Our program is empowered by a welcoming and diverse community of students with a uniquely global perspective. Together we are making things right for our communities and our future.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Modern Greek History; Migration History
Biography: Alexandros Balasis has studied and published on issues of modernity and nationalism, and his current focus is on transoceanic migration. His dissertation examines Greek migration to Toronto during the post-WWII period, with a comparative approach that draws insights from Australian migration contexts. He focuses on the migration experience, identity formation, integration into local society, and the influence of migrant elites. He is also a researcher with the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archive and has been awarded the HHF International Graduate Fellowship in Modern Greek History.
Contact: balalex@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: South Asia; South Asian Diaspora; Immigration and Refugee Issues; Material Culture.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Late Qing China; gender; opera; human trafficking; sexuality; self-fashioning.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; History of Education
Biography: Corey Orszak (he/him) researches the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (1965-1975); citizenship-building and the “science” of education in Ontario; and the civic responsibility ascribed to and assumed by academics and academia in mid-20th century Canada. He has an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies (York University), a Master of Arts in History (York University), and a Master of Information in Archives and Records Management/Library and Information Sciences (University of Toronto).
PhD Candidate
Research Area: Transnational medical networks between Europe and East Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
MA
Research Areas: Canadian History; Military History
Biography: David holds a York BA, and is finally doing an MA in history after many years working on staff in York's Communications Department and the Schulich School of Business. His period is the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on military history of the World Wars. His MRP, supervised by Michael Moir, is about the creation of the Canadian Government Merchant Marine in 1918. He is also a baseball history fan and former newspaper editor.
PhD
Research Areas: Canadian History; Migration History; Environmental History
Biography: Elizabeth (Liz) Jansen, PhD History, explores how the experiences of her Russlaender ancestors prior to arriving in Canada in the 1920s influenced how they adapted interculturally and ecologically. She focuses on how the wisdom from those times can be applied to creating healthy intracultural, intercultural, and ecological relationships today.
PhD
Research Areas: History of Slavery; History of the Atlantic World
Biography: Fabio Silva Magalhaes is a Brazilian historian with a research focus on the slave trade, slavery, and abolitionism in the North Atlantic during the Age of Revolutions (1775–1848). His doctoral project examines early experiences of Liberated Africans, the impact of North American legislation on the suppression of the slave trade, the intersection of the American Constitution and slavery, as well as the role of Quakerism and abolitionist associations in these developments.
Fabio earned his MA in History from York University in 2021 with a biographical study of Caetano Mauricio Machado, a prominent slave trader who operated in Bahia, Brazil, from 1774 to 1807. He also holds a BEd in History from Universidade Federal da Bahia.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Fabio has a remarkable musical background. For over 30 years, he led the Brazilian rock band Cascadura, which achieved critical and popular acclaim for its prolific contributions to Brazilian rock. Owing to his role in the band, he is also widely known as Fabio Cascadura.
Guido D’Elia is a PhD student in the Department of History. His current research focuses on Italian return migration from Canada between the 1950s and the 2010s. His work explores the complexities of this phenomenon and investigates how returnees resettled in Italy through a transnational perspective. Oral histories are essential components of this analysis as they provide valuable insights into these individuals’ experiences. His research interests include migration, the history of modern and contemporary Italy, transnationalism, and oral history. Contact: deliag@yorku.ca.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Women, Gender and Sexuality; Canadian history; Cultural History
Biography: Jess is an activist and historian of queer Canadian history. Her current research explores the queer history of Nova Scotia through ephemeral archives and archival practices during the late 20th century. She is also interested in queer theory, visual culture, community archival projects, and the pedagogy of teaching.
