Dur-e-Aden is a PhD candidate in the department of Political Science. Her major and minor fields are International Relations and Comparative Politics, respectively. Her research examines the mobilization of individuals within the radical right-wing groups in Canada through a gendered lens. She is a SSHRC CGS Doctoral Scholar, a Junior Affiliate at the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS), and a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). Apart from being a graduate student, she has completed multiple work terms with federal departments such as Public Safety Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and the Department of National Defense. Her goal is to bridge the academic/policy divide by gaining experience in both domains.
Gözde Böcü is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Toronto specializing in Comparative Politics and International Relations. Her research interests include transnationalism, migration, and authoritarianism. In her dissertation project, Gözde explores authoritarian diaspora policies and their effects on diasporas from a comparative perspective. Currently, she is working towards completing her dissertation project by conducting multi-sited fieldwork. In addition to her dissertation project, Gözde is involved in several academic projects on transnational repression, diaspora mobilization, and kinship and citizenship policies of authoritarian home states. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Gözde held several research fellowships and national scholarships in Germany. She has a B.A. and an M.A. in Sociology and Political Science from the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany.
Ella Hartsoe is a Master of Global Affairs Candidate at the Munk School for Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She has worked as a labour union leader and community organizer in Canada and the United States, and on global labour migration policy at the International Organization for Migration. She has an honours Bachelor’s degree from McGill University and holds citizenships of both the United States and Mexico. Ella’s research interests lie at the intersection of social movements and international law. Completing a Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies, her MGA research will investigate the roles and responsibilities of North American states and changing international frameworks on climate migration. She is also interested in economic development, international labour law, and human rights discourse.
Melanie Ng is a third-year PhD student in the History Department at the University of Toronto, and a Museum Educator at the Royal Ontario Museum. Her research critically analyzes the power dynamics that transpacific empires, racial thinking, and state legal apparatuses had over the movement of Chinese migrants across imperial boundaries and state borders during the late-nineteenth to late-twentieth century. In particular, she investigates the clandestine migration networks that transpacific Chinese migrants to and through Canada created to challenge racist and exclusionary immigration laws, as well as relied upon to establish new identities and communities. Her research interests include: race, racism, migration, histories of Asian America and Asian Canada, Asian settler colonialism, transpacific empires, diaspora, legal history.
Sarah Panjvani is a Dual Degree Candidate in the Master of Global Affairs at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto and Master of International Affairs at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. Her research interests lie at the intersection of transatlantic affairs, migration policy, and diversity and inclusion. She is a recipient of the Canadian Graduate Scholarship (2021-22), which will support her thesis project on the implementation of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy in Europe. Prior to joining the Master’s program, she gained professional experience in the public sector at the Embassy of Canada to Germany, the New Zealand Embassy in Berlin, and the International Organisation for Migration in Vienna. Sarah holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University.
Jessica Stallone is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research examines the racialization of Muslims—and their cultural and religious practices— in English Canada and Quebec. She investigates how the politics of race and gender are embedded in public debates such as the Quebec Charter of Values, Bill 21 and the wearing of the niqab at the citizenship ceremony. She is currently investigating nativist logics that drive Islamophobic narratives on social media. Jessica is the session coordinator and co-organizer for the Race and Ethnicity Research Cluster at the Canadian Sociological Association. She has been awarded a Quebec grant (FRQSC) to support her research on anti-Muslim sentiment in Canada.
Dorottya Szekely is a second-year Master of Global Affairs student at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Dorottya has spent extensive time working with refugees in Toronto’s newcomer settlement sector, as well as volunteering with asylum-seekers in Paris, France. Currently, she is an intern with the Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, part of the International Cooperation & Partnerships division at the International Organization for Migration. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto where she majored in Political Science, with a double minor in Sociology, and Women and Gender Studies. Dorottya’s main research interests lay within the fields of migration, disseminating populist nationalism and sustainable development. Recently, she has been become interested in the growing relationship between mobility and global inequality, and hopes to continue researching the effects of the digitalization of borders on migrants.
Samia Tecle is a Sociology PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. Though born and raised in Toronto, Samia has had the privilege of engaging daily with migrants, refugees and newcomers through her varied professional and personal life experiences. Her doctoral research examines the relationship between mobility and global inequality, and in particular, Canada’s management of refugee migration. By investigating Canada’s humanitarian approaches to extend refugee protection to asylum seekers both inside Canada and abroad, Samia hopes to understand Canada’s refugee programs in tandem. Her research interests include: race, migration, diaspora and colonial histories.
Man Xu is a Sociology PhD candidate at University of Toronto. Her research interests include studies of global migration, transnationalism, racial and ethnic identity. She has conducted research in the Middle East and in China on the reception of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, media discourses about refugees in Western host societies and Chinese Muslim diaspora’s transnational engagement with the Middle East. Her dissertation project examines the trade activities and social relations of Hui Muslim traders in Yiwu, China. This research sheds special light on the ways in which Hui traders in Yiwu build social connections and develop tactics to navigate various formal rules and informal economic practices of global trade business. It also examines how cross-border interactions and transnational entrepreneurship impact on Hui trader’s sense of belonging to the national and global Islamic communities.
Edward Escalon, Jr. is a PhD Candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion. Edward’s interests lie at the intersection of affect theory, North American religion, and the anthropology of religion. His ethnographic research focuses on the experiences of American Evangelical missionaries who work with street-connected youth in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Edward traces the affective attachments formed between Honduran youth and Americans and how these attachments complicate the social and political commitments of North American Evangelicalism. In 2019, Edward received a U.S. Fulbright Student Research Grant in Anthropology. He is an award-winning Teaching Assistant at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and a Course Instructor at the Department of Historical Studies and the University of Toronto Mississauga. Edward holds a BA in the Comparative Study of Religion from Harvard College and an MA in Church and Society from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.