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.
Abhi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics. He received his M.A. in Social and Political Thought from York and holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. His research is framed from a position of immanence to the crisis of Marxism as laid out in the work of Louis Althusser, Sylvain Lazarus, and Alain Badiou. His research engages a critical rethinking of emancipatory politics from the perspective of political subjectivity, through studies of previous political sequences including the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions and 20th century national liberation struggles, with particular emphasis on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. His work aims to develop a conception of politics as rare and exceptional rather than constant and inevitable, as essentially a break or rupture with history in which the thought of political actors functions inventively to create novel forms of political organization.
Aya is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science at York University, specializing in Comparative Politics and Gender Politics. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vancouver Island University and a Master of Arts from York University, both in Political Science. In addition, she holds a position as a teaching assistant in the department. Her current research focuses on how cultural beliefs, legal frameworks, and social norms contribute to the persistence of gender discrimination in the Middle East, as well as the subsequent impacts of this discrimination. She aims to analyze how legal structures and policies interact with societal attitudes to sustain gender inequality. This research aims to explore the mechanisms through which these factors perpetuate gender inequality and their effects on women's rights and safety. Aya can be reached at aelsher@yorku.ca.
Bisma is a first-year PhD student in Politics at YU. She completed her M.Phil in International Relations from Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Defence and Diplomatic Studies. Her research primarily explores the intersection of gender and war, with a specific focus on how armed conflict affects women's political participation in conflict-affected areas. Her broader academic interests encompass International Relations theory, Security Studies, Arms Control and Disarmament, and Foreign Policy Analysis. Bisma can be reached at bismaf@yorku.ca.
Bogdan Ovcharuk is a PhD candidate specializing in Political Theory and International Relations. Concurrently, he is working towards a Diploma in European Studies. His academic interests include post-Kantian Continental political philosophy, theories of law and ethics, international theory, and the aesthetic approaches of the Frankfurt School to social critique. His dissertation develops a labour-centered theory of legitimation through an engagement with critical international political theory. Bogdan’s publications have appeared in the Journal of International Political Theory, Constellations, Chiasma: A Site for Thought, LeftEast, and Political Theology. In addition to his academic pursuits, Bogdan has worked as a human rights researcher and media worker in Eastern Europe and amidst the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
I research the political economy of migration, agriculture and uneven development, with a focus on how dispossession, extractivism and inequality in the Global South shape labour migration to the North. I am interested in the experience of workers within the structural constraints of the world economy, how agency is exercised amidst these forces, and the social reproduction of labour power.
My PhD thesis research focuses on agrarian labour migration flows between Guatemala and Ontario, Canada, and their relationship to transnational processes of agricultural transformation during the era of neoliberal capitalism. I am seeking to understand how circuits of capital and circuits of labour migration interact and reinforce one another through a hemispheric extractive agricultural economy, and to better understand the experience of migrant workers whose labour power is essential to the maintenance of these circuits. You can reach me at cdlittle@yorku.ca.
Christian Ladores is a second-year PhD student in Political Science at York University. His research examines how processes of racialization shape the politics of migration, citizenship and belonging in Canada, with a particular focus on the Filipino Canadian diaspora. He holds an M.A. in Globalization from McMaster University and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Calgary.
Christophe Davis is a fifth year doctoral student in the Department of Politics at York University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Université de Montréal and a master's in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research centres on questions surrounding the production and the consumption of collective memory. He finds particularly interesting instances of memory manipulation by public and private actors, as well as the deconstruction of these manipulations through memory activism. His doctoral research focuses on the commodification and the reappropriation of industrial memories in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter and Montréal’s Sud-Ouest, two neighbourhoods experiencing gentrification.
Clay Duncalfe is a PhD student in the Department of Politics. He holds a BA in Political Studies from Trent University and a MA in Political Economy from Carleton University. His research focuses on emergent climate-oriented industrial policies with an emphasis on strategies that support the “critical minerals” sector to meet the growing demand for green technologies that utilize these resources. He aims to explain how divergences in nations’ domestic economic structures, associated social formations, and orientations toward the geopolitical/global-economic order account for different state-led strategies regarding supply chain integration and development. His work has been published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Monitor Magazine, and Perspectives Journal. Clay can be reached at clayd@yorku.ca.