Contact: jwilton@yorku.ca
PhD
Research Areas: Canadian History; Political History
Biography: Joel’s research examines the liberal opposition to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Canada from 1932 to 1962, highlighting how liberals actively sought to contain the perceived socialist threat to their hegemonic order. By analyzing the Medicare debate in Saskatchewan as a case study, Joel’s research demonstrates how liberal critiques, rooted in individualism and property rights, shaped the political and ideological battles that influenced Canada’s social and political development into the 21st century. Joel has an honours BA from the University of Ottawa and an MA from McMaster University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Roman History
Biography: The research focus for my PhD dissertation looks at ethnography in the context of the ancient Roman Empire. The project focuses on the Roman and Greek perceptions of Persia to answer questions like, how did imperial powers appropriate other cultures, often through the construction of stereotypes? The Greeks and Romans had a well-established habit of appropriating foreign cultures, with Mithras being one such figure. My goal is to examine the ethnographic discourses employed by the members of the cult, subjects themselves of Roman imperialism, to construct ideas of Persia.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Latin American History;History of Women, Gender and Sexuality.
Biography: My research lies at the intersections between gender, feminisms, international politics, diplomacy and inter-war ideologies. I explore 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. I have 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).
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: US History; Canadian History; Cultural History
Biography: Mak Galabuzi received his MA in History from York and a Double BA in History and Film Studies from Brock University in 2022. His research emphases are in modern United States culture, with particular attention to the history of Hip Hop and Violence in the Hip Hop Community. Applying a Marxist lens to critiquing policy that negatively affects marginalized groups, his research engages a critical rethinking of the Black urban experience from the perspective of the West, through comparative studies of North American cities where Hip Hop and violence intersect historically. His work aims to develop a conception of Hip Hop History as constantly evolving in response to policies imposed on performers rather than the victim blaming narrative that “others” the struggles of racialized communities. The goal is to shed light on the ways government policy can be used to help or hinder marginalized groups and have a direct effect on what is being performed, unlike any other music genre.
Contact: mgalabuz@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Cultural History; Political History
Biography: Margrethe (Maggie) McKoen is working under the supervision of Marcel Martel. Her research interests include 20th century Canadian cultural and political history with a particular emphasis on the relationship between state and society during the Cold War. Margrethe's current doctoral research primarily focuses on the cultural and regional history of early Cold War Canadian nuclear civil defence programs. She is also interested in digital public history and has collaborated on a digital exhibit with Wilfrid Laurier University and the Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum titled “Canadian Cold War Propaganda Posters: Lessons from Bea Alerte and Justin Case”. She has also collaborated on developing a digital exhibit exploring Canadian involvement in the Spanish Civil War in conjunction with the Virtual Spanish Civil War Museum. She received her MA in history from Wilfrid Laurier University and her BA from Simon Fraser University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Chinese History; Social and Cultural History
Biography: Marijn Fennema (he/him) is a doctoral student focusing on the sociocultural history of China in the late-Qing and Republican periods. His research explores the history of the betel nut in early 20th-century Southern China through its roles as a commodity, a leisure item, and a risk. He holds a BA in Human Geography from the University of Amsterdam, an MA in Political Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, and a Research MA in Asian Studies from Leiden University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Environmental History; Labour History; Canadian History; US History
Biography: Matthew is a PhD student interested in the history of the Great Lakes as a borderlands region during the early period of industrialization. His SSHRC-funded research project is situated at the intersection of environmental and labour history, with HGIS as a guiding methodology. Before entering the PhD program, Matthew received an MA in History from the University of Saskatchewan and an honours BA in Urban Studies from the University of Toronto. His MA thesis project examined the transfer of geographic knowledge from Indigenous peoples to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
PhD
Research Areas: History of Technology (particularly energy history, agriculture, and mining); Canadian History; Material Culture.
Biography: Mike Roberts is currently investigating the role of the small steam engine in Ontario, with special attention to the education and social roles of operating engineers in rural and remote communities. A fuller understanding of these engineers has the potential to shift our understanding of industrialization and agriculture at a crucial period in Canada's past.
