Supervisor: Katherine McKittrick
Research interests: I am interested in the interrelations of music, visual arts, critical race theory, gender, and how they address Black geography through narrative, ethnography, and art forms. My creative and multidisciplinary approach addresses the particular importance of race, gender, (dis)ability, and/or (dis)ease. My focus on continuing my investigations in "unprotected black female flesh" was birthed from my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. As an artist, scholar, and practitioner, Black geographic thought centers my practice. I focus on history held within the land and the body, with storytelling in both concrete and abstract forms.

jessica susan oler (b. 1986) is a Black American Conceptual Artist. oler was born and raised in Davis, California. She attended Sacramento City College where she earned three Associates Degrees in Social Science, Liberal Arts, and Sociology. In addition to this she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from San Francisco State University in 2014 and her Master's Degree in Fine Arts from California College of the Arts in 2019. oler's work has been shown at California College of the Arts; Lewis-Clark State College; Rochester, Chautauqua, and Brooklyn, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; Lawrenceville and Atlanta, Georgia; Alameda, Oakland, and San Francisco, California; and Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia.

oler produces artworks in two-dimensional conceptual abstract format, video, photographic series, installation, and time-based photographic work. As her practice shape shifts and expands, she continues to lean into both concrete figurative forms and conceptual abstraction. Her process of constructing, deconstructing, and reconfiguring her original photographic prints continue to prove to be a way to work through the magnitude of the concepts that are approached. oler's multidisciplinary practice grapples with larger systemic quandaries that address patient narrative, medical racism, and black geography. As her work weaves in and out of the personal and political, the intrinsic interconnectedness of both are apparent. In oler's 2019 Untitled 12' x 12' photographic installation, she explored the inseparable history of American lynchings with a specific focus on the lynching of Mary Turner. During the summer of that year, oler built the first iteration of Big Bodies, a photographic installation built with her original photography in conversation with the Middle Passage. This work was particularly significant as it was built alongside live double bass instrumentation by Dr. Ian Saunders. In 2021, oler was invited by Harvard Medical School to write her narrative surrounding her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. This invite proved to be an expansive, groundbreaking invitation that opened the door to ethnography for her practice. 

As oler continues to move forward with her personhood, politic, and artistic practice the vastness of multidisciplinarity continues to be a guiding force. Her perspective of the world shifted when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 2012. Life became aggressively bombastic, urgent, and generative in a new and rigorous way. As Gustav Klimpt once said, "art is a line around your thoughts." That through-line runs through her work with consistent abandon. oler continues to work through the concept "unprotected Black female flesh" which, at this moment, is anchored in her experience as a Black woman living with said illness.

Supervisor: Sailaja Krishnamurti
Research interests: women and economic freedom, advocacy for social justice, women and politics, and mental and emotional well-being.

Sushila Sharma (Sheela), a Ph.D. student at Queens University, is originally from Nepal. She has MA in Gender and Social Justice from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. She also has masters in English literature and a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Journalism from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu Nepal. She has taught undergraduate courses for seven years at a TU-affiliated college in Nepal. 

She has presented papers at conferences, written Newspaper articles on women, and contributed to short stories and other literary pieces. Involvement in women's activism and advocacy is her ongoing passion. She has been involved in volunteer work assisting all the individuals in need.  She is curious to know how Nepalese women's decision-making and agency over their own income have impacted their mental and emotional well-being.  Sharma's research interests include - women in politics, meaningful participation, justice, gender parity, validation for women labourers in private and public spaces, and advocacy for women's human rights.  She believes in activism for social change; knowledge itself has nothing to do if it does not translate into meaningful action.

Some of her selected papers are as follows: 

• Silver lines in Women's Movements in Nepal: The case of menstruation and pregnancy, ISA, 2023, Montreal, Canada.
• Nepalese women from war to peace: Traversing from "my chair" to "my period". (In)Justice International, World Convention, Mikkeli, Finland, 2023.
• Absence of Economic Freedom: Impact on Nepalese Women's Mental and Emotional Well-Beings, Major Research Paper, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, 2022.

Supervisor: Jane Tolmie
Research interests: Feminist Theory, Feminist Political Economy, Critical Disability, Gender, Women's Health, Social Determinants of Health, Public Policy, Political Ideology, Qualitative Inquiry, Lived Experience, Arts Methodologies, Poetry and Poetics, Social and Health Inequalities, Interdisciplinary Research

Supervisor: Elizabeth Brulé
Research interests: Architecture and urbanism, gender and space, inclusive design, intersectionality in design processes, participatory design, feminist theory, gender and social justice.

I am an architect graduated from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Estado de México, Mexico, and I’m currently pursuing a Master's in the Department of Gender Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.
 
My investigation aims to understand the daily experiences and violence Mexican women go through when using public transportation in Mexico City. Moreover, my research explores how the design of public spaces can perpetuate gender-based violence, linking individuals' identities to how they experience the places that they transit.
 
I advocate for incorporating more equitable ways of designing spaces into architectural practices. I firmly believe that when it comes to thinking about social change, physical places, like urban spaces, matter.

Teaching (2023-24)
GNDS 280/3.0 Special Topics in Gender Studies: Social Movements, Activism and Reproductive Rights in Latin America (Winter)

Elaine Cagulada teaches and researches in the areas of disability studies, black studies, and sociology. Understanding narrative as a constitutive force animates her encounters with texts and spaces as stories. Elaine completed her PhD on opening interpretations of deafness, disability, race, and policing at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her poetry and writing have been published in journals such as Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, and New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis. Elaine co-edited, alongside Tanya Titchkosky, Madeleine DeWelles, and Efrat Gold, DisAppearing: Encounters in Disability Studies.