Dalia is a first-year PhD student whose main research interests are in Political Theory and International Relations. She has completed an MA at McMaster University and published a Master’s Thesis entitled ‘Adorno on Music and Politics’, which focuses on the role and impact of ‘art’ on society through a critical lens. She has also published work with several leading scholars on AI and security for the Department of Science and Innovation in the U.K. She holds several Graduate awards and is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society. She currently works as an RA. Her previous work can be found at: hdl.handle.net/11375/25942.
Cote M, Seymour W, Pybus J, and Mariasin, D. (2023) A Review on the Risks and Psychological Harms Presented by Consumer IoT Products. Department of Science Innovation and Technology. London, UK.
Dalia can be contacted mariasd@yorku.ca.
Dani Magsumbol received the Joseph Armand Bombardier CGS-Doctoral for her dissertation research, which investigates the geopolitical and sociocultural transformation of citizenship as it has come to be shaped by labour brokerage states. In labour out-migration countries such as the Philippines, the status of citizenship continues to be shaped by the long-term conditions and expectations that surround labour outmigration, embedded as it is in neocolonial legacies of labour exploitation and geopolitical relations between labour-sending and labour-extracting states. Focusing on the Filipino diaspora in Canada as migrants from a long-term labour brokerage who migrated to a federally multicultural state, her research examines citizen/ships, national/ism and identity formation in Filipino Canada. She has published articles and book chapters on the experiences of the Filipino diaspora in Canada. She can be reached at ndm@yorku.ca and danimagsumbol.com.
Emma Willert is a PhD student in Political Science at York University. She explores the intersection between welfare regimes, demography, and migration to understand the fundamentally gendered nature of population change over time. Her comparative research utilizes a feminist political economy approach to examine how governments strategically intervene in the process of social reproduction to achieve a variety of goals, such as reproducing the labour force, assuaging demographic anxieties, or pursuing nation-building projects. Currently her research is focused on developing a framework exploring social reproduction policy regimes using the variation between the Canadian provinces as a case study, with particular focus on the unique case of Quebec. Emma can be reached at: ewillert@yorku.ca.
Erdem Kaya (BA, MA) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Politics at York University. He has a double major in international relations and comparative politics. Erdem has previously published on Turkish foreign policy, global governance, and conflict resolution. His research project at York University focuses on Sino-capitalism and the developing world, and dependent development. His research interests also include how populism shapes foreign policy, multilateralism and global governance. Erdem is a past recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2020–2022).
Evangeline Kroon is a PhD candidate in political science at York University specializing in women in politics and Canadian politics. Her current research centers on political expressions of climate anxiety with a focus on the federal and provincial Green parties in Canada. Previously she has published on narratives of female violence in post-apocalyptic pop culture, and this research interest has remains relevant in her current research as she examines our understandings of future-oriented imaginaries through the lens of climate crises. This research also blends seamlessly with her personal love of nature, quest for ecological sustainability and feminism. She lives and works and tries to keep plants alive in her apartment in Tkaronto.
Fasah Ali is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Politics, specializing in Political Theory and International Relations. He holds an MA in Public Policy and Canadian Politics from McMaster University, and an HBA in Political Science from the University of Toronto. His research interests include the history of Western and Eastern/Islamic political thought, postcolonial theorizations of new world systems, and empire as a political tool of domination. Fasah’s dissertation project focuses on the persistence of empire beyond the mid-twentieth postcolonial era, examining and comparing the thoughts of notable theorists, such as Carl Schmitt and Sayyid Qutb, in order to deduce the challenges apparent in formulating a non-imperialist global order. His research draws upon a host of perspectives, most notably utilizing a decolonial, anti-imperialist lens to proficiently document the plight of marginalized communities under Western imperialism. To connect with Fasah, please email fasah@yorku.ca or message through LinkedIn.