In addition to traditional historical records, he relies on an intimate knowledge of material culture, and has been involved with a number of museums. He has served as assistant to the chief engineer of the Toronto Railway Museum and has interned at the Royal Ontario Museum. He received his BA in history and anthropology at York, his MA in history at University of Toronto (steam plowing in Western Canada), and did his archaeological field school on the Island of Bornholm. He has also held a heritage steam operator’s licence (STO) in the province of Ontario for nearly a decade, and has been the recipient of SSHRC and OGS scholarships.
MA Candidate
Research Areas: Medical History; US History
Biography: Natalie Orodi holds a BA with Spec. Hons. in History from York University (2024). Her research concerns the history of public health, with a focus in rural communities in North America in the mid-19th to early 20th century. She is currently a Research Assistant for the 2024-25 year.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: African History; Social History of Medicine; History of Technology; Environmental History
Biography: Patrick C. Okpalaeke’s research examines how coal miners navigated coal mining sites, and their collective experiences of disease, wellness, and colonial capitalism in Southeastern Nigeria during the twentieth century. Patrick obtained his Bachelor of Arts (History and International Studies) and Master of Arts (Social and Political History) Degrees from the Department of History and International Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Contact: pco23@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Burma in the late-19th and early 20th centuries, during the period of British colonialism.
Biography: Peter Alexander’s research concerns Buddhism and politics in colonial society, with a particular emphasis on changes in the ways that ritual donations to Buddhist institutions were organized by lay Buddhists in this period. He has conducted research into the origins of the Shwedagon Pagoda Trust, and its influence on the network of pagoda trusts that developed in Burma.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Historian of Education; Social, Economic and Cultural Life; Colonial and Post-Colonial West Africa.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Germany; East Africa; Cold War History
Biography: Richard’s research focuses on the work of the mass organizations of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) in Tanzania in the 1960s. He was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at McMaster University in 2020. In addition to history, Richard is passionate about languages, political science, geography, and the outdoors. His ambition is to be a professor of Cold War history with a focus on Central Europe and East Africa.
MA Candidate
Research Areas: The Roman Empire; Roman imperial women
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: History of Science and Technology; Cultural History
Biography: Ryan studies science and technology in late 19th and early 20th century Europe and America, and in particular popular belief and speculation on what these were and could be used for. His dissertation research explores the world of people who wrote letters to the editor of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and its successors, published from 1926-1936, and what their writing can tell us about how people of the past imagined science and the future.
PhD candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Gender History; Immigration History
Biography: Sarah Ghrawi’s research aims to document the role of immigrant women as entrepreneurs shaping Canadian luxury spaces in Montreal and Toronto between the 1900s and the 1970s. Spaces of luxury retail are an especially unique and valuable entry point for historical study because they represent an intersection of economic, political, and cultural expression. Her academic work has earned her several prestigious awards and scholarships, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship and the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Toronto Graduate Scholarship. Ghrawi has gained diverse professional experience, including roles as a Writing Instructor at York University's Writing Centre, a Loss Prevention Investigator at Holt Renfrew, and a receptionist/ security guard at Tangerine Bank headquarters. A fun fact about Ghrawi is that she earned an Excellence Award for her Iaidō performance at the 32nd Budo World Championship in Kyoto, Japan, in 2023. Competing as part of the Canadian team, she showcased her skills in traditional martial arts. This achievement reflects her commitment to mastering the discipline and philosophy of martial arts, as she is also associated with the Japan Integrated Martial Arts Federation.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Modern Greek History; Cultural History; Public History; Photography; Identity; Tourism; Material Culture
Biography: Victoria Rigas-DiDomenico’s current research focuses on the history of photography in modern Greece, exploring how images contributed to the evolving identity of the Greek people. Her work explores the diverse and often competing photographic representations of Greece in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by comparing images captured by both Greeks and foreign travelers. Tourism, migration, and population exchange are central to this research, all playing a significant role in how the country was understood and depicted.
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The Graduate Program in History at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.