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Graduate Associates


The CFR is a hub connecting numerous dynamic and engaged Graduate Associates. Graduate Associates write for Feminisms in Focus, organize conferences and events, participate in our research clusters, and more!

Graduate Associates are graduate students completing their degrees at York University or those at other post-secondary institutions who are employed on CFR research projects. Those enrolled in the Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies program receive automatic membership status and other York graduate whose program of learning and research intersects with those of the CFR may apply.


Seemil Chaudhry is a Toronto/Tkaronto-based visual artist and Ph.D. Candidate in Social Anthropology at York University. Her research explores intergenerational memories, trauma, and heritage preservation in a transnational South Asian diasporic context. Seemil’s primary research interests are memory studies, arts and culture, diaspora studies, gender and feminism, and history.   

Kathleen Cherrington is a 5th-year PhD candidate at York University whose interdisciplinary research explores the intersections of commercial sex, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies. With a focus on sex-positive feminism and critical analysis, Kathleen examines the evolving dynamics of intimacy, labour, and technology, contributing to both academic and public discourse. She has an extensive background in community engagement, media outreach, and academic leadership. Her work emphasizes bridging the gap between academia and marginalized communities, advocating for ethical engagement and equity in research practices. Beyond her academic achievements, Kathleen is committed to mentorship, student advocacy, and fosters interdisciplinary dialogue across diverse fields. Her research and professional activities are driven by a commitment to inclusivity, innovation, and amplifying underrepresented voices in academia and beyond. 

Kathleen is a member of the Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Research Cluster.

Mackenzie Edwards is a PhD candidate in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies at York University. Her research uses queer, anti-capitalist, and disability influenced approaches to study fatness and resistance in popular and social media. Mackenzie’s dissertation research explores the body positivity movement on Instagram in Toronto/Tkaronto. She is the Communications Officer of CUPE 3903 and a member of the Centre for Feminist Research's Critical Femininities Cluster, as well as a co-editor and social media manager of Excessive Bodies. Mackenzie’s work has been published in Fat Studies, Canadian Woman Studies, and Screen Bodies. She has presented at conferences internationally, both virtually and in-person. She is the recipient of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship among other awards for her work. 

Heather Evans is a doctoral candidate in the gender, feminist, and women’s studies program at York University. They are the co-editor (with Alison Crosby) of Memorializing Violence: Transnational Feminist Reflections (Rutgers University Press, 2025). Their research draws on transnational feminist theory, critical human trafficking studies, and memory studies to examine how militarized sexual harm and racialized, gendered resistance are constructed through the transnational memorialization practices of the “comfort women” movement. Their work is informed by thirteen years of experience as a campaigner, researcher, and educator with the “comfort women” movement in the South Korean and Canadian contexts, as well as nearly a decade of research on memorialization landscapes and critical interrogations of human trafficking and modern slavery discourses. 

Heather is a member of the Memory and Memorialization Research Cluster.

Bisma Faiz is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. She holds an M.Phil in International Relations and a Bachelor’s degree in Defence and Diplomatic Studies from Pakistan. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender and war, with a particular emphasis on how armed conflict impacts women’s political participation in conflict-affected regions. Bisma brings valuable experience from her teaching role at the only women’s university in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a region marked by the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. Additionally, she has worked with the Women Parliamentary Caucus in the Parliament of Pakistan, contributing to initiatives aimed at amplifying women’s voices in governance. As part of her advocacy for gender equality, Bisma has interviewed civil society members, politicians, and feminist scholars for her WordPress blog and YouTube channel, shedding light on gender stereotyping in Pakistani society and raising awareness on feminist issues. Her broader academic interests include Gender and Politics, Feminist Theories, Security Studies, Arms Control and Disarmament, International Relations, and Foreign Policy Analysis. Bisma can be reached at: bismaf@yorku.ca 

Bisma is a member of the Home, Identity, and Belonging Research Cluster.

Joshua Falek is a PhD candidate at York University in gender, feminist, and women’s studies. Their research thinks together trans subjectivity, anti-Blackness, and affect. They have essays published in journals including TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies, CR: New Centennial Review, Feminist Theory, and Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. They are the editor of “Aporias,” a special section of Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association

Toby Anne Finlay is a Vanier Scholar in the Department of Sociology at York University. Toby Anne’s dissertation studies the genealogical development of medico-psychiatric conceptions of gender in the Gender Identity Clinic of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Their research asks how we have arrived at the present moment in transgender healthcare—what were the disciplinary changes in psychiatry and mental health and the advancements in trans social movements that brought about our contemporary understandings of transgender phenomena? Toby Anne is a co-chair of the Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster of the Canadian Sociological Association and they are currently co-editing a Special Issue of Australian Feminist Studies with Sheila Cavanagh, dedicated to Susan Stryker and transgender studies. 

