Research Associates

Leonardo Martins Cavalcanti Furtado is a Master's student in Geography at York University. He holds a bachelor in International Relations as well as a specialization in Human and Economic Geography. Prior to  coming to Canada, he was an English teacher for 5 years in his homecountry - Brazil.

His research has three aims. First, to explore the social, political and economic geographical conditions that enable and perpetuate the migration of LGBTQ people from Brazil to Canada. Second, to critique the heteronormative power dynamics at play between those countries throughout the immigration process. Finally, to localize and explore queer Brazilian place-making as well as community building and integration in Canadian cities.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Brazil

Keywords: Migration, LGBTQ

Mauricio is a Ph.D. candidate in Social & Political Thought. He researches the geosciences’ place in environmental thought and politics, focusing on recent developments in critical thought’s “geologic turn” and the emerging fields of geoethics and critical geology. This work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing together scholarship in the social and the Earth sciences to inquire into the geoscientific basis of resource extraction, climate strategies, and socio-ecological struggles. Empirically, Mauricio explores the geosciences’ role in the historical evolution of Chile’s mining industry, focusing on the science-policy interactions that have facilitated successive waves of extractivist expansion in the northern Atacama region. Together, this research examines evolving strategies for the management of the geographical and material constitution of extraction zones in light of global efforts to develop green energy systems and just green planetary futures.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Chile

Keywords: Anthropocene, critical geology, green extractivism, geoscience, energy transition

Please meet Kelston O. Cort, a Ph.D. candidate in the Social & Political Thought Programme at York University. He Holds a  B.Sc. and a M.Sc., specializing  in Developmental Studies and Behavioural Sciences. Broadly speaking, his research interests are situated along the academic terrains of critical spirituality, higher education, labour studies and family studies. More specifically, Cort’s current research focus presents an intersectional understanding of the ways in which the social class location and racial ascription of Black families inaugurate and animate the experiences and educational outcomes of Black working-class undergraduate students who are of Caribbean heritage. Cort is also the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, (OGS).

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: The Caribbean

Keywords: critical spirituality, higher education, labour studies and family studies

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History who is interested in the strategic architecture of U.S. foreign relations with the Anglophone Caribbean during the Cold War. He currently serves as an archival assistant at the CERLAC resource center under the supervision of Dr. Liisa North. Over the Summer of 2022, he is assisting in digitizing archival sources on the history of Black power, Indigenous land rights, and women’s movements in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Anglophone Caribbean, Jamaica

Keywords: radical politics, racial justice, social movements, and decolonization from below

Yara Flahat is a doctoral candidate at York University. Her research focuses on agricultural economy, food security, and the political ecology of the food system, specifically in the historical and the contemporary context of Brazil and its role in the global food market.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Brazil

Keywords: agricultural economy, food security, food system

Adia Giddings (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Department of History at York University. She received her master's in history at Concordia University. Her MA research focused on the labour and immigration activism of the Household Workers' Association of Montreal. She specifically focused on the labour organizing of Caribbean household workers and the support of the Black community of Montreal. Her current research surrounds the recruitment practices of Canadian families hiring Caribbean women as household workers in the late seventies. Specifically, how Canadian families recruited local Caribbean women while on vacation in the Caribbean.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Caribbean, Camada

Keywords: Migration, Migrant Workers, Caribbean, Women, Household Workers, Gendered Labour, Black Studies

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Politics at York University. I am interested in Social Reproduction Theory, Marxist Feminism, Marxist Dependency Theory, Imperialism, and Feminist movements in Latin America. My research examines the International Women’s Strike in Argentina and in Brazil, and the implications for a social reproduction feminist politics in Latin America.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization: Argentina, Brazil, Latin America

Keywords: Social Reproduction Theory, Marxism, Feminist movements, Imperialism

I am a journalist and historian, Master of History of Art, Master of History of Science, and a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) at the Department of History of York University. My dissertation is about an unpublished archive at the Royal Society of London about an expedition to Brazil (1967-1969). The research is about a British expedition to Brazil during the military dictatorship and how the Cold War affected science practices and politics (you can read the article I published at LychnosHistory of Science Swedish Journal here: https://tidskriftenlychnos.se/article/view/21562). I am also studying the research carried by the expedition’s medical officers in the indigenous people of Xingu National Park, earning the Paavo and Aino Lukkari Human Rights Fellowship. I am currently the co-chair of the CERLAC Student Caucus. I was a Research Associate and Visiting Scholar at Ryerson University with articles published about media and the health of African Canadian populations.

Country(ies) or Region(s) of Specialization:Brazil, United Kingdom, United States

Keywords: Mato Grosso Expedition, history of science, Cold War, postcolonialism, indigenous people, expeditions, The Royal Society, The Royal Geographical Society