Visiting Fellows are scholars with academic positions in other post-secondary institutions who are physically visiting at York University, including visiting scholars from Canada, short-term international visiting scholars, and Visiting Professors in Canadian Studies. Visiting Fellows are members of the Centre for the duration of their stay at the Robarts Centre and no more than one year at a time (renewable). Their appointment process to the Centre and degree of administrative support will vary but will necessarily involve the approval of the Director.
External Associates are scholars and community members who collaborate with at least one Faculty Associate of the Centre, and whose work actively support the public outreach and engagement missions of the Centre. These associates are external to York University and are granted special membership to the Centre by the Director for a two-year term (renewable). They receive minimal administrative support from the Centre, subject to approval by the Director.
Visiting Fellows 2025-26
Past Visiting Fellows
2024-25
Magdalena Fiřtová
Department of North American Studies, Institute of International Studies, Charles University, Czechia
2023-24
Aspasia Chatzidaki
Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies, Department of Primary Education, University of Crete/ Visiting Fellow
Pilar Cuder-Domínguez
School of Humanities, University of Huelva, Spain/ Virtual Visiting Fellow (2021-22 - 2024-25)
Mitja Durnik
Political Science, University of Ljubljana/ Visiting Fellow (2015-16, 2019-20, 2021-22 & 2023-24)
Jutta Ernst
Professor and Chair, American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany/ 2023-24 Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies
Vesna Lazović
English, University of Ljubljana/ Visiting Fellow
Aránzazu Tirado Sánchez
Political Science and Public Law, Barcelona Autonomous University/ Visiting Fellow
2022-23
Tina Benigno
Albertus Magnus College, Connecticut
Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun
Faculty of Philology, University of Bialystock, Poland
Amanda Coles
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, Australia
Ewelina Feldman-Kołodziejuk
Faculty of Philology, University of Bialystock, Poland
Kalina Kukiełko
Institute of Sociology, University of Szczecin, Poland
Jessica Parish
Marie Curie Visiting Fellow, Center for Urban Research on Austerity, De Montfort University, Leicester, England
2021-22
Susan Ashley
Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Robin Curtis
Institute for Media and Cultural Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany
2019-20
Paul Halferty
English, Drama and Film, University College, Dublin
2018-19
Junichi Miyazawa
Cultural and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University
2017-18
Seung-Ryul Lee
ESL/EFL, Korea Aerospace University
Carolyn Strange
History, Australian National University
2016-17
Ana Fraile
English, University of Salamanca
Thomas Mohr
School of Law, University College, Dublin
H. Kalpana
English, Pondicherry Central University
2015-16
Shilpa Bhat
English, Ahmedabad University
Marcin Gabrýs
Canadian Studies, Jagiellonian University
Özgün Akduran
Political Science, University of Istanbul
External Associates
Patrick Connor
Ph.D.
Patrick J. Connor received his Ph.D. in History from York University in 2012. He was subsequently an R. Roy McMurtry Fellow in Canadian Legal History. His research has focused on the history of crime and punishment in nineteenth century Canada, with an emphasis on executive clemency and pardons. Having recently relocated to Nova Scotia, he is currently writing a book about food, cooking, and eating in nineteenth century Halifax.
Email: lefthist@yahoo.ca
Gilberto Fernandes
Visiting Professor, History
Gilberto Fernandes is an academic and public historian of migration, ethnicity, race, and labour in North America, especially the history of Portuguese and other Lusophone diasporas in North America, and the construction industry and its labour organization in Toronto. He is the author of various scholarly articles on these topics, and of the book This Pilgrim Nation: the Making of Portuguese Diaspora in Postwar North America. Fernandes is the co-founder and lead director of the Portuguese Canadian History Project, through which he has delivered an extensive public history program, including archival outreach, online and travelling exhibits, popular publications, public lectures, youth summer programs, walking tours, and others. With the research and public history project "City Builders: a History of Immigrant Construction Workers in Postwar Toronto," Fernandes has produced, directed, and written a documentary and oral history video series; curated a travelling multimedia exhibition; developed and designed a website with multiple digital history features; and oversaw the digitization of close to 3,200 archival photos. The City Builders was the recipient of a Lieutenant Governor of Ontario's Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation in 2019 and has drawn a great deal of media attention. Fernandes has also been a course director in the Department of History at York University.
Research Interests: Migration, ethnicity, and race in North America; Portuguese and other Lusophone diasporas; Portugal's soft power; Ontario's construction industry and its labour organization; Toronto's riot and protest history; public and digital history
Websites: City Builders | Portuguese Canadian History Project | Personal Website
Email: prtcan.history@gmail.com
Janet Friskney
Ph.D.