Jolene Heida is of Métis (Cree-Scots), Ukrainian and European ancestry. She was born and raised in Northwestern Ontario on the Robinson-Superior Treaty territories and currently resides with her family in the area known as Tkaronto. Jolene carries a unique perspective as a descendant of both settler and Métis people and orients herself to her work through Indigenous feminist and anti-colonial lens. Jolene is a PhD Candidate with the School of Social Work at York University.  Her doctoral research seeks to understand to amplify knowledges of Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse people who have experienced sexual violence through settler colonial practices of land theft and exploitation. Her research problematizes colonial narratives of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation which erase the unique lived histories of Indigenous people and further marginalize Indigenous bodies through apprehension and assimilation.  Her research is committed to co-creating knowledge from Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies which emphasize collaborative relationships, story-telling, land-based teachings, and self-determination.  In addition to being an Indigenous feminist scholar, Jolene is a human rights activist and defender of the inherent rights and responsibilities of Indigenous peoples. She comes to the work with over 25 years working within and against settler colonial systems as a community organizer, advocate, social worker, educator and mentor.    

Navneet Kaur (she/her) is a PhD student in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies at York University. Her research examines the experiences of Punjabi Women International Students in transnational marriage migration from India to Canada, focusing on their agency in the contexts of higher education, migration, and marriage. Her research investigates how digital technologies shape gender expectations and the strategies young racialized migrant women use to navigate the precarity in their lives. Her research interests encompass gender, migration, transnationalism, social reproduction, psychoanalysis, and immigration policies. She is the founder and president of the First-Generation Immigrant Students Club at York University, where she fosters spaces for advocacy and support for immigrant students.  

Nolan Krahn (he/him) completed his BA (Hons.) in sociology at the University of Manitoba in 2021. Currently, he is a sociology MA student at York. Nolan’s research interests include social movement policing, prefigurative politics, masculinities, disability, and intersectionality. In his honours thesis, he examined the police disruption of feminist prefigurative politics in the Black Panther Party during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Through an archival analysis of COINTELPRO correspondence between the FBI and municipal police departments, he noted parallels between these tactics and the counterinsurgency doctrine mobilized by the US military overseas, suggesting that such a doctrine continues to inform social movement policing today. Nolan minored in film studies and briefly worked as a research assistant on a project analyzing Canadian crime films.  Six years of work as a transcriptionist for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deafblind students kindled Nolan’s interest in disability, which he has begun to incorporate into his master’s research. In his thesis, his goal is to document the tactical repertoires that activists with disabilities draw upon, highlighting forms of activism that subvert the image of the idealized, sign-wielding, in-the-streets protester. With insight into how activists with disabilities creatively organize and participate in movements, Nolan hopes to explore avenues for the exchange of tactical repertoires between different organizations and facilitate coalition building between movements.  Nolan spends his spare time producing electronic music, playing video games, watching indie films in theatre, and attending local music shows. 

Hannah Maitland lives and works on Treaty 13 territory in Tkaronto, where she is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies Department at York University. Hannah is a feminist researcher whose dissertation project studies girl activists, their politics, and their relationships with their mothers and mother figures. Her other research areas include sex education controversies and pregnant Barbie dolls. Beyond her research, Hannah co-founded the Ontario Digital Literacy and Access Network (ODLAN). She currently serves as the Recording Secretary for the Sexuality Studies Association. You can find some of her writing in Sex Education, Shameless Magazine, Atlantis, and The Conversation

Hannah is a member of the Critical Femininities Research Cluster and the Girls Studies Research Network.

Evania Pietrangelo-Porco (she/her) is a PhD candidate, a sex worker ally/accomplice, a trained historian, and a blogger. She focuses on 20th-century Canadian, 19th and 20th-century feminist, 20th-century North American Indigenous, and contemporary sex work history. Evania won the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS-Master’s Scholarship (2019) and the SSHRC Doctoral Grant (2022). She holds various professional affiliations, contributes to multiple journals, and is published in New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis, Active History, Canada Watch Magazine, the Canadian Historical Association and the Journal of International Women’s Studies. Most significantly, Evania has worked with folks in the sex work community, including the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC) and Sex Workers Outreach Project Los Angeles (SWOP LA). 

Evania is a member of the Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Research Cluster.

TKA Pinnock is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of feminist political economy, Black geography, and critical development studies where she explores the everyday politics of ‘life-work'. Her dissertation project explores the ways in which the ‘life-work’ of marginalized tourism workers in Jamaica is re/shaped by and in response to contemporary economic development processes. An avid community volunteer, Tka contributes to both her local and diaspora communities and engages in community-based research.   

Ava Redmond is a Master’s student in Political Science at York University. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science degree with a Minor in Global Development Studies at the University of Victoria. She holds broad interests in social movements and online activism. She also is interested in the intersection of pop culture and politics, particularly with Asian media like K-Pop and their corresponding fandoms. She is interested in how young girls form their identity when they consume media and communicate on social media platforms. 

Ava is a member of the Girls Studies Research Network.

Luah Tomas (luahbt@yorku.ca) is a PhD Candidate with a focus on Latin American History and History of Women, Gender and Sexuality. Her research lies at the intersections between gender, feminisms, international politics, diplomacy and inter-war ideologies. Luah explores Brazilian female international thinkers and their transnational participation in both feminist and right-wing networks in the Americas during the first half of the 20th century. She has a MSc in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and a BA also in IR from the School of International Service at American University (USA). 

Talita Yaltırık is a Ph.D. candidate in the program Political Science at York University. She is mainly interested in social and political theory, particularly Marx, Marxism and Feminist Theory, and the history of social and political thought. She is also interested in the politics of ‘aesthetics’ and psychoanalysis.