STUDENT RESEARCH

Fabio Balli leads the Breathing Games, an open science initiative which mobilizes individuals around the co-creation of respiratory health technologies that can be reproduced and adapted by anyone. This commons is funded by Canadian and European research funds.
Fabio has led social transformation processes in local and international organizations. He holds graduate degrees in Human Systems Engineering, Crisis Communications, Adult Education, and Game Design, and was awarded Concordia Engaged Scholar Award in 2017.

Thesis title: Towards a theory of open access health education: modelling the participatory creation of a commons.

Supervisory committee: Philippe Caignon, Marguerite Mendell, Satoshi Ikeda, Warren Linds

Antoine Bellemare is a doctoral student of the Individualized Program. He completed his master's thesis in psychology, more specifically in music cognition at Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Isabelle Peretz. His work focuses on perceptual components of the creative process, as well as on interactive artworks using biotic signals.

Thesis title: The creation of harmonic structures derived from biological signals and their use in a brain-machine interface for the reinforcement of pareidolia.

Supervisory committee: Eldad Tsabary, Karim Jerbi, Ricardo Dal Farra, Jean-Roch Laurence

Sheena Bernett holds an MA in Musical Theatre Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a BFA in Music Composition and Classical Voice from Concordia University. Her education also includes training from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York and The National Ballet School of Canada. As an arts educator, she specializes in coaching private students and conducts workshops in voice, acting, musical theatre, ballet, as well as character analysis and audition preparation.

Thesis title: Sheena’s project investigates an alternative and experimental approach to creation and performance practices that transcends disciplinary paradigms—with the intention of utilizing the performing arts as a site to facilitate neurodiverse communication. This research project is inspired by her own neurodiversity and quest for more opportunities that align with her personal and artistic values.

Supervisory committee: TBC

Ze Cahue's academic background is in multimedia, cinema, electroacoustic music, and biomedical engineering. His past 20 years of non-academic investigations include experiments with Aymara-Quechua youngers listening to live electronic music, outsourcing in China from the Hunan-Shanghainese perspective, Viennese minimalist survival tactics and Azeri gambiologia in Iran. His PhD research focus on the development of antidisciplinary methods for realtime biosignal-driven computational art.

Thesis title: InternConnection - Connecting people through consciousness.

Supervisory committee: Chris Salter, Naj Mahani, Aaron Johnson and Marcelo Wanderley

Supported by SSHRC, Tina Carlisi’s doctoral artistic research explores the interaction between communal living, learning and artistic expression. Her inquiry involves case studies of communities founded on squatted land in Copenhagen, London and Barcelona. She investigates how such milieus can cultivate conditions that inspire modes of living, learning and making that integrate materiality and social formations in transformative ways. Through art practice, she explores, imagines and expresses these ideas through poetic consideration of the social and material intimacies involved in utopic visions.

Thesis title: Social and Material Intimacies: Exploring Utopias Through Art Practice.

Supervisory committee: Kathleen Vaughan, Cynthia Imogen Hammond, Matt Soar

Piyusha Chatterjee hails from India and has a background in literature, journalism and oral history. Her research interests are in the fields of oral history, political economy of the city, sensory studies, media publics and media in the Global South. Her thesis topic investigates the figure of the busker as precarious labour in the creative city economy through an oral history project.

Thesis title: Busking as Precarious Labour: A study in the context of post-industrial transformations effecting Montreal.

Supervisory committee: Steven High, Norma Rantisi, Joshua Neves

Monica Dantas is researching food sustainability through community development. Her research focuses on a family farmer’s organization from the Northeast of Brazil that emerged from the Brazilian Landless. The research surveys the current circumstances of the solidarity economy in that region. In Montreal, she is part of community initiatives such as Incredible Edibles and Transition NDG. She is also founder of Season Jars a community-based, education initiative that uses food as a platform for community building, food security, inter-generational and intercultural learning.

Thesis title: Pursuing Sustainability in Food Systems through Community Development. A look into the Brazilian Northeast.

Supervisory committee: Satoshi Ikeda, Alan Nash, Marguerite Mendel

Skot Deeming is an artist, curator and scholar, whose research focuses on DIY and collector sub-cultures, curatorial practice and material historiography. From arcades and action figures to lectures and gallery shows, he has exhibited, curated and presented work around the world. He currently resides in Montreal where he is a doctoral candidate in the Individualized Program at Concordia University, and a graduate student member of the Milieux Institute, and the T.A.G.Research center.