Janet B. Friskney is a book historian with a particular specialty in Canadian publishing history. The author of New Canadian Library: The Ross-McClelland Years (2007), Dr. Friskney has also introduced and edited Thirty Years of Storytelling: Short Fiction by Ethelwyn Wetherald (2011), served as associate editor to volume three of the History of the Book in Canada (2007), and wrote the introduction to Formac’s 2012 reprint of Helen Milecete Duffus’s The Strawberry Girls. Her article literature includes studies related to the Methodist Book and Publishing House / The Ryerson Press, Canadian bible and tract societies, and the history of library and publishing services for the blind in Canada. Her post-secondary education includes an honours B.A., summa cum laude from York University, an M.A. in Canadian Heritage & Development Studies from Trent, a Ph.D. in Canadian history from Carleton University, a post-diploma certificate in Book and Magazine Publishing, with honours, from Centennial College, and a certificate in Access to Information and Protection of Privacy, with distinction, from University of Alberta. She has taught courses in publishing history at York and Simon Fraser University, has held a Tremaine Fellowship from the Bibliographical Society of Canada, and has been a co-applicant on two successful SSHRC Connection Grants.
Email: jbfriskney@yahoo.ca
Elaine Gold
Director, Canadian Language Museum
Elaine Gold is the Director of the Canadian Language Museum. She initiated the Museum’s founding in 2011, directs the creation of its exhibits and oversees its operations. She brings to her work at the CLM a PhD in Linguistics, decades of teaching at the University of Toronto, an MA in Art History and strong experience in arts administration and curatorial work. She has lived in central, western and northern Canada, and is dedicated to promoting and protecting this country's rich language heritage. Dr. Gold was awarded the Canadian Linguistic Association’s 2019 National Achievement Award in recognition of her outreach work through the Museum.
Website: Canadian Language Museum
Email: director@languagemuseum.ca
Darnel Harris
Master of Environmental Studies, York University
Darnel Harris is a planner and community advocate breaking down barriers to practical mobility for all ages and abilities. He has a passion for space animation, mobility and sustainability. His research and outreach efforts have been recognized by the German Government, and he produced Toronto’s 1st Annual Cargo Bike Championship this summer to showcase the difference cargo bikes can make. Darnel is Executive Director of Our Greenway, a coalition of businesses, residents and community groups in Toronto's northwest seeking to build a 21 kilometers of mobility paths protected by raingardens, connecting people to places and new opportunities all year round..
Email: dharrisplanning@gmail.com
Brian Hotson
M.T.S., independent scholar
Brian Hotson is an independent scholar and journal editor. His work includes decolonization, social and spatial justice, and writing centre studies. He has published in the Journal of College Science Teaching, Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, and The Writing Center Journal, among others. He is the co-editor and co-founder of the journal, SKRIB: Critical Studies in Writing Programs and Pedagogy.
Email: brw.hotson@gmail.com
Ged Martin
Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh and former director, Centre of Canadian Studies, University of Edinburgh
Ged Martin is a graduate of Cambridge who has spent half a century studying Canadian history, often in comparison with other parts of the British empire. He has written about the Durham Report, Confederation, Kingston in Ontario, Saint John in New Brunswick, the alcohol problem of John A. Macdonald, the marital difficulties of Alexander Campbell and the spiritualist adventures of Mackenzie King. Ged Martin likes to pose unusual questions: his recent work has asked: who could speak French in English Canada? and how much did Canada 'pay' First Nations for the prairies? (The inverted commas indicate a notional calculation, since no purchase money changed hands.)
Email: gedmartin@hotmail.com
Kate Moo King-Curtis
M.A. in Humanities, art therapy student (DTATI Candidate), Research Associate
Kate is a recent graduate with extensive experience in the arts and film industries in Canada and the US. In 2022, she earned an MA in Humanities from York University, completing an MRP titled “A Multistoried Artist: Holistic Self-Reflexivity in Childhood Studies,” which developed an analytical model using childhood art artifacts, autoethnographic tools, and research-creation.
In 2021, she completed “Youth Support Imaginings,” an arts-based research project with youth for York University’s Children, Childhood, and Youth Honours BA program.
Kate is affiliated with the Robarts Centre’s Children and Young People Interdisciplinary Research Network (CYPIRN), where she engages in collaborative research to build knowledge with, for, and about diverse young people in Canada.
As an art therapy advocate, Kate is pursuing post-graduate studies in Art Therapy at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute to conduct practice-based, participatory research with young people and their communities. A multiracial/multistoried woman, she is dedicated to amplifying diverse voices and knowledge keepers in creative arts therapies in Canada. Through her contributions to the Canadian Art Therapy Association’s Envisage column, Rooted Storytellers, she works toward inclusivity and representation in the histories shaping the field of art therapy.
Future Goals: Participatory research in art therapy to develop AR/AI tools tools with and for children and youth.
