Current Students

Current Student Profiles

Alexandra Cirka	6ac15@queensu.ca
Yasmine Djerbal	11yd7@queensu.ca
Ben Fisher	11bf5@queensu.ca
Andria Mahon	41ah10@queensu.ca
Carla Moore	11cm28@queensu.ca
Dorota Polonska	3dp6@queensu.ca
Dan Vena	d.vena@queensu.ca

Angela Fazeka	12af16@queensu.ca
Joanne Farrell	12jf23@queensu.ca
Bilan Hashi	12bh18@queensu.ca
Melanie Large	12ml37@queensu.ca
Stephanie McColl	12slm1@queensu.ca
Aarzoo Singh	11as160@queensu.ca
Natasha Stirrett	9ns17@queensu.ca
Sanchari Sur	11ss122@queensu.ca

Yasmine Djerbal is an International Student from Algeria, who recently graduated from The College of New Jersey in the United States, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as a Certificate in Women in Learning and Leadership. Her research interests include post-colonialism, gender in war, and social activism. Her proposed M.A. thesis will address the subject of gendered violence and the politics of sexuality during Algeria's Civil War (1990-2000), and more specifically their link to the Family Code. 11yd7@queensu.ca

Benjamin Fisher graduated in 2010 from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in African Studies and Journalism. Additionally, he spent a semester abroad in Uganda as part of the School for International Training’s Development Studies program. His research interests include the history of non-heterosexual sexualities in African societies and communities of color, the intersections of race, sexual and gender identity, the notion of non-heterosexual identities as “un-African,” the importation of anti-LGBTQI discrimination from the West to African societies and the promulgation of that discrimination by the journalistic profession in African societies. Ben also hopes to extend his intersectional work to the canon of African-American and Black Canadian literature and to LGBTQI identities within African Diaspora communities. 11bf5@queensu.ca

Angie Fazekas graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences and Anthropology. She is interested in theatre and queer, creative interactions with popular culture. Her proposed research project looks at ways in which online fan communities talk back to mass media on issues of race and sexuality. By examining fan communities on social networking sites, particulary Tumblr, she hopes to explore how fan activities can create a queer online space. 12af16@queensu.ca

Bilan Hashi holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in the areas of Anthropology, Linguistics and Women & Gender Studies. Her research interests include subjectivity, affect, trauma, memory, narrative, cultural geographies and visual anthropology. She is also involved in creative writing, photography, interactive storytelling and other art projects. By incorporating aesthetics and cultural theory, she hopes to offer an alternative conception of diasporic memory. Her proposed MA thesis addresses the production and articulation of female Somali Diasporic subjectivities in Canada through the textuality and materiality of language.12bh18@queensu.ca

Andrea Mahon completed her Honours BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies at the University of Western Ontario. A proud pro-sex / pro-porn feminist, her research interests include the research possibilities within "new media" (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, blogging platforms) and the politics of labour. Her proposed MA thesis addresses the mainstream pornographic film industry and the labour issues facing its female performers, with a focus on how the funds generated by the industry trickle down to the performers. Andrea aims to change the way pornography is discussed in feminist circles by pushing the issue of labour justice to the forefront. 41ah10@queensu.ca

Rhea "Ashley" Hoskin completed her undergraduate degree at Trent University, majoring in Women's Studies and Sociology. Prior to Trent, Ashley attended Loyalist College for journalism. Her research interests include femme identity, subversive, queer and radical femininities. Ashley's proposed plan of study includes critiquing the systematic exclusion, dismissal and devaluation of femininity, and the abjection of femme as a category, by third-wave Western feminists. By highlighting the ways in which third-wave feminist theory has excluded the radical, rebellious and disruptive potentials of femininity, as exemplified by femme-identified people, Ashley aims to offer a nuanced and inclusive contribution to feminist and queer theory. 9rah11@queensu.ca

Melanie "Mel" Large completed her BA Honours at the University of Ottawa in English Language and Literature, with a Minor in Women's Studies. While working for the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa, she became interested in how governments contribute money to community organizations, particularly those involved with health, and the effects that this funding has on the form of the work that these organizations do. Her research focuses on social marketing agendas undertaken by community organizations and NGOs that target chronic diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, and the deficits in this messaging for groups such as (but not limited to) transfolk, First Nations folks, and newcomers. 12ml37@queensu.ca

