Meet our graduate students
Our graduate students
We are home to a vibrant community of approximately 40 graduate students. Their work covers every field within Political Science and across our research clusters.
Gershon Adela (PhD Student)
Field: International Relations
Research Cluster: Blades, Bombs, Bullets, and ‘Bots
Bio: My research interests focus on insurgency/ terrorism, counterinsurgency/counterterrorism warfare, and geopolitics. My master's thesis analyzed how the institutional counterinsurgency policy frameworks of the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) influence the counterinsurgency effort against the Boko Haram insurgency in Africa's Lake Chad Basin. My doctoral research will examine how great power competition, primarily between the United States, China, and Russia; is influencing responses to security concerns in existing and emerging geopolitical hotspots. I am particularly interested in the Arctic, the high seas, and Africa.
Diana Adongo (MA Student)
Field: Comparative Politics, Indigenous Politics, International Relations
Clusters: Human Rights Violations and Protections; Theorizing Beyond The Liberal Order, Blades, Bombs, Bullets and ‘Bots, Legal Regimes and Politics.
Bio: I am interested in the role of non-western countries in the international system, in the context of decolonization. My research specifically concerns the role of China, and their alternative form of development in Africa, and the risks and benefits associated with this alliance. My project will investigate the circumstances surrounding the involvement and partnerships of African nations in the Belt and Road initiative, to answer the question of why certain countries choose to ally themselves with Beijing through the Initiative. To accomplish this goal, I intend to draw from international relations scholarship of realism, and constructivism, coupled with post-colonial and decolonization scholarship.
I hope to benefit the field through understanding the survivability or sustainability of decolonized governance practices when faced with international agreements and treaties that focus on economic revitalization, while ignoring or potentially harming sociopolitical concerns.
Ryan Crosschild (PhD Student)
Fields: Indigenous Politics; Canadian Politics
Clusters: Theorizing Beyond the Liberal Order
Bio: Oki nikso'kowaiksi. Nitaniko Sikapiohkiitopi. Greetings, my name is Ryan and I am Nitsitapii from Kainaiwa (Blood Tribe), which is part of Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy). I belong to the Fish Eaters Clan and serve as a member of the Grey Horse Society. I was born and raised in Lethbridge, and educated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam people at UBC where I completed my undergraduate degree in Political Science and Indigenous Studies. My research interests include Prairie Indigenous Political Philosophy and Indigiqueer resurgence and governance formations. My doctoral research builds off of my MA, in which I examined how Indigenous territorialities and the relational networks they carry, are central to the political resurgence of queer people within Blackfoot governance and resurgence formations. It flows from the concluding questions I raised in my MA about what it means to engage in highly divisive questions of memory in the context and aftermaths of targeted gender oppression and violence that my current PhD work unfolds. In my doctoral research I ask, how do we create pathways to decolonial futures in the presence of traditionalized heteropatriarchy and anthropocentrism in Indigenous governance and resurgence paradigms? Specifically, I turn to the Buffalo Treaty (2016) as way to understand how the removal of salient kin, in this case Buffalo, impacted Indigenous life and politics, and what political strategies are being adopted contemporarily to address it. This will afford me an opportunity to critically reflect on the way relational ethics and politics are negotiated, governed, and managed in contemporary expressions of inter-Indigenous/inter-being resurgence.
Tara Cranna (PhD Student)
Fields: Canadian Politics and International Relations
Clusters: Blades, Bombs, Bullets and ‘Bots; Gender and Politics
Bio: My research interests focus on terrorism studies and counterterrorism policy. While my master’s thesis focused on the use of sexual violence by terrorist groups, my PhD dissertation will be switching gears to look at the way governments, particularly Canada, securitize an act as one of terrorism. Why are some crimes automatically deemed to be terrorism, while others are labelled as hate crimes? What implications does this have for prevention and justice? I am particularly interested in looking at the way that gender may impact this process of securitization.
Debanjali Ghosh (PhD Student)
Field: International Relations
Cluster: Blades, Bombs, Bullets, and ‘Bots; Human Rights Violations and Protections
Bio: I am an international student from India studying International Relations and Comparative Politics. My areas of interest include but are not limited to counter-terrorism, human rights, religion, identity politics and community relations. My doctoral research will focus on counter-terrorism measures and their impact on community relations, especially in the UK and the US.
Samuel Ho (MA Student)
Field: Comparative Politics
Clusters: Theorizing Beyond The Liberal Order; Blades, Bombs, Bullets and ‘Bots
Bio: My research interests are in civil-military relations, institutions, and social organization in general. Such as how do different social groups (like the military) function and act both within their organizations and with others in society. I am especially interested in civil-military relations in the People’s Republic of China and how that relationship has shaped the role and place of military in that society.
Dawn Moffat McMaster (PhD Student)
Fields: Canadian Politics, Gender and Politics, Comparative Politics
Research Clusters: Canadian Political Institutions, Gender and Politics, Elections and Representation, Public Opinion
Bio: My doctoral work will focus on the non-profit sector as a potential pipeline to electoral success in Canadian Politics. I’m interested in whether women’s overrepresentation in the not-for-profit sector may contribute to greater interest in and potential success as political candidates across various levels of government in Canada. I theorize that the backgrounds of candidates in the private and /or not-for-profit sectors may have an influence on identification of potential candidates and the success of those candidates. More broadly, I’m interested in the growing influence of the not-for-profit sector on electoral politics and political institutions.
I have been engaged in community social innovation research at Grande Prairie Regional College, and my most recent work has been on a SSHRC-funded project on Youth Civic Engagement in Northern Resource Economies. I see community engagement as fundamental to the role of academics in the public sphere, and this informs both my academic and civic practices.