Thesis title: Recasting Popular Culture: Mediations on Play, Appropriation and bootleg toy cultures.

Supervisory committee: Lynn Hughes, Bart Simon Mia Consalvo

Gabriel Dharmoo is a composer, vocalist, improviser and researcher. His works have been performed in Canada, the U.S.A, Europe, Australia, Singapore and South Africa. He was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize (2017) and Robert Fleming Prize (2011), the MusCan Student Composer Competition (2017), the Prix d'Europe composition prize (2011), as well as awards from the SOCAN.

Thesis title: Strategies for vocalists from the cultural diversity who seek to decolonize their artistic practice.

Supervisory committee: Sandeep Bhagwati, Noah Drew, David Howes

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Molly-Claire Gillett is an INDI PhD Candidate, working with faculty members in the Departments of Art History, Design and Computation Arts, and Art Education, and in association with the School of Irish Studies. Her SSHRCC-funded doctoral work investigates the complex colonial relationship materially evidenced by the production of lace in Ireland and its consumption in England during the nineteenth century, and is guided and shaped by a research creation practice in lacemaking and engagement with contemporary Irish lacemaking groups. She has worked in community arts programming in Canada and Northern Ireland.

Thesis title: Meaning in Materials: the changing contexts of Irish lace production, 19th century and now.

Supervisory committee: Elaine Cheasley Paterson, Rhona Richman Kenneally, Kathleen Vaugha

Julia Ginsburg's research focuses on developing and testing the effectiveness of environmental and sustainability education curricula. Before coming to Concordia, she worked as a graduate research assistant at the Respecting Children and Teachers Research Group at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she conducted intensive qualitative interviews with early childhood environmental educators. Julia has been invited to present her research the Jean Piaget Society, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Psychological Association.

Thesis title: Developing Best Practices for Pro-Environmental Sustainability Education.

Supervisory committee: Natasha Blanchet-Cohen, Holly Recchia, Damon Matthews, Mindy Carter 

Drawing from his multi-disciplinary background, Sherif Goubran’s interdisciplinary PhD research is focused on sustainability and its assessment in the built environment. His research aims to align sustainable building practice with holistic sustainable development goals. Sherif is a Vanier Scholar and a Concordia Public Scholar (2019-2020). He published in different academic fields and is heavily involved in academic, student and community project. He plans to pursue an academic career in Canada and abroad while continuing to practice architecture.

Thesis title: Our buildings have credentials... Now what? “Green” Buildings and Sustainable Development Goals in Canada.

Supervisory committee: Carmela Cucuzzella, Thomas Walker, Bruno Lee (in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Chupin and Gilbert Emond)

I am a researcher at Project SOMEONE and for the UNESCO Co-Chair for the Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism, teacher at PACC Adult Education Centre, founder/president of Communité and board member at Head & Hands. My experience and passions for the past decade lie in advocating for at-risk youth and communities, and in supporting them online and offline to gather and express themselves freely.

Thesis title: Creating and implementing measurable trauma-informed and inclusive practices for at-risk emerging adults in Montreal adult education centres.

Supervisory committee: Vivek Venkatesh, Sandra Chang-Kredl, David Waddington, Ghayda Hassan

Morteza Hazbei’s research considers ornamental patterns as an element that conveys cultural meaning. These patterns in the building envelope not only act as an energetic function but also perform as an expressive role in communicating context and history. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Art University of Isfahan and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Joundi Shapur University of Technology. His master thesis was about designing cultural spaces with an emphasis on Iranian motifs and patterns.

Thesis title: Rethinking Parametric Architecture by Reconciling Ornamental Patterns and Energy Performance.

Supervisory committee: Carmela Cucuzzella, Nawwaf Kharma, Bruno Lee, Richard Foltz

A Public Scholar, with over 20 years of international experience working in the child welfare sector, Zeina has contributed to international initiatives promoting family strengthening and participated in the drafting of UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children. Zeina has co-written a book chapter on the challenges facing indigenous youth coming of age out of care in Canada and created oral history performances. She has published many articles on the reform of the child welfare sector. She is a board member of COHDS for 2019-2020.

Thesis title: The Life stories of individuals’ who experienced transnational/transracial adoption.

