understand transnational refugee flows from the perspective of law and discursive practice. At the heart of all systems for processing refugee claimants, through which a mere refugee is converted into a legal resident of a receiving nation, are not only written laws but also the spoken interview. Her research primarily focuses on the extra-legal, i.e. discursive aspects of the interview process. In other words, her work seeks to engage linguistic and anthropological theories that raise questions about translation, performance, and memory. 

Andriata is a co-founder of Humane Migration, an organization primarily concerned with collecting and showcasing the oral histories and narratives of displaced people in various forms. She is currently employed as a Policy Analyst with Citizenship and Immigration Canada.


Gilberto Fernandes
gilberto@yorku.ca

Gilberto Fernandes received his MA in History and the Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies in November of 2008. In 2004 he completed his licenciatura (BA) in Early Modern and Contemporary History at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE) in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently he is a PhD candidate in the History Department at York University (2009-2014). His research focuses on the historical processes behind the construction of notions of diaspora in Portuguese migrant communities in North America, primarily those of Toronto and Montreal. Gilberto is the co-founder and coordinator of the Portuguese-Canadian History Project, whose goals are to preserve the collective memory of Portuguese communities in Canada by locating and transferring historical material in the hands of private collectors into the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (York University), along with developing an online resource center and other public history initiatives. Gilberto is also a Board Member of St. Christopher house since June 2009.

- Gilberto Fernandes, “"Beyond the ‘Politics of Toil’. Collective Mobilization and Individual Activism in Toronto’s Portuguese Community, 1950s-1990s" – Rethinking Political Participation”, Urban History Review, 39 (1) (Fall 2010)

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Joel Young
joel.young@gmail.com

Joel Young received a Master's of Industrial Relations and Human Resources in Spring 2007. Before coming to the University of Toronto, he received an Honours BA in Psychology from the University of Waterloo (2005). Joel is interested in pursuing a career in conflict management within the workplace. A major source of conflict is misunderstanding, and as the work environment increases in diversity, misunderstandings are likely to grow. His wish is to increase his awareness of the elements that make people unique.

INFORMATION STUDIES

Sayaka Sugimoto
sayaka.sugimoto@utoronto.ca

Sayaka Sugimoto obtained her Master's degree from the Faculty of Information Studies in November, 2008. In her work, she focused on how information communication technologies can contribute to the settlement process. Although she did not graduate with a Collaborative Program designation, she was an active participant in the program. Sayaka is currently in the PhD program of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and is studying the use of online community among non-dominant ethnic groups during their settlement process.
NURSING

Michelle Lee
mye.lee@utoronto.ca

Michelle Lee is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Nursing. Michelle received a Bachelor's of Nursing Science from Ryerson University in 2004, and a Master's of Nursing Science from Queen's University in 2006. She is concerned with the mental health resources available in Toronto, focusing on the case of the Korean-Canadian community. She hopes to explore the availability of mental health services and to consider the Korean-Canadian community's access to these services. Michelle's dissertation will deal with mental health, Korean-Canadian adolescents, and the Toronto area. More specifically, she will look at community resources and issues surrounding the willingness of Korean-Canadians to access them.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Wendell Adjetey
wendell.adjetey@utoronto.ca

Wendell Adjetey completed his Master's degree in the Department of Political Science in 2009. Wendell is the founder and director of a not-for-profit organization that tutors at-risk youth from the African-Canadian community. During his Master's program, he pursued this interest, doing an in-depth study of at-risk youth and neighbourhoods in Toronto. In light of recent events (i.e., the infamous "Year of the Gun" in 2005), he believed it would be worthwhile to explore some of the reasons why Toronto's Black community seems plagued by gun violence, and if this is uniquely an African-Canadian problem. In his thesis, he used a case study to compare gun violence and social and economic challenges in the African-Canadian context with the African-American context, using an American city like Philadelphia because of its high gun crime.

Wendell is currently working in a youth gang prevention/intervention program in Toronto's Jane-Finch area.

Chantal Amirault
c.amirault@utoronto.ca

Chantal Amirault received a Master's degree in Political Science and Ethnic and Pluralism Studies in Fall 2007 and is now a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto. She is interested in ethnic violence and urban planning. Chantal's current research is centered on slums.

Adrian Atanasescu
na.atanasescu@utoronto.ca

Adrian Atanasescu received a Master degree in Political Philosophy from the University of York, United Kingdom, in 2004 and a Master degree in Political Science and Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies from the University of Toronto in 2007. He is a PhD student in Political Science at the U of T and works on deliberative democracy and ethnic conflict.

