91ÅÝܽ

Amany Al-Sayyed |

MA (Hons) English Literature, UBC

BA, Arts and Sciences, SFU

Supervisor: Jas Morgan

Amany Al-Sayyed is instructor of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University of Beirut, currently completing a second graduate degree in Communications and Social Justice in Canada. She was born in Berlin, matriculated in Malta and Canada with a graduate degree in World Literature. As an early career scholar and independent Palestinian-Lebanese researcher, she spent the last ten years unearthing her late father's legacy as a Palestinian intellectual, novelist and radio broadcaster from Malta, Ghana and Lebanon. Her focus is on the history of the Palestinian Personality that protected the culture via acoustic/radio resistance and the writer's movement simultaneously. She reads in Italian, Arabic and Maltese which is no co-incidence - her upbringing and education marks the anti-colonial movement of her father's decisions as he moved away from the refugee camps into the decolonial European continent of the 80s and 90s

Jimena Abreu Fernandez | 

Bachelor, Communication, Universidad Iberoamericana

Supervisor: Victoria Thomas

I love nature, animals and traveling. I did a Cultural Representative Program in Walt Disney World in 2018 and I'm focusing my thesis research in finding the right pathway for minorities representation in youth TV shows and movies.

Noelle Gesner

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Stuart Poyntz

Noelle graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from 91ÅÝܽ in 2024. She is interested in media studies, with a particular focus on film and television. Her research examines the intersections of gender, representation, and power in media, exploring how contemporary narratives both reflect and shape social inequalities.

Marie Haddad

BA, Psychology, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Jas Morgan

I am the Director of Engagement at Embark Sustainability Society, a student-led climate hub advancing Food Justice and Climate Equity. My academic interests focus on social psychology, identity, and equity in education, particularly how marginalized students and organizers navigate exclusion and build community. I am also interested in documenting student-led social movements to preserve historical memory and sustain morale. Outside of work, I enjoy tending to my garden and sharing tea with friends.

Sage Hughes

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun

Sage is an artist, musician, and researcher interested in the cultural dimensions of communication technology. Her current MA research explores algorithmic culture as it intersects with music and community, looking at how processes of musical curation, classification, and recommendation shape knowledge and our ways of being.

Kayli Jamieson |

BA (Honours), Communication, SFU

Supervisor: Ahmed Al-Rawi

Kayli's research interests are in Long COVID, public health, news media analysis, and science communication. Her Thesis topic covers the biopolitics of "immunity" and Long COVID, and more specifically how Canadian newspapers and public health statements have worked in conjunction to manufacture consent to the "end" of the ongoing pandemic. She is also a research assistant on the Long COVID in BC project at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics, & Society (PIPPS), based out of SFU Health Sciences. While vintage fashion and singing are her hobbies, she also engages in science communication, disability justice, and longhauler advocacy.

Judy Yae Young Kim  | 

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Dal Yong Jin

Judy Yae Young Kim received her BA (with distinction) at 91ÅÝܽ in Communication with a minor in Sociology. As a member of the Korean diaspora, she has always been fascinated with the globalization of Korean pop culture (Hallyu). She hopes to study how the growth of the international popularity of Korean pop culture has had an impact on the representation of East Asians in western mainstream media and in turn, how Asian media systems shape themselves for a global palette. Her other research interests include critical race studies, feminism studies, and cultural studies. 

Morgan Krakow

BA, Journalism, University of Oregon

Supervisor: Shane Gunster

Following her time as a journalist in Anchorage, Alaska, Krakow is interested in learning more about how local news outlets across Canada and Alaska cover climate change. 

Diana Limbaga

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Enda Brophy

Diana's academic interests focus on the intersection between communication, labour, and development economics in the Global South. Her honours thesis explored the unionization process in the Philippine call centre industry during the Duterte administration. 

Maia Lomelino

BA, Digital Design, Anhembi Morumbi University (São Paulo - Brazil)

BA, Archaeology with Certificate in Biological Anthropology, SFU

Supervisor: Sarah Christina Ganzon

My main research interest is in Digital Archaeology, more specifically, Archaeogaming, and my project aims to use Archaeogaming as a way to connect and communicate archaeology and repatriation in museum settings. I am also interested in human osteology and palaeopatology, and I hope to pursue my (future) PhD investigating archaeology, archival, and internet piracy. I am passionate about museums, curatorship, and conservation, and I volunteer at the SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Museum of North Vancouver (MONOVA). I am originally from Brazil and will fight people over their Brazilian food opinions.

Firoz Mahmud

MA, English, Jahangirnagar University

Supervisor: Kirsten McAllister

I have close to 30 years of extensive background working in the humanitarian and non-profit sectors. I also served as a faculty member in the Department of English at King Khalid University – one of the largest public universities in the Middle East (2003-2009). Currently, I have been working with the Canadian Red Cross, for the past 11 years as the Provincial Manager, Planned Giving. I am deeply interested in humanitarian communication and my proposed research project revolves around the Rohingya crisis and the representation of the refugees by major humanitarian organizations in their public communication. 