Supervisory committee: Elizabeth Fast, Steven High, Ursula Neuerburg

Alexandra Kenefick is an INDI PhD student whose research focuses on the intersection of design and meat consumption politics. Trained in communication design and gastronomy respectively, her work observes the complicated relationships humans contend with meat and meat-animals, and questions how consumers can be response-able agents of mindful, enjoyable eating practices as part- and as distinct from the industrial animal-agricultural complex. By working with consumers, producers, and meat-animals themselves through her design, scholarly work, and creative outputs, she hopes to spark deeper inquiry into the profound and contentious thing that is killing and eating animals.

Thesis title: Meat your Maker: Interrogating opportunities for mindful meat consumption through critical fabulation.

Supervisory committee: Rhona Richman Kenneally, Mark Watson, Jordan Lebel

Kite aka Suzanne Kite is an Oglala Lakota performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition, an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and is a PhD student at Concordia University. Her research is concerned with contemporary Lakota mythologies and epistemologies and investigates the multiplicity of mythologies existing constantly in the contemporary storytelling of the Lakota through research-creation, computational media, and performance practice. Recently, Kite has been developing a body interface for movement performances, carbon fiber sculptures, immersive video & sound installations, as well as co-running the experimental electronic imprint, Unheard Records.

Thesis title: Indigenous Epistemology: Contemporary Lakota Mythologies.

Supervisory committee: Jason Lewis, Heather Igloliorte, Joanna Berzowska

Recipient of the SSHRC, Geneviève Grégoire-Labrecque is a PhD student with a BSc and Master in anthropology. She is interested in youth, participation, diversity and wellbeing; and is working on the transformational potential of everyday participation (family, school and community) for immigrant youth in Montreal through participatory ethnographic methods. She has worked on diversity in education, health care and social services; in knowledge mobilization and as an intercultural trainer in health care and education systems.

Thesis title: The transformational potential of everyday participation for immigrant children and young people in Montreal.

Supervisory committee: Natasha Blanchet-Cohen, Warren Linds, Miranda D’Amico, Monica Ruiz-Casares

Enric Llagostera studies alternative game controllers and how they can foster reflection and make political critique. He develops experimental games and has been involved with organizing alternative games events in São Paulo, Brazil. Enric has worked as a lecturer teaching game development. In 2012 he completed his MSc. in Games at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a background in programming and social communication and a keen interest in experimental arcades and public play.

Thesis title: Critical controllers: how alternative game controllers foster reflective game design.

Supervisory committee: Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr, Lynn Hughes

We love to speak our minds out! But how do we? And why only us? Sayantan Mandal has a background in theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics and computational science. His research involves understanding the computational properties of Natural Language, the constrains placed on them by general laws of nature, and their neural implementations. He works broadly within the framework established by Chomsky, Marr and Fodor, and specifically on Substance-Free Phonology developed by Hale and Reiss in Concordia.

Thesis title: Phonological Theory: Computationalism in Biolinguistics

Supervisory committee: Charles Reiss, Mark Hale, Roberto de Almeida, Alan Bale

Jess Rowan Marcotte (they/them) is a queer game designer, writer, maker, teacher, and PhD candidate currently based out of the TAG lab. Their research focuses on physical-digital hybrid games from an intersectional feminist perspective. Their most recent work is "TRACES", a hybrid game about trans experiences and time travel. Their current, untitled work, explores the affordances of carry-on suitcases, puzzles, and written messages as tools for creating intimacy between strangers who may never meet face to face.

Thesis title: Preserving Physically and Digitally Entangled Traces in Hybrid Game Design.

Supervisory committee: Rilla Khaled, Lynn Hughes, Jason Camlot

We know little about the composition of the clothes we wear on our skin, which as a porous barrier can be easily crossed by chemicals. Fashion is the world’s second most polluting industry after oil. Vanessa Mardirossian’s creative research explores how design collaboration with sciences can lead to safer textiles. Lately, the general public has expected more transparency by the food and cosmetic industries regarding the ingredients used in their products. It is now a critical time for fashion to be healthier.

Thesis title: Behind the scene: Disclosing the invisible materiality of fashion and its impact on health.

Supervisory committee: Pk Langshaw, Alice Jarry, Martin Racine, Yves Gélinas, Larissa Takser

Fatemeh Mehrzad, she has background in Architecture and Restoration. Her research interests are Reorganization and rehabilitation with sustainable approach, Sustainable Cities & Urban Regeneration. She investigate a method that is tested and validated for assessing sustainability in urban regeneration with a focus on environment, economic, social, and physical factors in specific cities which can be used by developers and users.