Irteqa Khan (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at York University. She holds a BA Hons. in History and an MA in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. Her identity as a Muslim-Canadian immigrant woman and poet of color has informed her scholarly interests, which include identity politics, postcolonial feminism, anti-Muslim racism, and diaspora studies. In her doctoral research, she is interested in expanding on the intricate existential confrontation between the self as “insider” and the self as “outsider” and the pain of “belonging nowhere” by “belonging everywhere” in conjunction with cross-examining the spaces of policy and practice and challenging structures and systems which perpetuate complicity, silence, and narratives of denialism in the Canadian context. Irteqa has co-authored an article called "We-Relation: Narratives of Emergence, Education and Resistance" in the NWJTE (doi.org/10.15760/nwjte.2022.17.3.32). She can be reached at irteqak@yorku.ca.
Isadora is a PhD student in Politics at York. They are originally from Milan, Italy, where they received their BA in Political Science with honors at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. They gained an MA at Uppsala University while completing an advanced diploma in Critical Theory at Università Milano-Bicocca.
Their theoretical focus is at the intersection of social reproduction theories, queer scholarship, and Marxist thought. Their doctoral research plans to analyze the workings of capitalist reproduction through the exploration of how queer communities and bodies reproduce themselves, both in normative and non-normative ways. By shedding light on social reproduction both as the condition of capital realization and as arena of struggle, their goal is to integrate the different and contradictory ways through which capital is produced and reproduced to understand class and class politics as multidimensional.
To connect with Isadora, you can send an email to: isadora@yorku.ca.
Keith G. Sujo is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics. He holds undergraduate degrees in Politics and International Development from Trent University, with a background in sociology. His research focuses on political theory (emphasizing Hannah Arendt and Frantz Fanon) and international relations, including critical security studies and American imperial studies. Keith’s dissertation examines the totalitarian Ortega–Murillo regime in Nicaragua through a radical phenomenological lens, tracing dynamics from “pre-political” areas such as education to the administrative violence exercised by state security forces. He is a published author and has presented his work at conferences such as CALACS, IABAA, and ISA (upcoming). In addition to his academic work, Keith brings nearly a decade of experience in the NGO sector with newcomer, Indigenous, and Latin American communities. He can be reached at keithgon@yorku.ca.
Kenya Thompson is a PhD student at York University’s Department of Politics and an alum of the Institute of Political Economy at Carleton University. A scholar and activist, her research employs a feminist political economy lens to investigate social and family policies, and social movements advocating their importance. She is currently a Research Assistant on the SSHRC-funded Reimagining Care/Work Policies project, Coordinator of Nova Scotia’s chapter of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (Child Care Now), and a Junior Affiliate with the International Network on Leave Policies and Research.
Khaoula Bengezi is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics. Currently, Khaoula is researching global responses to climate change vis-à-vis clean energy technologies. She utilizes a feminist and decolonial lens to examine the how Western knowledge production and expertise manifest in global renewable energy imaginaries and juxtaposes these techno-scientific imaginaries with local perspectives on land, water and ways of knowing and being. Khaoula’s work on global governance, international law and gender, and feminist interventions in political theory and methods can be seen in Feminist Formations Journal, the Politics of the Middle East Seminars, Kohl Journal for Body and Gender Research, Lamma: A Journal of Libyan Studies, the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, and the Program on African Social Research. You can reach Khaoula at kben17@yorku.ca.
Laila Mourad is a PhD candidate at York University who adopts an interdisciplinary approach to research gender, labor and international development. Currently, she is exploring how home-based ‘gig’ workers can inform and shape our understanding of the evolving notion of ‘work’ in the digital economy. Laila examines how existing and emerging technologies transform how household economies and social relationalities are envisioned, and their role in development. She is the co-founder of SWANA Collective, a collaborative student body advocating for alternative decolonial spaces in academia and beyond. In her personal life she trains and coaches kickboxing, to cultivate resilience and wellness.
Lucely Ginani Bordon is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University, majoring in Gender and Politics with a minor in Comparative Politics. Her research interests include Social Reproduction Theory, Brazilian and Argentine feminist thought and movement formations, Marxism, and Marxist Dependency Theory. Her PhD dissertation historicizes and compares the reception of Social Reproduction Theory in Brazil and Argentina, examining the particularities of the intellectual history of SRT in each country. As an international student, Lucely has been a recipient of the 2021–22 Neal Wood Award and the 2024–25 Ontario Graduate Scholarship. She can be reached at lucelygb@yorku.ca.
