Current Research Assistants
Becca Evans
Becca Evans is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Her doctoral research focuses on Air Cadets and examines how the organization functions as a civic educator for diverse young people. Her research interests encompass citizenship, civic, and climate justice education. Becca is a secondary school teacher and has taught in English and French contexts at the intermediate, senior, and adult levels. As a teaching fellow for the Bachelor of Education a Queen’s, she has taught courses such as Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education and Integrating Environmental Education Across the Curriculum. She is currently the Graduate Student Representative with the Canadian History of Education Association (CHEA) and the assistant Editor of the Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN) journal.
Gulzar Ahmad
Gulzar Ahmad is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of state-sponsored K-12 social studies and history curricula and textbooks in Pakistan. He aims to deconstruct hidden meanings, exclusions, and silences through his doctoral research, mainly focusing on religion, gender, and ethnicity. Since the fall of 2021, he has been working as a Research Assistant with the “Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future” (THCF) project. This role has provided him with the opportunity to gain invaluable insights into using CDA and the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) frameworks to analyze curricula and textbooks. His experience in the THCF project has deepened his interest in examining Canadian social studies and history education through these critical lenses.
Ian Alexander
Ian Alexander is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Ian’s doctoral research examines the perspectives and experiences of social studies teachers who have taught the British Columbia curriculum in offshore schools (international schools) located in China. He became interested in researching this aspect of international education after working as a teacher for twelve years in both China and South Korea. Upon returning home to Canada, he completed a Master’s degree at the University of Victoria researching student experiences in British Columbia offshore schools and published two papers based on this research. As part of Thinking Historically, Ian Alexander worked in the Curriculum and Resources Cluster analyzing provincial curriculum documents and history textbooks. In the Teaching and Learning Cluster, he coordinated multiple interviews between participants and researchers in the Portraits of Professional Practice. Ian also served as co-chair of the Graduate Students Committee in the 2023-24 academic year.
Jennifer Bradley
Jennifer Bradley is an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo pursuing a major in Social Development Studies with specializations in Education and Social Policy and Social Action. She works as a TA for statistics and as a student life and wellness promoter at Renison University College, an affiliated institute of the University of Waterloo. Jennifer was this year’s recipient of the Renison University College Yuen-Mei Cheung Chan Scholarship. In the future she hopes to pursue a graduate degree in education, policy study or public administration
Sarah Clifford
Sarah is a Public Affairs Officer at Egale Canada where she leads Egale’s government relations and advocacy
activities on 2SLGBTQIA+ health and rights. She has worked for THFCF since 2020 in the curriculum and resources cluster and currently supports the cluster’s project and data management processes. Sarah has a MSc in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and a BA (Hons) from the University of Alberta.
Mark T. S. Currie
Mark T. S. Currie is a SSHRC-funded PhD Candidate in Education focusing his research on sociohistorical geographies and enacting antiracisms. His doctoral examines how the Ontario Black History Society’s walking tour in downtown Toronto acts as an educational tool for engaging and (re)shaping sociohistorical spaces as antiracist geographies. As a part-time professor, he has taught courses in teacher education on History education teaching methods and at the graduate level on conducting research in education. He is also the Graduate Student Representative with the Canadian History of Education Association (CHEA) and a member of the editorial team for the Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies (JCACS).
Mallory Davies
Mallory Davies is a PhD student at the University of Waterloo in the Tri-University History Program. Her doctoral research examines the history of education for teen mothers. She is interested in the long-term effects of the integration of teen mothers into public education in the 1970s. Mallory recently completed her master’s thesis in Educational Studies at UBC which examined the educational objectives of teen mothers’ education in Vancouver from 1959 to 2019.
Alim Fakirani
Alim Fakirani is a PhD student and 4YF fellow in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. His experience working with refugee, immigrant, and [visible] minority students coupled with his schooling in Canada as a first-generation Canadian inspired his desire to examine the representation of these students’ histories in Canadian curriculum. Alim is convinced that such inclusion could lead to a more robust Canadian democracy. His work with Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future serves as an extension of his desire to research Canadian curriculum.
Shannon Fitzsimmons
Shannon Fitzsimmons (she/her) is a white settler, anti-oppressive educator in adult education. She completed her B. Ed. and M. Ed at the University of Saskatchewan, and is the recipient of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship Award, and the Irene Polzer Award. Her thesis is a Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Anti-oppressive Educators in Secondary Education, supervised by Dr. Marie Battiste. She has also completed a performing arts diploma from the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts in Toronto, ON. Currently she is an instructor at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, and working on a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Alberta, under the supervision of Dr. Carla Peck.
Rafael Capó García
Dr. Capó is a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and the director of Memoria (De)colonial, a Mellon funded non-profit 501(c) organization that interrogates colonial heritage in Puerto Rico through public history initiatives that embody humanities in place. He worked as a public-school Social Studies teacher for 8 years in his hometown of Santurce, Puerto Rico and completed an M.A. in History in 2016. He completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, where he teaches courses on education and decolonization. His doctoral dissertation examines the narratives of mestizaje and racial democracy in Puerto Rican intellectual history, proposing innovative approaches to understanding the intersection of Indigeneity and Blackness in the Caribbean through rooted and relational forms of heritage and historical consciousness. His research interests include Caribbean philosophy, decoloniality, decolonization, public history, heritage, and critical tourism studies.
Lisa Howell
Lisa Howell lives and works on the unceded lands of the Anishinabe people in Ottawa. She is a passionate teacher and a PhD Candidate at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Education. Under the supervision of Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, Lisa’s SSHRC funded doctoral work takes up the possibilities of ethical relationality and unlearning colonialism in teacher education. Lisa is honoured to be the recipient of a “Partner in Indigenous Education” Award from Indspire, as well as a Governor General’s Award for Excellence in teaching Canadian History. She is committed to learning, living, working, and teaching towards good relations with students, colleagues, communities, and schools.
Rudy Kisler
Rudy Kisler is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Rudy is interested in the intersection between history education and political ideology. His doctoral research explores how history is presented and taught in heritage contexts in Israel. Rudy has been teaching history in various schools in Canada and his home country, Israel. Through his research, he aspires to inform strategies for designing inclusive programs and policies for history and heritage education.
Carol Lee
Carol Lee is a University of Ottawa PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education. Her SSHRC and OGS funded doctoral research investigates collaborative story-making with Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth as a way of supporting the TRC’s Call to Action 63.3. Carol is an Assistant Editor with JCACS, mother of four, and a practicing poet.
Jacquelyn Mcclure
Jacquelyn grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. She moved to Victoria, BC to attend the University of Victoria and completed her undergraduate honours degree in history with a minor in Anthropology in April 2020. She has worked as a historical interpreter for the Canadian Ministry of Veterans Affairs and for Parks Canada. Her interests include museum studies, gender history, and the history of race and ethnicity in Canada. She is now working on a Master’s in Public History from the University of Victoria.
Fernando Sanchez Morales
Fernando Sanchez Morales is a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta in the Department of Educational Policy Studies. His main research interest focuses on adult learning in a democracy and how knowledge is formed during an electoral process. Fernando completed his LLM in Stockholm University, Sweden. Upon returning to Mexico he actively participated in arbitration procedures and teaching law.
Hembadoon I. Oguanobi
Hembadoon (Hemba) holds a doctorate in Law from Durham University in England, and an MA in Education from the University of Ottawa. She is working on her second doctorate within the field of curriculum studies under the supervision of Prof. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook at the University of Ottawa. Hemba is the recipient of the 2019 CACS Cynthia Chambers award, and teaches at the Department of Law and Legal Studies at the University of Carleton in Ottawa. Her research interests are multidisciplinary and include curriculum studies, life history research, policy, post-colonialism, intellectual property rights, health literacies, access to medicines, human rights, refugee and newcomer education. Hemba has published in the Journal of World Intellectual Property and Education Journal- Revue de l’education.
Thais Cattani Perroni
Thais Cattani Perroni is a MA student at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Her master’s research explores the impact of contentious educational trends in the practice and reflexivity of high school history teachers in Brazil. Her research interests combine history education, ideology and depoliticization, particularly in the Latin American context. Prior to initiating her master’s at McGill, Thais conducted research on the history of rural education in Brazil and was a history educator in non-formal learning spaces.
Patrick Phillips
Patrick Phillips is currently a PhD Candidate and Part-time Professor in uOttawa’s Faculty of Education, who focuses particularly on teaching curriculum studies electives and research synthesis capstones. His research foci include developing and applying under-theorized arts-based practices, including visualization and critique, towards research-creation that fosters better interconnectedness in teaching and learning without erasing difficult questions, or encounters between differing or alienated knowledge systems.
A displaced person; queer; disabled; neurodivergent; a disciplinary-agnostic artist; writer; and ethically justified educator committer to reparative and generative pedagogies.
Nathalie Popa
Nathalie Popa holds a doctorate in Educational Studies from McGill University in Canada, which she completed under the supervision of Dr. Paul Zanazanian. Guided by an interest in meaningful learning, she developed an instructional model that outlines the process by which history students can develop historical consciousness and identifies the means for teachers to guide and support such learning. Her doctoral work was supported by scholarships from the Faculty of Education at McGill and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture. Her previous publications include a co-written article on a pedagogical framework that aims to help students develop personal histories of belonging, published in LEARNing Landscapes in 2018, and a literature review article on the concept of historical consciousness in Canadian history didactics, published in the Canadian Journal of Education in 2017.
James Rowinski
Although originally from Nova Scotia, James Rowinski currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick where he and his wife have been raising their three children. He has been a social studies teacher and curriculum developer in New Brunswick for the past decade. Currently in his fourth year of his PhD at the University of New Brunswick, James’ work challenges deficit discourses that operate to undermine young learners’ capacity for historical thinking. Through his research, he hopes to expand opportunities for young people to speak back to experiences with history pedagogy in school. In 2017, the middle school students he works with were recipients of the Fredericton Heritage Trust Award for their research drawing attention to post-First World War commemoration practices in the Fredericton community. James is supported by a 4-year Doctoral SSHRC and NBIF scholarships at UNB.
Aaron Sardinha-Drake
Aaron Sardinha-Drake, an MA.Ed student in Curriculum Studies at The University of Ottawa, is seeking to better understand how arts education can feature in today’s curriculum. Aaron is working on a national partnership grant project called Thinking Historically where he is analyzing the ways in which indigenous knowledges, and the Truth and Reconciliation are featuring in Teacher Education programs across Canada.
Aurra Startup
Aurra (she/her) is a Palestinian treaty person located on the Haldimand Tract. She is in her last term at the University of Waterloo pursuing a major in Social Development Studies, a minor in Legal Studies, and specializations in Education and Equity and Diversity. In the Fall of 2021, she will begin her Master’s in Social Justice and Community Engagement at WLU. Aurra’s research interests include restorative justice in schools, anti-discriminatory pedagogies and the promotion of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Adaobiagu Obiagu
Adaobiagu Obiagu is a PhD student and Vanier scholar at OISE, University of Toronto. She is an educator and a lawyer with license to practice both teaching and law in Nigeria. She has nearly a decade of experience in university teaching and educational research. She also taught in secondary schools in Nigeria. In her teaching, research and field-based practice, she examines what kind of education would foster democratic citizenship and historical thinking and contribute to building peaceful individuals and communities, as well as how access to such education can be fostered. Her doctoral research aims to generate ideas for decolonizing peace education through understanding what peace ideas are in Nigeria’s social studies, civic education and religious studies curricular, and how young persons are being taught about Nigerian (history of) ethnic and religious conflicts and what they are learning about it. Her scholarship has been supported by organizations such as the United Nations for Drugs and Crime and the Association for Commonwealth Universities. She is a recipient of numerous awards including Connaught International Scholarship and P.E.O International Peace Scholarship.
Gabriel Masi
Gabriel Masi is a Master’s student at McGill University in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, completing a Master of Arts in Education & Society. His research interests include civic education, youth engagement, civic action and social change, critical consciousness, and critical pedagogy. An activist involved with several progressive organizations and political parties, Gabriel serves as the co-president of the Quebec youth wing of a major Canadian political party. His Master’s thesis aims to counter the decline in youth civic literacy in Quebec and revitalize civic engagement among the next generation of leaders by exploring the experiences and perspectives of secondary-level social studies teachers regarding the 2017 History of Quebec and Canada course to better understand how the curriculum aligns with the objectives of civic education and promotes civic literacy.
Marie-Laurence Tremblay
Marie-Laurence Tremblay is a PhD student at Sherbrooke University. She recently completed her master’s degree in Education with a specialization in citizenship education through history. She’s been passionately teaching dancing and social sciences for 10 years, first at the Prisme culturel and then at the Lac-Saint-Jean school service centre. Her interest for teaching history through art demonstrates her desire to enhance the education experience with creative
approaches.
Patrick Chi Kai Lam
Patrick Chi Kai Lam is a PhD student in secondary education at the University of Alberta with a major in music education. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of York, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, and a Master of Arts in Music from the Hong Kong Baptist University. Under the supervision of Dr. Tom Dust, his doctoral research examines the Hong Kong music curriculum from the perspective of the praxial music education philosophy using critical philosophical inquiry. His research interests include music education philosophy, music curriculum development, and musical creativity.
Rachel Moylan
Rachel Moylan is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Her doctoral research examines the human-algorithm relationship with a focus on teacher education. Through her research, Rachel aims to understand what it is like to be a teacher within the ‘algorithmic order,’ and to explore possibilities for resisting algorithmic power through co-created, arts-based research with teachers. Rachel is the recipient of UBC’s Doctoral Recruitment Fellowship, and has recently been accepted to join UBC’s Public Scholars Initiative, which focuses on expanding doctoral research to creatively and collaboratively contribute more overtly to the public good. Prior to coming to UBC, Rachel earned a Master of Arts in Social Studies Education from New York University and a Master of Information from Dalhousie University. Rachel also worked as a social studies, English, and art teacher for eleven years, and has taught in in New York City; Austin, Texas; Manokotak, Alaska; and Budapest, Hungary. She is fortunate to work with Dr. Lindsay Gibson and Dr. James Miles on the Portraits of Professional Practice project with Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future.
Sumia Sultana
Sumia joined the Student Success Centre as an Academic Strategist while pursuing her MA in Educational Research at the University of Calgary. Sumia is inquiring about the intersections between the hidden curriculum and the social-emotional learnings of elementary classrooms in her scholarship. Previously, she earned an MSc in Early Childhood Development and pursued a Post-Graduate Diploma in Educational Leadership and School Improvement from BRAC University, Bangladesh. Sumia is a committed lifelong learner fueled by her passion for collaborative learning, social-emotional development, and resilience fortification. With her background in teaching, educational policy, and research, Sumia strives to co-create accessible and equitable learning experiences for all learners. Outside work, she enjoys watching investigative media, taking nature walks, spending time with family and friends, and savouring comfort food.
Kristen Fontaine
Kristen Fontaine lives and attends school on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe peoples and Haudenosaunee peoples, in Kingston, ON. Kristen is a PhD-Education candidate at Queen’s University under the supervision of Dr. Heather McGregor, with interests in decolonization education, land-based education, and recreation program curricula. Her doctoral research is focused on community-engaged research practices with Indigenous communities and working towards the decolonization of the national aquatics curriculum. Kristen graduated from Queen’s University in 2016 with a B.A. Honours in History, and recently achieved her M.A. in Public History from the University of Victoria in 2024. She is dedicated to a life of learning and unlearning, building relationships, and advocating for community, seeking a future career in public policy at the provincial or federal level.