Thesis title: Urban regeneration in valuable neighbourhoods to protect the capabilities of urban spaces, case study: Paris, Montreal and Tehran.

Supervisory committee: Carmela cucuzzella, Thomas J.Walker, Kregg Hetherington

I am an organizational consultant and PhD candidate in Montreal. While working with a not-for-profit organization before and after they moved into a new space, I had the opportunity investigate the evolving spatial relationships and the affective nature space has on and within the organization. My research aims to enhance our understanding and precipitate new experience based discourse around space as an active participant in co-creating our day-to-day experience.

Thesis title: The Embodied Office: a relational look at office space during transition and change.

Supervisory committee: Warren Linds, Don de Guerre, David Howes

Christiane Meyer is a pharmacist with working experience in hospital pharmacy. She joined the Concordia University in 2018. As a PhD student, she is currently exploring the effects of misaligned circadian rhythms (shift work). In an interdisciplinary approach combining methods from the fields of chemistry, molecular biology, and psychology, her research focuses on the female organism as an entity to better understand the complex rhythm-dependent interaction of endocrine and metabolic pathways and how disturbances of these fine-tuned systems affect the incidence of mood-related disorders.

Thesis title: How does internal desynchrony affect hormone homeostasis, metabolism, and mood in females?

Supervisory committee: Shimon Amir, Wayne Brake, Dajana Vuckovic

Originally, from Nova Scotia, Matthew Miller is a PhD student in the INDI program. He is a Certified Athletic Therapist, interested in promoting physical literacy and injury prevention in children. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Kinesiology from Acadia University (Wolfville, NS), and another undergraduate degree in Athletic Therapy from Sheridan College (Brampton, ON). His master’s degree in kinesiology is from Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s, NL).

Thesis title: Assessment of physical literacy and injury prevention in children, and the application of an exercise intervention.

Supervisory committee: Richard DeMont, Geoff Dover, Andreas Bergdahl, Loriann Hynes

Persian born concert pianist, interdisciplinary composer, artist-researcher, educator, Anoush Moazzeni enjoys a performing career that has, frequently, taken her around the world. The development of her creative music practice ( focused on interdisciplinary performance designs for piano and new technologies) incorporates interaction between artistic interpretation and scholarly reflection. Particular areas of her interest in research-creation include Philosophy on stage and artistic research. Ms. Moazzeni has received multiple awards and nominations and has been constantly collaborating as jury member, performer-composer and scholar with various organizations and communities around the globe.

Thesis title: Artistic Research: Epistemic Self-reflexivity to the Human Machine Relationship within an Unconventional Piano Performance Practice.

Supervisory committee: Ricardo Dal Farra, Mark Corwin, Eldad Tsabary, Tasos Zembylas

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Nathalie Pelletier earned a Bachelor’s Degree (Hons.) in French translation at Queen’s University and a legally oriented Master’s Degree in Terminology and Translation at Université Laval. For many years, she worked as a legal translator in the securities field. In 2017, she opted to somewhat change her career path and enrolled in the Individualized Program as a doctoral student. Her research focuses on the democratization of knowledge in the securities field giving small investors greater financial and discretionary power.

Thesis title: Pairing of plain language with Quebec securities law in the context of English to French translations of the information documents of listed companies.

Supervisory committee: Philippe Caignon, Judith Woodsworth, Pier Pascale Boulanger

Tracy Qiu is an ornamental horticulturist and public garden professional, researching how botanical gardens reckon with coloniality while tackling issues of diversity and inclusion. Her Masters of Science at the University of Delaware explored racial diversity in public garden leadership from the perspective of critical race theory and critical museology. A recipient of the Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, she aims to create critical and collaborative research with practical applications for the field of botanical gardens.

Thesis title: Rooted in Coloniality: Decolonizing and De-centering Botanical Gardens.

Supervisory committee: Katja Neves, Jill Didur, Selvadurai Dayanandan

Keroles B. Riad develops new materials for stereolithography 3D printing addressing the stability of 3D-printed parts in sunlight, as well as their mechanical properties. His research develops new catalysts that are sensitive exclusively to light outside the solar sepctrum. Additionally, he is exploring the ability of graphene oxide to self-assemble using light. His research is supported by NSERC.
Keroles also leads the "Waste Not, Want Not" compost collaboration, which has doubled Concordia's organic collection and reduced over all waste by 146 MT since inception.

