Our Research Assistant Team
Meet the Research Assistants
Ayantika Mukherjee, Doctoral Candidate (English and Film Studies)
Michelle Murphy, PhD Student, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation
Working with us
Ayantika Mukerjee,
Doctoral Candidate, English and Film Studies
My research interests lie in postcolonial theory, imperialism and children's literature of the nineteenth century. Where my master's project focused on British literature, my doctoral dissertation focuses on American literature. I am examining travel fiction and board games, and applying new historicism methods, including book history and print culture in my analysis. Both my masters and doctoral work has been supported by SSHRC.
Recent publications include a critical introduction to an annotated edition of Louisa May Alcott's and Anna Alcott's Norma; or a Witch's Curse. Past roles have included helping to organize a conference on youth cultures, checking and copy editing the bibliography for Norma, copy editing articles accepted to peer reviewed journals, and teaching English courses to students from diverse faculties. I hope to continue using my research and writing skills as well as my strong commitment to interdisciplinary learning to support professors via the Grant Assist Program.
Michelle Murphy, PhD Student, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation
I am a third-year doctoral student with research interests in environmental history, parks and protected areas, and recreation. While my background is in science, I transitioned to studying history for my master's thesis focusing on conservation and recreational development in the Canadian Rockies. My doctoral research seeks to investigate human-wildlife interactions in the montain areas. My work is informed by readings in history, anthropology, and sociology.
Previous experience as a research assistant includes bibliographic work in Chicago format and literature searches for historical projects. Recently, I developed an interdisciplinary literature review for a knowledge mobilization project, and assisted with focus groups, transcription, data analysis through an inductive approach, and manuscript production. As a teaching assistant, I have also guest lectured on historical topics and assisted with undergraduate paper development. I have an accepted publication from my master's thesis. I look forward to working with faculty from diverse disciplines, and the opportunity to continue to broaden my knowledge and skills.
Working with us / supporting the Toolkit for Success
Interested in being a Research Assistant with us? Know a highly skilled graduate student? We hire, as casual research assistants, graduate students from the humanities and social sciences who evince broad intellectual interests and finely honed research, writing and communications skills, to assist faculty applying to funding competitions. Fluency in academic English is required and bilingual in English and French is preferred. A track record of SSHRC or similar funding is an asset. Contact the Senior Advisor, Research Development to enquire about opportunities. Applications (by invitation) will require a Canadian Common CV and a letter of reference from the thesis or dissertation supervisor.