Katherine Mazurok katherine.mazurok@queensu.ca

Stephanie McColl graduated from the University of Auckland in New Zealand with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Gender Studies and Sociology. She is interested in baking, cycling and critical social theory. Her proposed research project looks at the intersections of technologies, social media, neocolonialism and the reproductive body within the twenty-first century. By examining discourses of transnational surrogacy on Twitter against surrogacy hostels in India, she aims to contribute to a broader feminist project that envisions the emancipatory potentials of technology taken up by and conceptualized through the maternal/reproductive body. 12slm1@queensu.ca

Carla Moore is a theatre geek/media practitioner/girl/woman/gender studies enthusiast from the Jamaican countryside with a B.A. Hons in Media and Communication, and minor in Cultural Studies, from the University of the West Indies, Mona. As a rural export to the big city and the only feminist she knew for a while, Carla is somewhat accustomed to the life of the 'other', which may have informed her area of interest: Jamaican Queer Culture. Specifically, she hopes to research homosexual men living in Jamaica, and especially those within the purportedly 'rampantly homophobic' Dance Hall subculture. Her aim is to discover (as much as possible and allowed) the socio-political, historical and economic place of homosexuality within the culture, as well as the current place of homophobia. She is also interested in the survival mechanisms of, and socio-economic risks to Jamaican gay men, the effective 'queering of the space' that occurs through their continued presence, and indeed the means by which a 'queer aesthetic' has been integrated into an otherwise 'homophobic' society. 11cm28@queensu.ca

Dorota Polonska received her Bachelor of Arts (Women's Studies) and her Bachelor of Nursing Science degrees from Queen's University in 2008. Her research interests center around global health, refugee migration, child poverty in the Global South, and transnational activism. 3dp6@queensu.ca

Aarzoo Singh completed her undergraduate degree from Ryerson University in Fashion Design. In 2011, Aarzoo debuted her thesis collection at Ryerson Fashion week, in a line of high end cocktail wear for women that concentrated on themes of Indian identity, protection and armour. Her interests include, but are not limited to, art history, material culture, post-colonial identities, and critical race studies. While at Queen's Aarzoo's research will focus on the identity formation of Indian global nomads, as they attach and develop around portable objects and heirlooms as opposed to permanent notions of community and nationality. 11as160@queensu.ca

Natasha Stirrett holds a BA Honours in Sociology from Queen's University (2012) and a Behavioural Science Technology Advanced Diploma from St. Lawrence College (2009). Her research interests include: indigenous studies, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post structuralism, settler colonial theory, intersectionality, creative text, film, surveillance, transracial adoption, interdisciplinary methodologies, decolonization and social justice. 9ns17@queensu.ca

Sanchari Sur is a Bengali Canadian who was born in Calcutta, India. She holds a BA Honours in English and Psychology from York University (2008) and English MA from McMaster University (2011). A recipient of the  2012-13 R.S. McLaughlin Fellowship for academic excellence, her current research interests lie in formulating a methodological approach to trauma theory through the lens of feminist psychoanalytic discourse, while using fictional texts as points of departure. She is also into creative writing and photography. You can find her at http://sursanchari.wordpress.com  11ss122@queensu.ca

Dan Vena is tremendously excited to begin his Queen’s career as a MA student in Gender Studies. Prior to this, Dan completed his BA (Hon) at York University. As a theatre major and a film minor, he enjoyably spent his time studying popular culture while simultaneously creating his own works of art. In 2009, Dan self-produced his first full length play A Tranny Tale and is currently working on a new play, entitled Ravish Me. While at Queen’s, Dan will be focusing on contemporary transgender and comic theory in order to explore DC’s famed “Man of Steel”. His thesis will examine how Clark Kent’s struggles (from adolescence onwards) greatly mirror those of transgender FTM’s. By exposing this subtext, he hopes to reinscribe Superman as a symbol of queer masculinity that stands for “Truth, Justice and the Trans-positive-way”. d.vena@queensu.ca

Dana Wesley completed her Bachelor of Arts Honours in Women's Studies at Queen's University in Fall 2009. She joined the first cohort of Gender Studies M.A. students in the Winter of 2010 and is really excited about the project that she is working on currently with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network. Born and raised on the James Bay coast, she's still getting used to the hot and unpredictable Kingston weather and prefers the dry and harsh climate of Moose Factory, ON. Dana's interests are diverse, but if she had to describe them via academic terms, they'd include a combination of Indigenous Feminisms and Queer Theory. She strives to make her work accessible and relevant to Indigenous communities (especially youth), but particularly wants to work on projects that focus on Two Spirit peoples, Indigenous everyday resistances and radical community building. She is also actively involved in the anti-oppressive/anti-racist and Indigenous communities on campus and welcomes anyone interested in her work to contact her via email. 3dlw1@queensu.ca