Research Interests: Art therapy, mental health, children and youth studies, arts-based methods, youth agency in research, intersectionality, technological equity, critical race theory
Email: kmoocurtis@gmail.com
Sharifa Patel
Ph.D. English and Cultural Studies
Sharifa Patel holds a PhD in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University. Her research examines representations of violence in Muslim families in Canadian news media and challenges settler-colonial notions of family and kinship in Canadian immigration policies. Sharifa is affiliated with the Robarts Centre at York University and is also a co-managing editor of the online journal, Feral Feminisms.
Email: sharifapatel10@gmail.com
Jen Preston
Ph.D. Social and Political Thought
Dr. Jen Preston holds a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University. Her research focuses on oil and gas extraction in Canada and its relationship to settler colonialism. Her research has been published in journals such as Race & Class, Cultural Studies, and Nouveaux Cahiers du socialisme
Email: jenpreston@gmail.com
Altaf Qadeer
Ph.D.
Altaf Qadeer is a scholar of multiple fields. He is a member of NARST, USA (a global organization for improving science education through research). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), UK. He is also a member of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA). He has served as the Adjunct Professor and Site-Coordinator at York University, Canada (for B.Ed., teacher practicums). He is also an external associate with the Robarts Center for Canadian Studies and the York Centre for Asian Research at York University. He also participated in a workshop Educating Global Citizens through the professional education program of Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has made research contributions for science education and worked as an educator for a long period. He was also a member of the Master of Teaching, MT Partnership Advisory Committee (OISE), University of Toronto and a member of ICDE (which is a key partner with UNESCO).
His research is published in the International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, the Journal of Physics Education and the George Eckert Institute Germany (Leibniz Institute for Educational Media). His creative approaches include, Creativity Inspired Science & Inventions (CISI), Citizen Education Science (citizen science + education), research journals for children (in simple form), MATHMAT, Multiple dimensions of environment, CLIMOWATCH, Safety education for all, multilingual power to enrich global interactions, Human Intelligence Inspiring Education (HIIE), citizen poetry. The Toronto Star has also published his ideas. He is a recipient of a New Pioneers Award.
His work about languages is published by FID4SA, Heidelberg, Germany. He presented at the international symposium on STEM education, ISSE, 2016 and the International LUMAT Symposium, Finland. An interconnected approach to creativity, success and happiness is also one of his contributions. One of his research projects is included in the book: The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia- A Comprehensive Guide. His publications also include: The future possibilities for the science of education and the art of learning (creativity, education, making inventions, economic aspects) and some ideas on Living in Multiple Nets - Pathways to empower creativity. He has also written about protecting our cognitive environment along with our physical environment, his work was published in 2000. He also writes poetry in English and Urdu.
Website: Cognitive Net
Email: dr.altafqadeer@gmail.com
Elia Rasky
Ph.D. Political Science
Elia Rasky is a recent graduate of the doctoral program in Political Science at York University, where he specialized in Canadian public policy. He recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a public policy think tank, focusing on research related to artificial intelligence (AI) governance and regulation in Canada. Elia’s research interests encompass Canadian political and economic history, international political economy, and technology and innovation policy. As an independent scholar, he is currently researching the design, implementation, and impacts of AI policy in Canada. Elia is dedicated to exploring important questions around science, technology, and the future of the Canadian economy in a rapidly changing world.
Alexis Hieu Truong
Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa
Alexis H Truong is Assistant Professor in the Criminology Department at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on themes of mental health, violence towards women, transitions into adulthood and popular culture in Canada and Japan. He also specializes in research methods, both qualitative and quantitative. Prior to starting his tenure-track appointment, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London (UK, Fonds de recherche Société et Culture [FQRSC] Postdoc Scholarship, 2016-2017) in the Sociology Department and was also associated with Sophia University for his fieldwork (Tokyo, 2010-2011) while he completed his PhD at the University of Ottawa (Canada, ON) in Sociology (FQRSC Doctoral Scholarship). He also holds a master’s in social work, and currently is a member of the Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS) and a member of The Sociological Review’s editorial board.
Currently, Professor Truong is principal investigator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant exploring the effect of psychiatrization on transitions into adulthood of youths in Canada. He is also co-researcher on two SSHRC funded Partnership Engage Grants: the first one is looking at stigma experiences while accessing public health services for women with borderline personality disorders who have also experienced sexual violence or intimate partner violence; the second grant is looking at emotional difficulties experienced by community organisations’ healthcare workers in the context of the COVID-19 response, and especially those working with marginalized populations experiencing homelessness, handicaps and mental health-related issues. Professor Truong’s research also looks at the place and role of popular culture and leisure practices in the lives of young adults, and how it fosters social insertion. One article on this theme has been published in the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, where he explores three pathways taken by youths participating in costume play practices in Tokyo (Japan). He has also recently published with one of his master’s students, Anne M Goodall, in the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being. on the therapeutic effects of participation in tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Email: ah.tuong@uottawa.ca