Marion Trejo spent half a decade as Lecturer at Tec de Monterrey in the Department of Politics and International Relations after completing her Master's in Philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico with Highest Honours. During her time at Tec Marion's interests focused on contemporary political theory, biopolitical international relations, and critical geopolitics. Since then Marion has expanded her interests to include feminist political economy and critiques of contemporary neoliberal governance. Marion is a contributor to the forthcoming volume "Flowers for Marx" and the Springer Encyclopedia of Diversity. Her writing has also been featured in Zero Books and the magazine Merion West. Her current projects include writing her PhD dissertation on the political instrumentalization of fear and contributing to an essay volume on the philosophy of G.A Cohen.
Martin Barakov is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. He completed his B.A. at McMaster University in 2022 and his M.A. at York in 2023. His research predominantly centers on post-socialist urban development. More specifically, he investigates how the micro-district (микрорайон) has transformed in the former Eastern Bloc under different styles of governance, principally in Bulgaria and East Germany. On a regional level, he examines the role of the micro-district in relation to physical quality of life outcomes following the transition to liberal democracy. Additionally, he explores the legacies of collaborative urban infrastructure projects between the Second and Third World during the Cold War. He can be reached at barakovm@yorku.ca.
I am a PhD candidate in Political Science at York University, specializing in the intersection of literature, drama, and political theory. Utopia serves as my conceptual framework, enabling me to bridge the realms of art and politics. In doing so, I draw on the works of Ernst Bloch, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Jacques Rancière. My research critically explores the interplay of utopia and dystopia in Iranian literary and dramatic works, focusing on Gholam-Hossein Sa’edi (1936–1985), a foundational figure in modern Iranian drama. By integrating political theory, the politics of aesthetics, and comparative literary studies, I examine how Sa’edi’s narratives critique authoritarianism, displacement, and the traumas of modernization, while simultaneously envisioning alternative futures. My broader research interests include: Political theory;The politics of aesthetics; Iranian political culture, identity, and movements; Politics of the Middle East; Forced migration and exiled communities; Transnationalism.
I am a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University, where I completed a double major in Political Theory and Comparative Politics. I hold a dual MA in Philosophy from the University of Bologna (Italy) and Bielefeld University (Germany), where my research focused on Hegelian influences on the young Marx's dialectical perspective. My work is situated in the history of ideas and conceptual history and examines, in the context of the German Vormärz, the intellectual formation of the early Marx and the constellation of "Young Hegelianism." I also work on the philosophy of technology and twentieth-century Italian Marxism, especially Gramscian studies. Within this strand, I focused on the relationship between the philosophy of praxis and the premises of a theory of the withering away of the state in the "realm of freedom." You can reach me at muci@yorku.ca.
Mitchell Harris is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. Originally from Sault Ste Marie, he received his BA (Hons) in political science with a minor in economics from Algoma University in 2022 and his MA in political science from York in 2023. His current research is situated in the post-Marxist tradition. Harris is a teaching assistant in the departments of Social Science and Equity Studies at York. He is a past recipient of the Neal Wood Graduate Award. For more information, please visit his website at mitchellharris.ca.
Mitchell is a PhD student in the department of Politics at York University. He completed his BA in political science specializing in public law and judicial studies at McMaster University, and holds an MA in global politics from McMaster University. His proposed thesis work is interested at examining the relationship between EU legal mechanisms and anti-corruption outcomes in Central and Eastern Europe with a particular focus on the European Public Prosecutors Office. Other research interests of Mitchell include the politics of Europe, urbanism, judicial studies, ontological security, philosophy of law, and the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. Outside of academia, Mitchell is an avid cyclist and enjoys attempting to make a dent in his to be read shelf.
Natasha Sofia Martinez is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Politics, with a specialization in International Relations and Women and Politics. She is also a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC). Natasha is a critical scholar whose work bridges political science and digital migration studies. Her research uses digital ethnography to investigate transit migration in Latin America, with a unique focus on Migrant TikTok. She is interested in understanding how migrants share their stories and challenge borders, utilizing testimonio as a method. Natasha can be reached at martinns@yorku.ca.
