This story is published in YFile’s New Faces feature issue 2025. Every September, YFile introduces and welcomes those joining the York University community.
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies welcomes 10 new full-time, permanent members this fall.
"We are delighted to welcome our newest colleagues to the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS)," says Kate McPherson, interim dean LA&PS. "I am excited about the opportunities ahead for our students to learn, grow and thrive, and I am confident that your teaching, mentorship and scholarship will not only enrich our academic community but also help shape the leaders of tomorrow. Thank you for contributing your talents and passion to our collective work."
(Please note that bios were not available for the following new faculty members: Aitana Guia, associate professor, history; Danica Pawlick-Potts, assistant professor, communication studies and CRC Tier 2; and Catherine Schmidt, assistant professor, social work.)
Aitana Guia
Guia is a social and political historian of modern Europe, particularly Spain, and joins York University as an associate professor and the inaugural MacKenzie-Papineau Memorial Chair in Modern Spanish History.
Her areas of expertise are social movements, nationalism, migration and minorities in the post-war period. Guia’s first monograph, La llengua negociada: El conflicte politic sobre la llengua received the 2001 Manuel Sanchis Guarner Book Award. It traces the political maneuvers to divide and weaken Catalan in the Valencian region.
Her most recent monograph, La rebel·lió dels vianants: El Jardí del Riu Túria al centre d’una nova València (Bromera, 2023), was awarded the 2022 City of Alzira Non-Fiction Book Award and the 2023 Catalan Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Critics Award, and explores the past, present and future of the Turia River Park in Valencia, Spain.
Before joining York, Guia worked at California State University Fullerton from 2016-25.
Sylvia Esther Gyan
Gyan joins LA&PS as an associate professor of sociology, with over a decade of experience in teaching and research. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Ghana, completing the final year of her program at the University of Sussex, U.K., as a Commonwealth Scholar.
Her research focuses on sociology of health with emphasis on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, maternal health and child marriage. Her broader academic interests include gender studies, climate change, ageing and migration. She is co-principal investigator on the project "Utilising AI to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes for Adolescents with Disabilities in Ghana" funded by the International Development Research Centre through the Infectious Disease Institute’s HASH program. Her work is published in leading international journals, including Current Sociology and Archives of Sexual Behaviour. She is deeply committed to collaborative, socially responsive research that informs policies to improve the lives of women and other vulnerable populations.
Aimi (Mozhdeh) Hamraie
Hamraie joins York University as an associate professor of social science.
Hamraie is an internationally recognized expert in the field of disability accessibility. Their award-winning Critical Design Lab brings together disabled researchers, artists and designers to explore cultural approaches to design.
Hamraie is also the author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability, a 2022 United States Artists Fellow in Media, and a public member of the U.S. Access Board.
Treisha Hylton
Hylton is an interdisciplinary social work educator and researcher whose scholarship and teaching examines the lived experiences and knowledge production of Black women and girls. She joins LA&PS as an assistant professor.
Her teaching is rooted in Black feminism and critical social work theories, ensuring her pedagogy centres the realities of those she aims to empower. She brings more than 15 years of professional practice spanning child welfare, mental health services and the youth criminal justice system.
Her current research examines the rise of women’s professional sports in Toronto and the ways this expansion fosters participation, leadership and community capacity building among Black girls. In parallel, she has explored how surfing serves as a form of community building for Black girls in Jamaica, illuminating sports as sites of empowerment, identity formation and social justice.
Hylton's interdisciplinary approach weaves together theory and praxis, using innovative and creative approaches to engage youth.
Elene Lam
As an activist-scholar, Lam brings near 30 years of transnational grassroots organizing into her academic work and pedagogy. She joins LA&PS as an assistant professor in social work.
Lam employs decolonizing, arts-based and diverse innovative approaches for knowledge transfer. With her transnational activist work spanning from East and Southeast Asia, Australia and Canada, Lam is committed to an interdisciplinary approach to integrate theory into practice. That commitment has guided her extensive work with diverse and marginalized communities to advance racial, migrant, gender, labour, sex worker and disability justice, and to challenge carceral and anti-trafficking systems. Her work is committed to building a platform for marginalized communities to transform society.
Lam is the recipient of the Constance E. Hamilton Award for Women’s Equality, a recognition by the City of Toronto for her work and impact.
Patricia Lenz
Lenz is an assistant professor with the School of Social Work. She has worked for over 15 years in the field of homelessness and housing in both frontline and system-transformation roles.
Her current research interests in social innovation, local government and non-profit organizational relations contribute to practical solutions in redistributing social power, decision-making authority and resources to historically marginalized groups
She is always seeking to support and collaborate on practical and academic work related to addressing and understanding the experience of homelessness that provides tangible benefits and change for individuals experiencing homelessness and that can also contribute to systemic and policy change.
Emma Yasui
Yasui is an anthropological archaeologist whose research explores human-plant relationships, foodways, ecological knowledge and representations of the past. She joins LA&PS as an assistant professor in anthropology.
Her primary project focuses on Jōmon Period (16,500 to 2,300 years ago) foodways in southcentral Hokkaido, Japan, and applying microscopic residue analysis to explore the use of plant species that have been underrepresented through other archaeological techniques. Her current project, in partnership with Hokkaido University, is examining how portrayals of the Jōmon period in academic publications, educational spaces, and popular media intersect with current day identity formation and perceptions of indigeneity in Japan.
Yasui is active in the games industry as a cultural consultant and content creator, combining her training as an anthropologist, interest in games and media studies, and lived experience as a member of the Canadian Nikkei community to address the harmful representations of Japanese people and Asian diaspora that permeate popular media.
Sarah Zipp
Zipp is an associate professor in and program coordinator for sport management at York University's Markham Campus. For a full profile, see the New Faces 2025 story for Markham Campus.