Nina Boric
nina.boric@utoronto.ca

Nina Boric received her Master's degree in Political Science in Spring 2007. In her undergraduate degree, completed at the University of Toronto, she worked in the area of International Relations and European Studies. Her graduate research focused on theories of ethnic nationalism in comparative perspective. Nina is especially interested in the impact of ethnic nationalism on immigrant integration. Currently, Nina is working as the Special Programs Manager at the Munk Centre for International Studies. She has instituted and developed the Graduate Students Network, and introduced the Cultural Attaché Initiative which enhances understanding of the current political issues via arts. She is the manager of the Lionel Gelber Book Prize.

Janique Dubois
janique.dubois@utoronto.ca

Janique Dubois is a Doctoral student in Political Science at the University of Toronto. She received her Master's degree in Political Science from Queen's University. Janique's research examines the challenge of developing models of self-government for urbanized and intermixed First Nations, Métis and Francophone minorities in Canada. Her interdisciplinary work brings together Canadian politics, Identity Politics, Indigenous politics, and political theory.

Michael Morden
michael.morden@utoronto.ca

Michael Morden graduated with a Master's degree in Political Science and the Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies in June 2008. He also has an honours BA from McMaster University. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, as well as a program coordinator at the Mosaic Institute. His research interests include Aboriginal politics in Canada, nationalism, ethnic conflict and conflict resolution.

Igor Valentovitch
ivalentovitch@hotmail.com

Igor Valentovich is a doctoral student in Political Science at the University of Toronto, working in the area of Comparative Politics (developing societies) and Public Policy. Mr. Valentovitch has an MA in Political Science from Central European University, Hungary, and an MA in Political Science from Sofia University, Bulgaria. His dissertation deals with the development of media and public sphere of security-sensitive minority groups in Southeastern Europe. In particular, he examines the effect of majority and minority political elites on the progress of minority media and public deliberation in the Balkans. It is his contention that the preservation, development, and integration of ethnic minorities has become a vital issue for the Southeastern European democracies, and that the ethnic minority media reflect the importance of this issue.



PUBLIC POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

Anila Durrani
anila.durrani@alumni.utoronto.ca

Anila Durrani received a Master's in Public Policy and Governance from the University of Toronto. She was also a member of the Ethnic and Pluralism Studies collaborative program. Anila has worked for the Canada Border Service Agency and this stimulated her interest in scholarly work centering on a critical analysis of the interaction between human rights, justice, discrimination and race relations. She is particularly interested in the development of international law, human rights standards, and policies concerned with the treatment of immigrants, ethnic minorities and Aboriginals, asylum seekers, non-citizens, and refugees. Anila is also interested in child welfare and has worked for the City of Toronto in order to create a national advocacy plan to repeal s.43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. She is currently pursuing her JD from Osgoode Hall Law School.

RELIGION

Ada Jeffrey
ada.jeffrey@utoronto.ca

Ada Jeffrey received her Master's student in the Department of Religion in Fall 2010 and has an Honours BA in Religious Studies from McGill University. Ada is interested in comparative contemporary religions. At the University of Toronto, the focus of her research will be on the role religious institutions play in the integration of immigrants into Canadian society. Questions she will specifically address include the following. Do religious institutions in Canada provide resources for integration that immigrants might not otherwise have access to as readily? Or do religious insitutions in Canada work against the process of integration by encouraging immigrants to identify themselves first as members of a particular community and secondly as Canadians? It seems that while a great deal of comparative work has been done on this subject in the United States and Western Europe, there is little literature available in the Canadian context.



SOCIAL WORK

Barbara Lee
barbara.lee@utoronto.ca

Barbara Lee is a Doctoral student in the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She received her Master’s of Social Work and Collaborative Studies in Ethnic and Pluralism in 2009. She also has a Bachelor of Social Work from University of Victoria, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Queen's University. Barbara Lee continues to be employed as a child protection worker and has a strong interest in pursuing research in the area of child welfare with various ethno-cultural communities. She would like to focus more specifically on the policy, practices, experiences and needs of immigrants and unaccompanied/separated minors within the Canadian child welfare system.



SOCIOLOGY

Emily Laxer
emily.laxer@gmail.com

Emily Laxer is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. She has a Master's degree in Sociology from McGill University. Emily's research has focused on national minorities in Canada, and for her Master's, she examined the determinants of support for Quebec sovereignty. For her doctoral dissertation, she plans to study multiculturalism. More specifically, while most Canadian provinces have embraced a multicultural approach, a different strategy for tackling diversity has been implemented in Quebec. Termed interculturalism, the province's policy differs from multiculturalism in that it welcomes and encourages diversity, while simultaneously insisting that differences be expressed within a clearly defined national cultural framework. Emily will seek to develop explanations for the cleavage which separates Quebec from other parts of Canada in the area of ethnic relations.