Nate Currie is a first year PhD student. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Toronto and an M.A. in Social and Political Thought from York University. He is interested in the 'Crisis of Marxism' and the question of Revolutionary Subjectivity posed by thinkers such as Althusser, Badiou, Foucault, and Lazarus. As well as the creation of new forms of discipline and norms during Revolutionary moments such as the October Revolution and the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Nathan is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, focusing on Canadian Politics and International Relations. His research explores Canadian intergovernmental relations and international trade regulation. He holds an LL.M. in Public Procurement Law from the University of Nottingham, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Windsor, and a B.A. in Public Policy & Administration from York University. With 23 years of public service in Ontario across 13 ministries, Nathan brings extensive experience, particularly in intergovernmental economics and key trade negotiations, including Ontario’s role in WTO-GPA, CETA, CPTPP and internal trade agreements.
Pablo Roy-Rojas is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. He specializes in International Political Sociology and Political Theory. Previously, he was trained in Sociology (BA, MA) at Université Laval, where he received the Jean-Charles Falardeau Scholarship for academic excellence (2021). His research has been funded by the National Institute for Scientific Research (OMEC-INRS) (2022). Mobilizing his multidisciplinary background, in 2022 he directed a research project on behalf of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, investigating the impacts of strikes in the public transport sector, and worked at Laval’s Faculty of Medicine, examining health inequalities experienced by immigrant women in Canada. Pablo contributes to research in his field and beyond, having been published in journals such as Aspects sociologiques (2023) and by the Ligue des droits et libertés (2019). His doctoral research takes a critical perspective on immigration detention and border securitization in North America.
Rachel Joy Yeboah Boakye is a PhD student in the Department of Politics. She holds a BA in Political Science from Augustana College and an MA in International Affairs with a specialization in Global Governance, Politics, and Security from American University in Washington D.C. Her preliminary research examines how climate-induced migration in the West African Sahel undermines political legitimacy, citizen participation, and democratic governance, contributing to democratic backsliding. She approaches environmental displacement not only as a humanitarian or developmental challenge, but as a fundamentally political process that destabilizes states, weakens institutional trust, and fuels insecurity. Before joining York University, Rachel worked as a Research Analyst at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), focusing on governance, security, and migration dynamics in Africa. She currently serves as a Research Assistant with the African Extractivism & the Green Transition SSHRC Partnership Grant. Rachel can be reached at rachb10@yorku.ca.
She is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. She is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. Her doctoral thesis focuses on multilateral banks, especially non-Bretton Woods MDBs driven by emerging economies in the Global South, and their contributions to empowering third-world countries with their financing and other support as development partners. Her previous studies focused on gun control policies in North America, globalization, domestic politics in Bangladesh, and their impact on economic development. Her research has appeared in several Sage journals, including World Affairs, India Quarterly, and Foreign Trade Review. One of her papers titled "Opening New Horizons: Bangladesh Joins the New Development Bank" has been published in the Global Policy Journal, and another paper is upcoming in the same journal as part of her doctoral research. Rifat can be reached at rk16mp@yorku.ca.
Rob is a PhD student, whose research interests include Political Theory, History of political thought, Canadian Politics, Urban Governance and design, and By-Laws. He holds an M.A. in Political Science, a B.A. in History, and a Concurrent Certificate in Urban Studies and Planning (USP) from McMaster University. General academic interests remain wide and range from republican and Marxist theory to critical film analysis, and beyond. He can be reached at rbutrym@yorku.ca.
I, Samira Lavei, am a 6th year PhD Candidate in Political Science, specializing in Women & Politics and International Relations. My research focuses on the experiences of women in armed conflict in Colombia. In 2022–23, I was privileged to conduct fieldwork across Colombia. I interviewed victims, organizations and high profile politicians to understand the conflict from a gender-based perspective. During my time on the field, I understood the importance of personalizing the fieldwork experience. I utilized my experience as a karate athlete to network and collaborate with NGOs to teach self defence to victims of the conflict and victims of sex trafficking. I realized that the fieldwork experience is made valuable when you situate every aspect of your life into it. It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know your interviewees and for them to understand you. This creates a lasting relationship and trusting bond with one another.
