Ariel is a 2023 Queen’s graduate in Political Studies and a minor Philosophy and is now at the Royal Military College of Canada as an MA student in the War Studies Program. She has been working for the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations since October of 2022 on projects related to terrorist financing. Her research interests include terrorist financing and money laundering schemes, the gendered dynamics of war, military privatization and ethics, and Canadian defence policy.

Outside of work and studying, Ariel enjoys hiking with her partner and two dogs, reading mystery books, playing Pokémon games, and baking.

Amitava Chowdhury is the Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Global History Initiative. He is a historian and historical archaeologist of agrarian labour regimes and colonial plantations in the British Empire, and methodologically, he is interested in global history and diaspora theory. In the department, he is also the co-director of the Global History Initiative, a faculty and graduate research forum in global history. Dr. Chowdhury is a former fellow of Harvard University’s Weatherhead Initiative in Global History and a former Managing Editor of the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Since arriving at Queen’s in 2008, he has taught at every level, from first-year lectures to graduate seminars, and pedagogically, he is invested in globalizing and decolonizing the curriculum. He is the past winner of the Department of History’s Teaching Excellence Award and has been nominated for several other teaching awards, including the Frank Knox Teaching Excellence Prize. His co-edited book Between Dispersion and Belonging won the 2017 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award

Dr. Susan Bartels is a Clinician-Scientist and Canada Research Chair in Humanitarian Health Equity at Queen’s University. In addition to practicing emergency medicine, she conducts global public health research focused on how women and children are impacted by humanitarian crises. While much of her work has been in Sub-Saharan Africa, she has also worked in the Middle East as well as in Asia and Latin America. She is currently the lead investigator on research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Elrha. Much of her current research is focused on investigating peacekeeper-perpetrated sexual exploitation and abuse in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Bartels is interested in using innovative methods to improve understanding of the social determinants of health in complex environments such as armed conflict and natural disasters. After completing fellowship training in international emergency medicine and a Masters of Public Health degree at Harvard University, Dr. Bartels was faculty at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative where she conducted research for the Women in War program. Dr. Bartels returned to Queen’s University in 2014 and lives in Kingston with her husband and two children.

Dr Jamie Ferrill is the Discipline Lead of Financial Crime Studies and Lecturer in the same at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University. She has nearly a decade of law enforcement experience, having worked for Canada Border Services Agency prior to commencing an academic career. Jamie holds a PhD in Organizational Behaviour from Loughborough University (UK), a Masters in Homeland Security Leadership from the University of Connecticut (US), and a Bachelors in Criminal Justice from Mount Royal University (Canada). A political sociologist, Jamie researches threats to national and economic security. With a focus on border security, her work explores the role of human actors and ideology in organisational processes, as well as in transnational cooperation and collaboration. Jamie is working on the IIGR’s project on financial crime, addressing intergovernmental dimensions.

Dr. Todd Hataley is a professor in the School of Justice and Community Development at Fleming College.  He is a retired member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  During his tenure as a federal police officer, he worked as an investigator in organized crime, national security, cross-border crime and extra-territorial torture.  Dr. Hataley is an adjunct associate professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and in the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia.  His research currently focuses on the management of international boundaries, money laundering, Indigenous policing and transnational crime.  He is working on the IIRG’s project on the intersection of international and traditional Indigenous boundaries.

Dr. Danielle Lussier, Red River Métis and citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, was born and raised in the homeland of the Métis Nation on Treaty 1 Territory. She is mum to three young people who are growing up as visitors on the shores of Lake Ontario. An award-winning change leader, educator, and administrator, she is a passionate advocate and community builder who believes there is room for love and humanity in post-secondary education.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws, a Licence en Droit (Bachelor of Civil Law of Quebec), a Master of Laws with Specialization in Women’s Studies, and a PhD in Law. Called to the bar in Ontario in 2009 following a research assistantship at the Supreme Court of Canada and clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada, Dr. Lussier served as the inaugural Indigenous Learner Advocate and Director of Community and Indigenous Relations at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law from 2018-2022. She now serves as Associate Vice-Principal, Indigenous Knowledges and Learning, at the Royal Military College of Canada, and she holds a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University.

Dr. Lussier’s academic research focuses on reimagining relationships and encouraging ethical engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Communities, and Legal Knowledge through the development and use of Indigenous legal pedagogies. She also studies the role decolonized methodologies can play in the revitalization of Indigenous Legal Orders, pathways to reconciliation within, and decolonization of, post-secondary education, and anti-racist and feminist approaches to learning and community building. Her ground-breaking doctoral research which examined racism and sexism in professionalization processes and processes of building safer and more inclusive learning spaces included the production of a beaded honour shawl and was awarded the Pierre Laberge Thesis Prize for outstanding thesis in the humanities at the University of Ottawa. She has published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, the Indigenous Law Journal, and the Ottawa Law Review, amongst others.

For her transformational leadership and work towards building healthy, inclusive, and reimagined learning spaces, and in acknowledgement of her extensive community involvement which includes service as co-chair of the Indigenous Advisory Group of the Law Society of Ontario, she was invested in the Order of Ottawa in November of 2021.        

Curdin Derungs is a professor in the field of public management at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (UASG), Switzerland. As the deputy head of the Center for Administrative Management he is responsible for consulting and research of public institutions and non-profit organizations. His research focuses on topics related to community management (strategy, organization, structures) and the political system on the local and regional level (federalism, participation, public corporate governance).

He holds an PhD Degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Economics both from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, and was a visiting researcher at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. Afterwards, he was responsible for public sector consulting at Ernst & Young, Switzerland. Curdin Derungs has gained broad experience in economic impact analyses and evaluations and has accompanied public institutions in organizational development and review of strategic direction. His clients include federal institutions and states governments, and municipalities as well as international organizations and NPOs (e.g., World Health Organization, International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations).

During his professional career at the UASG, Curdin Derungs has been responsible for numerous research projects. Curdin Derungs is particularly interested in the interaction between the public and private actors and is the author of various publications on the Swiss political system as well as on governance models, forms of public management and strategies of public institutions. He teaches 'Public Management' as well as 'Microeconomics' at the UASG in undergraduate and graduate level.

Michael Luoma is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University. Michael’s research examines the conditions for political legitimacy in Indigenous – settler relations, especially the requirements for fair negotiation of territorial authority among interdependent, collectively self-determining peoples in a multinational federal system. Pursuant to this objective, Michael has conducted research on Indigenous political authority and collective self-determination, territorial rights and restitution, transnational Indigenous communities, and the negotiation of modern treaties.

Michael completed his BA in Philosophy at the University of Toronto in 2016 and his MA in Political and Legal Thought at Queen’s University in 2018. Michael is also a graduate research fellow at the Queen’s University Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity.

For more information, please visit Michael’s bio on the Department of Philosophy website.