Joanne Nowak
joanne.nowak@utoronto.ca

Joanne Nowak received a Master's degree in Sociology and the Ethnic and Pluralism Studies collaborative program in Fall 2007. She is a doctoral student in Sociology and an ongoing collaborative program student. Joanne's field of specialization is migration and development, with a particular focus on women migrants. Her research interests include human security and migration, irregulation migration, migrant rights, international migration policy, political sociology, and social movements. Joanne is currently working with Dr. Monica Boyd, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, on research related to international migration, migration policy, women migrants, and inequality.

Stella Park
yhstella.park@utoronto.ca

Stella Y. Park is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Toronto. She is working with Professor Monica Boyd examining various dimensions of immigrant adaptation process including heritage language retention, co-residency and socioeconomic attainments across generations. She has presented on these topics at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, the Canadian Population Society and the Canadian Sociology Association. Her core research interests in sociology of immigration and health stem from both her personal and volunteer experience of closely interacting with immigrants in the community.

Agata Piekosz
a.piekosz@utoronto.ca

Agata's interests are in immigration and ethnicity, she explores both qualitatively and theoretically. Since beginning the PhD Agata has been interested in new countries of immigration or nations that have had a extended history of emigration. Recently, in the last two decades some major emigration nations have been presented with high levels of in-migration.

Agata's current research explores the recent influx of immigrants from Eastern European countries into Ireland. Notions of belonging, status and permanence are critical to the well-being and inclusion of immigrants in a country like Ireland. Within the past two decades immigrants in Ireland have made a substantial impact on Irelands economy and culture. She explores the relationship between high levels of economic migration and the long-term impact of such migrations, and interprets the affect the social and cultural milieus of life, especially after the benefits of economic fortune have waned.

Forthcoming: Review Essay, Bryan Fanning 'New Guests of the Irish Nation,' Critical Sociology, 36(6)

Under Review, 2010 "Between Culture and Economy, Irelands Quick Switch into an Immigrant Nation: Debating Belonging through Notions of Status, Permanence and Migrant Solidarity"


Djordje (George) Stefanovic
dstefano@chass.utoronto.ca

George Stefanovic received his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, in June 2008, and is now a postdoctoral student at Oxford. His research focuses on the ideologies of ethnic intolerance, causes of failure of multi-ethnic federations, and the social base of far-right parties. His work has been published in (2005) and Ethnic and Racial Studies.




THEORY AND POLICY STUDIES

Anastasia Baczynskyj
stasi.baczynskyj@utoronto.ca

Anastasia Baczynskyj completed her Master's studies in Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT) and the Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies in the Fall of 2009. From first-hand experience living in Ukraine, she knows how notions of identity, ethnicity, and nationalism are highly explosive if mentioned in the wrong company. Anastasia studied the Ukrainian Diaspora in Toronto, specifically the different socialization experiences of the various waves of immigration. She explored the role of ethnic schools in the creation of national identity and the way new immigrants react to the curricula and national idea proposed in these schools. Do their curricula reflect the current situations in post-Soviet states, and do they meet the needs of new immigrants?

Since the completion of her thesis, she has been asked to participate in many councils, committees and projects dealing with Ukrainian identity. She has also given lectures on this topic to the Ukrainian community in Toronto and to other communities whose identity had been affected by the fall of the Soviet Union. It is Anastasia’s hope that the conversations that have been started due to this work will continue to spur greater understanding within affected communities.

Kamara Jeffrey
kamara.jeffrey@utoronto.ca

Kamara Jeffrey is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies. Ms. Jeffrey holds an Honours BA in Political science from the University of Toronto (2004), and a MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies from Ryerson University (2006). Kamara?s research interests broadly concern the history of Canadian immigration policy, intergovernmental relations, and funding for language training and immigrant integration services. Her dissertation examines the evolution of federal-provincial-municipal relations in Ontario from the mid-1980s to 2005 (the signing of the historic Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement). During her graduate studies, Kamara held a public policy role at United Way Toronto, as well as an internship at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, through which she gained valuable professional experience.

Naomi Lightman
naomi.lightman@utoronto.ca

Naomi Lightman received her MA in political science at McGill University in January 2009. Her thesis focused on comparative health policy in Canada and the UK with a particular focus on empirical questions of equity. She subsequently worked as a Policy Advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for one year, developing expanded homecare options for high risk seniors.

Currently, Naomi is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests are in the areas of transnationalism, second generation Canadians, low income populations, cultural integration, educational policy, and generational difference

Eniko Pittner
eno.pittner@utoronto.ca

Eniko Pittner is a doctoral candidate in Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT). Her research is in the area of immigration and ethnicity issues in education.