Thesis title: 3D-Printing Graphene Oxide Composites.

Supervisory committee: Paula Wood-Adams, Suong Hoa, Jerome Claverie

Anne-Marie Rivard holds a master’s degree from Concordia University in Translation Studies. Her doctoral research, supported by the FQRSC, focusses on the translation of various discourses related to abortion in Canada in order to determine if the issue of abortion has been presented differently in English and in French and, concurrently, to assess whether these different representations have impacted access to abortion. Research interests are the agency of the translator, political translation, discourse studies, and post-Morgentaler abortion rights in Canada.

Thesis title: Analyse discursive multitextuelle du droit à l’avortement au Canada depuis 1988.

Supervisory committee: Pier-Pascale Boulanger, Viviane Namaste, Francesca Scala

Deborah Seabrook PhD(C) MMT MTA is a music therapy clinician, researcher, and educator, and an improvising pianist. Deborah has taught music therapy at McGill, Concordia, and Wilfrid Laurier Universities and her work is published in scholarly journals. Her current SSHRC supported doctoral research investigates music improvisation for the promotion of mental health and well-being. Deborah’s also examines music therapy, anti-oppression, and the climate crisis. Her clinical work supports musicians with creativity scars/wounds, anxiety, and/or trauma.

Thesis title: A Multidisciplinary Understanding of Music Improvisation to Promote Mental Health and Well-being.

Supervisory committee: Laurel Young, Virginia Penhune, Christine Beckett

[they/them] christian is an emergent queer mexican-canadian artist based in Montreal/Tio'tia:ke who works in the margins of academia, creative practice, and activism. With an academic background in urban sociology (McGill MA) and professional expertise in community planning and socio-environmental projects, they use poetry, soundscapes, body/movement, and urban intervention/installation as mediums of exploration.
As an INDI PhD candidate they'll be collaborating at the Performative Urbanism Lab (PULSE); and exploring play-driven urbanism, feminist placemaking, alternative urban futures, human/non-human interactions, queerness and gender in public space, and the connection between memory/identity/space.

Thesis title: TBA

Supervisory committee: Shauna Janssen, Rilla Khaled, Silvano De la Llata

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Aristofanis Soulikias is a film animator with a BArch from McGill University, an MA in Building Conservation Studies from the University of York, UK, a BFA (Honours) from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, and professional experience in architecture in Greece and the UK. He works primarily with stop-motion, handmade silhouette animation, and researches the possibilities of his medium in representing the built environment, its materiality, atmosphere, and histories.

Thesis title: Sensing the city through handmade film animation.

Supervisory committee: Carmela Cucuzzella, Luigi Allemano, Cynthia Hammond

Stephan Stephanov is a finance professional with high profile international experience. Known for eagerly accepting the most complex of problems, I catalyze business growth and improve financial processes by rapidly creating and executing viable and innovative, yet practical solutions. I have continued to develop a deep expertise in global affairs and nurture my passion for international business and management. Academic research interests include international business, international management, institutional theory, sociology of risk management, European Union politics, Scandinavia, welfare capitalism.

Thesis title: Cultural Underpinnings of Institutional Construction and Risk: Profiling the financial institution alongside Europe's North-South divide.

Supervisory committee: Mehdi Farashahi, Jisun Yu, Martin French

Roozbeh Tabandeh is an Iranian composer, architect and artistic director of interdisciplinary stage works. Having a Master's degree in architecture and a Specialisation in music composition, he is now conducting his PhD research in the framework of the individualized doctoral program at Concordia University. His works have been consistently supported by Academic and professional organizations including Concordia University, Conseil des arts et des Lettres du Québec, Société Québécoise de Recherche en Musique, Canadian New Music Network, Anáhuac University of Mexico, etc.

Thesis title: Poetics of Space in Iranian Music and Architecture.

Supervisory committee: Sandeep Bhagwati, Shauna Janssen, Cynthia Hammond

Joe Thibodeau is an artist-researcher based in Montréal Canada. His activities include sound/music production and performance, human interface design, hardware hacking, psychological experimentation, and machine repair. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Concordia’s Individualised Program (INDI) with a focus on the self as a product of sensory interactions—supervised by David Howes, Michael Montanaro, Sandeep Bhagwati, and Virginia Penhune.

Thesis title: Autonomous Sensoria

Supervisory committee: David Howes, Sandeep Bhagwati, Michael Montanaro, Virginia Penhune

Pamela Tudge is part food nerd, part academic, and part environmentalist who really loves design and art that makes her think deeper about our world. As a PhD candidate in the Individualized Program, she is exploring research-creation in critical design as a methodology to investigate domestic practices around food and waste. Further, she is researching how changes to design and culture during the 1950-70’s influenced kitchen practices. Pamela holds an MA from UBC and a BA in Geography and Environmental Studies from the UVic.

Thesis title: Kitchen Encounters

Supervisory committee: Rhona Richman-Kenneally, Elizabeth Miller, Anya Zilberstein

Stephen Venkatarangam, MA, MTA is an INDI PhD candidate, music therapist, researcher, educator, and musician. As a music therapist, he works in multiple settings including mental health. His research interests include how listeners perceive, contextualize, and process unfamiliar music. As multi-instrumentalist, he has toured nationally and internationally with Tala and Polaris nominees Elephant Stone. He is currently playing modular/digital synths in arc, while pursuing his training in Hindustani classical sitar.

Thesis title: Participants' experiences of guided relaxation and music interventions using raga: A mixed methods inquiry.

Supervisory committee: Guylaine Vaillancourt, Christine Beckett, Sandeep Bhagwati, Sumathy Sundar

Following his MA in Theological Studies, Joseph’s research has focused on the relationship between Christian thought and literature. His INDI PhD applies an interdisciplinary approach exploring the influence of medieval theology and literature on the popular works of fiction by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, with special attention given to the role of love

Thesis title: Mere Love: Christian Images in the Fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Supervisory committee: Jean-Michel Roessli, Paul Allen, Tobias Gittes

John Emmett Walsh born and educated in Montreal, one year of University in P.E.I. Acquired a BPh (Ude M), a Licentiate in Theology (S.T.L. Ude M), a Diploma from Hebrew University (Jerusalem), a Licentiate in Biblical Studies (S.S.L. Rome – Pontifical Biblical Institute). Ordained a Roman Catholic priest he served in a variety of ministries and also in community organizations on Boards of Directors. Active in ecumenical and interfaith dialogues he was the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal and recently the Order of Canada.

Thesis title: The Pastoral Theology of Pope Francis – a response to the 21st century.

Supervisory committee: Lucian Turcescu, Christine Jamieson, Jean-Michel Roessli

Garnet Willis is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, audio engineer, composer and instrument builder. He combines his disparate skills as, designer, wood and metal-worker, sound engineer and electronics geek to produce multivariate artworks that tend to revolve around sound. Garnet’s interests bring him to Concordia, where his PhD research investigates the crossroads between sensation, form over time, and material agency in order to develop sculptures that utilize internal stresses to change their form in unpredictable ways.

Thesis title: Objets Trancorporels

Supervisory committee: Chris Salter, David Morris, Sandeep Bhagwati

Mohammad Abdalreza Zadeh is an INDI PhD student at Concordia University. He investigates the potentials of design education for developing the community-university-industry partnership. He completed his MArch at the University of Tehran and his B.S.Arch at Iran University of Science and Technology. His curiosity about the social responsibility of design grew in volunteer working with local and International NGOs in Iran. He believes that community-based design is an inevitable aspect of a democratic society.

Thesis title: Toward a Democratic Design Education

Supervisory committee: Carmela Cucuzzella, Janis Timm-Bottos, Cynthia Hammond

Julia Zamboni is a multimedia artist and researcher fascinated in the potential of media, including machines and other objects, to convey the appearance of life to inanimate matter. She is a PhD candidate at the INDI program. Her research is an investigation of the expressive elements that communicate the notion of life in machines. Julia works in the lab HYCONS, and is a member of the group Machine Agencies, TAG, and Hexagram, at Concordia University.

Thesis title: ROBOT-LUDENS: Creating the Semblance of Life in Machines.

Supervisory committee: Bill Vorn, Luis Rodrigues, Mia Consalvo

Tatiana Zanon has been working for almost a decade with Science Communication, and her main goal is to bring scientific information in a format intelligible to the general public, so that science becomes accessible to all. Your doctoral research is situated in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)/Physics Education and in Science and Technology Studies. It addresses the lack of diversity and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM.

Thesis title: Diversity and Othering in Physics- A Comparative Study of Brazilian and Canadian Textbooks and Popular Science Texts.

Supervisory committee: Tanja Tajmel, Govind Gopakumar, Calvin Kalman