Samuel de Brouwer is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at York University, specializing in Political Theory and International Relations. He holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa and a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from the Université de Montréal. His research is situated within the history of ideas, with a focus on French political thought, democratic theory, and the postmodern debates. His dissertation examines the contrasting perspectives of Marcel Gauchet and Miguel Abensour on the relationship between democracy, revolution, and the state, situating their work within the broader evolution of political theory in postwar France. His methodology combines archival research with interviews conducted with key intellectual figures. Samuel can be reached at sdebrouw@yorku.ca.
Sheema is an international doctoral candidate in the Dept of Politics with a specialization in International Relations and Women and Politics. She’s an interdisciplinary scholar researching colonial histories of surveillance, racialization and policing in Pakistan and adjacent territories. Her current dissertation project examines the intersecting impacts of global austerity and security regimes at Pakistani universities against the backdrop of the War on Terror, specifically probing how marginalized ethnic and gendered groups are impacted by these measures. Sheema is a recipient of the Fulbright graduate scholarship, the Viviene Poy Asian Research Award and the Olive Tree Foundation Student Award. She can be reached at sheemakh@yorku.ca.
Shreya Ghimire is a PhD candidate. Her research interests are in Canadian foreign & aid policy, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist theory, critical development studies, gender and development, and feminist political economy. Her doctoral research examines practices of international development volunteerism within Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, focussing on Nepal as a recipient country of volunteers from Canada. Her writing has been featured in Studies in Political Economy, Upping the Anti, the Bullet (an online magazine from the Socialist Project), the Winnipeg Free Press, Queen’s Policy Review, as well as in books, policy reports, and other venues. Shreya can be reached at shreya3@yorku.ca.
Talita Yaltırık is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. Her research interests include social and political theory (particularly Marx, Marxism, and feminist theory), the history of social and political thought, Marxist ecology, politics of “aesthetics”, and psychoanalysis. Her dissertation aims to explore the internal relations between capitalism, social reproduction, and the unconscious by reconstructing Marx’s analysis of the value-form with particular attention to its relation to the alienation of labour and social ontology. She can be reached at talitayal@gmail.com.
My name is Tamayah Edwards a first year PhD student in the Department of Politics. I completed my Bachelors of Arts (Honours) in Criminology at York University where I graduated Cum Laude along with a Professional Certificate in Public Administration and Law. My M.A. was in Sociology also at York University. My M.A. thesis was Crime and Race: Unmasking the Falsehood of Equality in the Courtroom. Lastly, I received a Law Clerk diploma from Seneca College. Regarding my research, I am interested in examining how racial disparity that eventually impacts the judicial system is rooted in the racialization of violence and policing within community housing. I am particularly interested in examining the Safe Streets & Communities Act legislation within an intersectional perspective in relation to my research interest. Outside of academia I am a avid Toronto Raptors fan and enjoy music from the 1990s and late 2000s.
Tristan Xavier Rampersaud is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Politics. He holds a BA from St. Thomas University and an MA from Lakehead University. Tristan’s research interests include Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, how hegemony explains Canadian voting patterns, and imperialism. Currently, Tristan works as a teaching assistant as well as having an affiliation with the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies as a research associate.
Tylor is a third-year Ph.D. student in political science and a member of the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies. Tylor focuses on Hannah Arendt's critique of education as a reflection on educational changes in Canada and the Holocaust as a means for implementing critical thinking skills in education. Tylor possesses a bachelor’s degree from Brock University, a master’s degree from Memorial University and a TESL. Tylor is recognized for his research by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Vidal Sassoon Center for Antisemitism and is the recipient of the 2023 Osgood Nathanson Fellowship award in Human Rights, Crime and Security. With nearly a decade of international teaching and lecturing experience in Eastern Europe, Tylor combines practical experience with academic thought. His skills and areas of interest are Russian politics, Hannah Arendt, critical thinking, the Holocaust, Antisemitism, Populism and International Relations with a particular emphasis on realism.
Viktoriya Vinik is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Politics at York University. She specializes in critical Israeli-Palestinian studies and Jewish political thought. Her doctoral research examines the relationship between Israel's housing crisis and West Bank settlements, specifically how Airbnb has impacted racialized land and property relations in Jerusalem and the West Bank. She unpacks how settler colonial governance over land and property has changed through gentrification over time, especially in response to the advent of the sharing economy, and how this change has generated new forms of struggle in Israel-Palestine. She can be reached at vikaav@yorku.ca.
Vincent (Vinnie) Collins is a PhD candidate in the department of Politics at York University. He completed his Masters in Political Science from York University, Toronto in early June 2020. He is originally from Glasgow, Scotland where he gained a BA in Social Sciences from Glasgow Caledonian University. Vinnie done his masters at York, where his research analyzed the Green New Deal, and whether it can redress the systemic inequalities that exist in society today while mitigating the climate crisis. Vinnie’s PhD dissertation follows on from this to focus centrally on the role of labour unions organizing amidst the climate crisis and their potential to deliver labour-led climate action that materially improves the lives of their members' and the broader working-class while simultaneously overcoming the climate crisis. Vinnie was recently awarded the CRIMT Institutional Experimentation for Better Work Project Partnership: Studentship Fund award.
Yara Flahat is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at York University. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto with a specialization in Political Science and then went on to complete her Master's in Political Science at York University—where she was a recipient of the Neal Wood Award. Yara’s past research has focused on comparative carceral systems, privatized healthcare, and the perpetuation of poverty cycles. In 2024, Yara was invited as a speaker at the 13th annual Mapping the Global Dimensions of Policy Conference at McMaster University to discuss her work on the United States Incarceration crisis. Yara’s current research areas are now focused on comparative and theoretical approaches to addressing resource dependency, famine, and food insecurity in the global east and the ways in which systems of production contribute to the economic, political, and ecological perpetuation of food insecurity.
Yara Shoufani is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. She specializes in International Relations and Comparative Politics and is the recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) to Honour Nelson Mandela. Yara completed her Bachelor of Arts at McMaster University, majoring in Political Science, and minoring Labor Studies, and then went on to complete her Master's in Political Science at York University. Her previous research looked Israel's ongoing colonization of Palestinians in historic Palestine, through the intersection of the market and state via gentrification, Israel's legal system, and Israeli police and prisons. Yara's current dissertation project is focused on the political economy of Palestine, looking at the role of imperialism and colonialism in shaping the political economies of the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the Oslo Accords and the role of blockade and genocide in Gaza. She can be reached at yaraxsh@yorku.ca.
Yazan Al Horoub is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at York University. He specializes in International Relations and Comparative Politics. His current research examines the political economy of underdevelopment and development in West Asia, with a particular focus on the context of intensifying great power rivalry. He is currently a Research Associate at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). Previously, he was trained in Kinseiology (BSc, MSc) at York University. His research examined Toronto's development and procurement policies in hosting the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup, and their relation to the global anti-sweatshop movement. Yazan can be reached at Yazan04@yorku.ca.
Yu-Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and a graduate associate at the York Centre for Asian Research. Her research interests include transnational authoritarianism, state propaganda processes, and diaspora resistance. Her dissertation research examines how foreign cyber threat actors adapt to Canadian discourses of racialization and multiculturalism and create new narratives that undermine the perceived legitimacy of elections or weaken trust in democratic institutions, and how such transnational propaganda impacts overseas citizens and other diasporas who speak the same language. Yu-Chen holds an MA in European and Russian Affairs from the University of Toronto, where she explored the topic of the detained Kazakhs in Xinjiang. Since then, she has continued exploring the human rights issue and mobilization strategies of former Chinese citizens, including Hong Kongers, Kazakhs, Uighurs, and Tibetans. Both her MA and Ph.D. dissertation research were awarded the Joseph Armand Bombardier CGS. Email: yzchen@yorku.ca
Ming is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Politics Department with specializations in Women and Politics, International Relations, and Political Ecology. Their research examines clean energy transition and sustainability projects in Southeast Asia through decolonial IR perspectives. They also engage in research and writing on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and anti-imperialist/colonial social movements across Southeast/East Asia. As an international scholar, Ming's research has been awarded the Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (International Stream) and supported by the LA&PS Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship. Ming is also the founder of the Critical Malaya Studies (CMS) Initiative, supported by the York Centre for Asian Studies (YCAR). For more details and contact: simzhiming.com
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