91ĹÝÜ˝

       

Search

Fall 2025 Graduate Fellows

Hannah Beram

Hannah Beram (she/her) is a Master’s candidate in the Department of Political Science. She specializes in feminist abolitionist critiques of transitional justice processes, especially when it comes to state-sanctioned reconciliation efforts. She is currently writing her MA project on South Korea’s redress for victims of Japan’s military sexual slavery system (1932– 1945). Her research combines rigorous theoretical analysis with a commitment to survivor-centred justice, along with an emphasis on the unique intersection of gendered harm and colonial violence. She plans to create two small-scale resources showcasing the work accomplished at CERi's Research Fellowship. The first is a set of guiding principles for survivor-led public memorialization, informed by grassroots initiatives and community memory work. The second is a draft outline for an educational resource intended to support classroom learning with a focus on colonial and gendered dimensions of historical violence. These contributions offer practical starting points for community use and further development, supporting the sharing of intergenerational knowledge and historical redress.

Abigail Birch

Abby is a second-year PhD student in the school of Resource and Environmental Management at 91ĹÝÜ˝. For her graduate research, Abby is examining how ocean warming and disease interact to affect clam physiology and survival, and how ecological and habitat variability across British Columbia shape these dynamics and offer pathways for mitigation to support Indigenous food sovereignty. This research is being done in collaboration with the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ (Kyuquot-Checleseht) First Nations, as well as Coastal Voices, a research collective of Indigenous hereditary leaders, cultural advisors, practitioners, artists, settler scientists and Indigenous scholars.

Mikayla Boulé

Mikayla Boulé is a second year MRM student at the School of Resource and Environmental Management. Born and raised on the shores of the Kichi Sibi - Ottawa River and Mnidoo Gamii - Georgian Bay, she chose to further her studies at REM in order to support community-driven land and resource management. Mikayla is interested in how knowledge production and governance are enacted within contested cultural landscapes experiencing rapid change. While at SFU, Mikayla is supporting the Sts’ailes territorial land use planning process, with a focus on anti-colonial cartography. This project aims to centre representations of Xa’xa Temexw in the lived experiences, histories, and visions of Sts’ailes citizens to inform planning decisions.

 

Jennifer Cummins

Jennifer Cummins is a second year PhD student in the Languages, Cultures, and Literacies program in the Faculty of Education. She has worked as a leader and educator in the local community for the last 18 years. Her research interests include futures literacies, language acquisition, and counternarrative methods. Grounded in a critical approach, her research connects national immigration debates to futures-focused language teaching, helping immigrant students share their stories to bring diverse voices into public conversations about Canada’s immigration future.

Alexandra Doran

Alex is a second year PhD student based in the School of Resource and Environmental Management focusing on Community Engaged Research centered around securing equitable access to food and housing, addressing what has been termed the "food-housing insecurity nexus". Prior to her PhD, Alex worked for 6+ years as an urban (transportation) planner in both Canada and the United Kingdom. She has co-authored two academic articles and has presented at several international conferences on the intersection of justice, equity, and planning.  In her spare time, Alex can be found hanging out with her 3-year-old son (Liam), riding her bike, and cooking/eating food. 

Amarachi Ezeocha

Amarachi Ezeocha is a PhD candidate in Health Sciences at 91ĹÝÜ˝. She studies how communication can be strengthened across human, animal, and environmental health in British Columbia and Ontario. Partnering with government and community groups, she is developing a One Health Communications Platform to support practitioners responding to zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and climate-related health risks. Her work underscores the role of social science in infectious disease response, showing how collaboration, knowledge-sharing and values like equity are as vital as biomedical data. Outside of research, she enjoys hiking and landscape photography.

Annie Hung

Annie is a visual arts educator dedicated to community education. She has designed programming, run booths, and curated exhibitions and events for the public. Through arts-based education, her research explores actionable solutions to combat social isolation, especially among immigrant seniors and children. A 2nd year doctorate student in the Faculty of Education at SFU, she has worked on several projects centring knowledge mobilization for minority groups. Her research also informs her teaching practice at Community Schools for the City of Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. She values the relational process of collaborating with participants towards more equitable programming.

Nicklaus Kemp

Nicklaus is a second-year Master of Resource Management student in the Faculty of Environment at 91ĹÝÜ˝. For his graduate research, Nicklaus is exploring returning relationships between wolves and sea otters along the west coast of Vancouver Island to inform the revitalization of Indigenous laws and stewardship practices that support food sovereignty, cultural identity, and biodiversity conservation. This research is being guided by a collaboration with the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ (Kyuquot-Checleseht), Ę•aahĚŁuusĘ”athĚŁ (Ahousaht), and cĚ“išaaĘ”atḥ (Tseshaht) First Nations, blossoming out of conversations held within Coastal Voices, a research collective of Indigenous hereditary leaders, cultural advisors, practitioners, artists, and a research team of settler scientists and Indigenous scholars

Kevin Maars

Kevin Maars is a second-year Master of Resource Management Student in the Faculty of Environment. His research involves the beginnings of a climate adaptation strategy for the Metlakatla First Nation’s Cumulative Effects Management (CEM) Program. The project aims to help the CEM Program better consider forecasted changes and how these changes might affect valued community components. Collaboration with Metlakatla members will inform and influence the project’s risk and vulnerability assessment. In his own community, Kevin works at the BC SPCA, where he helps care for and connect animals with their forever homes.

Aryana Mohammed

Aryana Mohammed is a performing artist and drama educator from Trinidad and Tobago. She is pursuing an MA in Gerontology at SFU, where her research explores how group storytelling can foster psychological resilience and wellbeing among older adults facing climate anxiety and heat stress. Aryana holds a BSc in Psychology (Special) from the University of the West Indies and a BFA in Performing Arts (Acting) from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She is passionate about combining mental health and the performing arts to champion social prescribing initiatives and create meaningful social programs for older adults.

Mohammad Nasir Tighsazzadeh

Nasir is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Resource and Environmental Management at 91ĹÝÜ˝ and a member of the Ocean Nexus Center. His doctoral research focuses on equitable offshore wind energy planning in Nova Scotia, carried out in partnership with the Mi’kmaq Nation to support just and inclusive renewable energy futures. Through CERi, he also contributes to the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and LiDAR Mapping project with TĚ“seḵa̱me’ Forestry LP on behalf of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation, which examines BC’s shift toward public LiDAR access and its governance under Indigenous data sovereignty. With support from SFU’s CERi Fellowship, Nasir is exploring community-engaged research methods and approaches for his thesis and related projects.

Myia Wilhelm

Myia Wilhelm (she/her) is a second-year Master of Arts student in the Department of Gerontology at 91ĹÝÜ˝. Her research explores both the design and care practices of long-term care settings, with a current focus on dementia villages, an innovative care model for people living with dementia. By centring the lived experiences of residents, her goal is to understand how these environments influence functioning and well-being. Through this research, she hopes to generate insights that can inform long-term care policies and practices, contributing to the creation of more meaningful, compassionate, and dignified care environments for those living with dementia.

Judy Wu

Judy Wu (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Working with the Capturing Health and Resilience Trajectories (CHART) lab, Judy is using a mixed methods approach to understand the mental health impacts of climate change and environmental issues on youth mental health. Her quantitative work research uses data from the Youth Development Instrument (YDI), a large-scale survey for Grade 10-12 students in BC, and will be built upon through her qualitative work.  Judy's qualitative work also adopts a youth participatory action framework, aiming to incorporate youth into all stages of the research process.