Joseph Methuselah |

BSc, Zoology, Minya University, Egypt
BA, Cinema, High Cinema Institute, Egypt

Supervisor: Adel Iskandar

Joseph Methuselah is an Egyptian filmmaker, visual artist, and researcher based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, with over a decade of experience in the film industry. His work is dedicated to pushing boundaries, experimenting, and exploring uncharted territories at the intersection of visual art, film, and mixed media, fostering meaningful dialogues between the arts and broader culture through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary artistic practices.

Sadia Nasrin | 

BSC, Mass Communication & Journalism, University of Dhaka

Supervisor: Ahmed Al- Rawi

Sadia's research interest hovers around human rights, particularly women and social media sphere. Her current thesis topic focuses on- religious fanaticism in social media against women and how it affects women's online space. 

She has worked on various projects about Rohingya communities, gender based violence, water crisis of coastal areas etc. Sadia is also a photographer with projects on 'Child Marriage' and 'Climate Change'.

Kiara Destiny Okonkwo |

BFA, Creative Writing and Media and Communication Studies, The University of the Fraser Valley

Supervisor: Victoria Thomas

Kiara is a writer, student journalist, and community organizer pursuing the project-based MA to deepen her engagement with critical (mixed) race theory, multiculturalism, and questions of “Canadian� identity in media.

Miranda Post |

BA, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of Victoria

Supervisor: Karrmen Crey

For over 15 years I've worked in strategic, collaborative communications and engagement roles focused on the nexus of reconciliation and conservation for the federal government. My research interests include ways how to diversify environmental and science communications to include braided knowledge sets and relatable media-relations champions. When I’m not being a basketball mom, I’m foraging, growing and preserving food.

Alan Röpke

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Frederik Lesage

My research theoretically examines the role entertainment plays in capitalist societies, exploring its effects on alienation, control, and reality fragmentation. I research how entertainment nullifies alternative futures and reinforces cycles of violence at the symbolic and material levels in its domination of social, cultural, and economic life. Research areas: Critical theory, speculative realism, cultural studies, political economy, accelerationism, and theory-fiction.

Alison Tedford Seaweed | 

Supervisor: Karrmen Crey

After over a decade of working with the federal government, Alison became an independent consultant and author. Her interests are in Indigenous communications, cultural revitalization and repatriation. She's a Kwakiutl First Nation member, lacrosse mom and beginner beader.

Ashima Shukla |

BA, English and Applied Linguistics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Supervisor: Enda Brophy

Ashima explores the Anthropocene through a critical, interdisciplinary lens grounded in feminist methodologies. Her research focuses on the political economy of platform-mediated participation and its role in resistance and social justice, particularly in the context of postcolonial national identity and violence in India. Beyond academia, she enjoys travel, meaningful conversations over coffee, poetry, theatre, and music.

Shafira Vidyamaharani |

BA, Joint Major Interactive Arts & Technology and Communication, Co-operative Education, 91ÅÝܽ

Supervisor: Frederik Lesage

As a local graphic designer, Shafira produces poster, typographic, and music artworks for artists, non-profit, community, and grassroots cultural productions including New Forms Festival, TAKEOVER Skateboarding, and the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP). With a varied design background through independent practice, studio agencies, start-ups, and tech corporation Nokia, Shafira is part of the second cohort of the project-based M.A. researching subcultures, harm reduction communication, and the role of art, posters, and zines in mediated grassroots activism. During their undergraduate studies, Shafira participated in the 2022 italiaDesign International Field School as Portrait Photography and Visual-UX Designer. They love music, photography, and is passionate about artistic means of transcendence, social change, and resistance.

Thomas Wilson

BA, English, University of the Fraser Valley

Supervisor: Sarah Ganter

Thomas' research explores the effects of platformization on independent and DIY music scenes, focusing specifically on resistance to hegemonic practices within the cultural industries in Canada. His other research interests include technological mediation, digital labour and discourse communities, promotional cultures, and cultural policy.

Mindy Wong

BA (Honours), Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Supervisor: Sarah Ganter

Mindy completed her Bachelor of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2021. Her research interests include social movements, freedom of speech, journalism, self-censorship, and social media. In particular, her future research will be concentrated on the role of social media in social movements. Experienced and witnessed the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in Hong Kong, she would like to construct an academic study related to that. It seems that the Movement has ended recently but it has brought significant changes to all Hong Kong people’s lives.

Monica Yousofi

BA, Communication, 91ÅÝܽ.

Supervisor: Siyuan Yin

Research interests include feminist activism, social movements, political economy, and migration.