Masters of Arts Students

Kalias Bijman

I study homelessness, harm reduction and the occult.

Sam Dancey

I am interested in exploring how science research laboratories can interact with Indigenous methodologies, epistemologies, people, and lands in meaningful ways that benefit Indigenous communities. My research plans to use ethnographic methods informed by Néhiyaw teachings with a focus on relationality. While my interests fall within the Sociology of Science, I aim to prioritize decolonization.

Wenny Fan

Supervisor: Dr. Sandra Bucerius

I am a Master's student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. I received my BA(Hons) in Psychology from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Some of my research interests include prisons, hate crimes, community reintegration, crime desistance and queer theory.

Eric Huff

I obtained my BA in sociology from the University of Alberta. My research interests include social demography and migration, virtual communities, cyber-identity, and computational approaches in social sciences.

Samantha Knapp

Supervisor: Dr. Jana Grekul

Samantha is a master's student in the department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She obtained her BA in Criminology from the University of Alberta. Samantha's research focuses on experiences of incarceration, including available programming in custodial settings and women's experiences of incarceration.

Ismail Ayatullah Nasirudeen

My primary areas of research interest include gender-based violence, policing and law enforcement, juvenile delinquency, and transnational Crimes.

Gabriel Pratico

Gabriel is a master’s student in the Sociology department at the University of Alberta. He obtained his Honours Bachelor of Arts in Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. His research interests include narrative criminology, discourses, far-right ethno-nationalist movements, communities, and terrorists, as well as far-right extremist populist movements. Pursuant to this, his honours thesis, “Written in Blood & Glass: Terrorist Narratives, e-Communities, and Mass Media Discursive Strategies and Themes”, focused on examining the narratives and discourses contained within the manifestos of two extremist mass killers, the discussion spaces of their ideological peers, and mass media reporting on their actions. Besides the University of Alberta and Simon Fraser University, he has also studied at Okanagan College in British Columbia and the University of Oslo in Norway.

Maddy Rousseau

Maddy is a master's student in the Sociology department at the University of Alberta. She obtained her BA in Sociology from MacEwan University. Maddy's research interests center on the radicalization and extremism of far-right youth in both online and offline contexts. These research interests broadly include the familial and childhood backgrounds of radicalized youth, the role of social media echo chambers, and the implications of anti-extremism policy.

Eleese Sealy

My name is Eleese Sealy, and I am a recent criminology graduate from the University of Alberta. My research focuses on the Impact of Race-Culture Assessments (IRCAs) pre-sentencing reports, which aim to recognize and address societal racial biases affecting Black offenders. As this is a new tool, questions have emerged regarding its legitimacy and interpretation in sentencing, particularly concerning the limitations inherent in legal interpretation.

Saira Shearer

Supervisor: Dr. Karen Hughes

Research Interests: Sociology of Work and Entrepreneurship; Female Work; Motherhood; Multi-level-Marketing; the #BossBabe rhetoric; Weight-Stigmatization; Ethical research

My research interests are focused in the Sociology of Work with a specific interest in multi-level-marketing (MLM), wellness, and motherhood. Within the broader scheme of qualitative research, I am also particularly interested in ethical research practice within academia.

Leanne Stevens

Supervisor: Dr. Sandra Bucerius

Leanne is an MA student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She obtained her BA in Sociology from MacEwan University. Leanne's research interests broadly include correctional officer (CO) and prison subculture, CO mental health, and anti-terrorism law and policy.

Galiba Zahid

I am an MA student at the University of Alberta. I received my BA(Hons) at the University of Manitoba. My BA thesis assessed the effects on wages due to the feminization of occupations over 30 years in Canada and the US. I am interested in work and occupations, gendered labour, precarious occupations, social stratification, and income and wealth inequality.

Rujun (Ruth) Zhang

Research interest: work and employment; gig economy; transnational labor; immigration studies; gendered work; trustworthy autonomous systems;

Personal website: https://rj-zh.github.io/