Brief Biography

Rubiat Saimum is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, specializing in International Relations and Comparative Studies. He has previously served as a Lecturer of maritime security and strategic studies at Bangladesh Maritime University. He is a South Asian Future Fellow at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR), a fellow at Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a Young Leader at the Pacific Forum, a maritime GENIE at Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS) and a Junior Fellow at the NATO Association of Canada.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the formation of security communities and the role of major regional powers or “the anchor states” in the process. I study the why regional anchor states facilitate or hinder the formation of security communities in their respective regions.

Selected Publications

Saimum, R. (2025). From Hardware to Heartware: China's Evolving Military Relations with Bangladesh. In Xavier, C. & Jacob, J. T. (Eds). How China Engages South Asia: In the Open and Behind the Scenes (pp. 107-117). Centre for Social and Economic Progress. Retrieved from https://csep.org/IpNMF81

Shahid, R. & Saimum, R. (2023) ‘Navigating the troubled waters: ‘maritimization' of Bangladesh’s foreign policy’, Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs, https://doi.org/10.1080/18366503.2023.2228615

Saimum, R. (2020). ‘The Prospect of Belt and Road Initiative in the Context of Bangladesh’. China Report, 56(4), 464-483, Sage Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009445520930396

Saimum, R. (2020). ‘ASEAN’s Rohingya Dilemma: Limits of Regional Co-operation’. In Charting a Sustainable Future of ASEAN in Business and Social Sciences (pp. 339-348). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3859-9_29

Awards

2025: Queen’s Graduate Award, Queen’s University, SGS

2023-25: SGS Graduate Fellowship, Memorial University of Newfoundland

2024: CICA essay competition (2nd Prize), Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)

2019: The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Foundation Bangladesh

Biography

Tehya Blake (she/her/elle) is a bilingual PhD student in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. She is supervised by Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky and works on research related to women, peace and security (WPS) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). She is affiliated with the Network for Strategic Analysis (NSA/RAS), the Center for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) and Women in International Security – Canada (WIIS-C). Prior to beginning her doctoral degree, Tehya was a policy analyst with the Department of National Defence in Ottawa. She completed her M.A. at Queen’s University (2024), and her B.A. (Hons) at St. Francis Xavier University (2023).

Awards

• Dean’s Award for Global Sustainability (Queen’s 2025)
• G.G. Baron Van der Feltz Award (Queen's 2024)
• Dr. John B. Stewart (St.FX 2023)
• Kontac Prize in Political Science (St.FX 2023)

Biography

Gillian is a doctoral student specializing in Canadian politics, working under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Rose. Her research interests focus on political communication, in particular the intersections between government, media, and democracy.

Research interests

Canadian politics; political communication; media and politics; government messaging; mass media; provincial politics

Teaching

POLS 391 Introduction to Electoral Systems (Fall 2025)

POLS 212 Canadian Politics (Winter 2026)

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Brown, Gillian, Catherine St. John, Hope Ace and Kiera Ladner. “Combatting mis- and disinformation: Lessons from the Australian Voice.” At the Forks (forthcoming).

Op Eds

• Brown, Gillian and Alex Marland. 2025. “It’s time for Liberal MPs to speak up.” Policy Options, February 17.

Selected Awards

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2025-26)
• Queen’s University Stanley Drabek Graduate Award in Political Studies (2025)
• Queen’s University Graduate Entrance Award (2025)
• Acadia University Jarislowsky Studentship in Political Leadership and Media Studies in Canada (2024)

Feminist political economy; social reproduction; gender and violence.

Biography

Siavash's research focuses on Middle Eastern security and diplomacy, with a particular focus on Israeli national security, the Islamic Republic (of Iran) nuclear and missile program, Iranian restoration, and the evolving regional alignments shaped by the Abraham Accords.

Teaching

POLS 242 Comparative Politics: Contemporary Regimes (Teaching Assistant)

Selected Publications

"Could a Coup d’état Lead to Revolution in Iran?" Providence, 18 April 2023.

"Is Iran's Theocracy on the Chopping Block?" The National Interest, 9 November 2022 (co-authored with Farhad Rezaei).

"What happens if the Iran nuclear deal is revived? - opinion," The Jerusalem Post, 27 March 2022. 

"A plea for Islamic voices against using human shields - opinion," The Jerusalem post, 28 November 2023.

Brief Biography

Dr. Zainab Monisola Olaitan is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy. Her research focuses on Afrofeminist thought, gender and representation, and the women, peace and security agenda in Africa. She holds a PhD and MA from the University of Pretoria, a BSocSci (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Cape Town, and a BSc (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Lagos. She is a Research Associate at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg. Dr. Olaitan is the author of Women’s Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers (2024) and the lead editor of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the Caribbean: Linking the Two Regions (2025), both published by Palgrave Macmillan. She is a 2022 Margaret McNamara Education Grants (MMEG) recipient in recognition of her impactful research on women, a 2021-2023 University of Pretoria Doctoral Research Scholarship recipient, a 2019 Mastercard Foundation Scholar and 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholar. 

Teaching

POLS 261 International Politics (Fall 2025)

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages.