Meet Concordia’s 2025-26 Public Scholars

Since 2016, Concordia has showcased the outstanding work of its doctoral students through the yearly Public Scholars program.
Ten PhD students from across disciplines are chosen through a rigorous selection process to represent the university’s research excellence and diversity. Throughout the academic year, Public Scholars learn to communicate about their work through channels such as The Conversation, Le Devoir and the Montreal Gazette. The program also offers different professional development opportunities and training. Concordia’s 4TH SPACE will host the Public Scholars over the course of the year for free public events showcasing their research.
Meet the 2025-26 Concordia Public Scholars
Emma Hsiaowen Chen, Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology
How can we use dance to create engaging and accessible ways for older adults to improve their balance? And how can blood flow restriction training amplify these benefits?
Pramila Choudhary, Geography and Environmental Studies
How can embodied agro-pastoral textile practices, rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, support community-led sustainable futures beyond extractive industrial systems?
Iman Goodarzi, Business Administration, Marketing
Boosting or busting: How can innovative technologies disrupt maladaptive social media use?
Laura Magnusson, Interdisciplinary Humanities
How can artistic practice communicate the complex afterlife of sexual violence through affective means, extending beyond word-based forms?
Francesco MacAllister-Caruso, Political Science
How are Two-Spirit, trans and nonbinary people represented in Canadian politics?
Meysam Maleki, Chemical Engineering
How can we make renewable energy reliable at all times using affordable and sustainable water-based flow battery technology?
Jayanthan Sriram, Humanities
What is the role of perfumes in the creation and discrimination of identities and how is their creation connected to a novel relation between aesthetics and ethics?
Richy Srirachanikorn, Social and Cultural Analysis
Instead of a backwards-looking emotion, how can nostalgia help us actualize the futures we always hoped to live?
Amirreza Torabizadeh, Civil Engineering
How can computational mechanics be used to predict damage from earthquakes and environmental stressors in aging concrete structures, supporting timely and effective retrofitting?
Meet Amirreza.
Nicole Yu, Biology
How do small-scale greening design and management strategies support urban biodiversity?
Learn more about Concordia’s 2025-26 Public Scholars.