Spotlight on Graduate Research

Communications technology helps immigrants adapt to Canada, recent grad finds

There’s often an expectation that when people move here from another nation they should immerse themselves in Canadian culture, but maintaining a close connection to their home country makes them better immigrants, according to a recent PhD graduate.

And modern communications technology is enabling that connection, says Frances Cachon who recently defended her thesis in Sociology, Anthropology, & Criminology and is working as a sessional instructor there.

PhD student hopes to make life easier for young Arab immigrants

Nesreen Elkord wants to make life a little simpler for young Arabs who are new to Canada.

“It’s really my passion to try to make the experiences of these kids easier than it was for me,” says Elkord, a PhD student in the Faculty of Education who studies under the tutelage of professor Shi Jing Xu. “I know I can’t do that all by myself, but I do feel that I have a duty to do this work.”

HK student tried out for Toronto Triumph for research purposes

Katrina Krawec knows what it means to go the extra yard for the sake of her research.

A graduate student in the university’s kinesiology department, she’s studying the differences between two Canadian women’s tackle football leagues – one which requires its players to wear full uniforms, the other in which they play in bikinis.

Last year, she actually tried out for the Toronto Triumph, one of four Canadian teams in what until recently was known as the Lingerie Football League.

Vanier scholarship a recognition for grad student's work

Meet Mehrdad Shademan for the first time and it’s easy to get the impression he’s a fairly quiet, low-key type of guy. He wasn’t so mild-mannered, however, the day he found out he was the recipient of a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

“I was screaming and yelling,” he says in the graduate student office he shares with colleagues in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation. “Everybody was pretty shocked.”

New flumes give grad students cutting edge technology for studying water flow

Minimizing the impact of tsunamis on coastal regions and building sturdier bridges are just two of the outcomes a group of graduate student researchers are aiming for now that they have some top-notch new equipment up and running in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

“It’s really cutting edge,” PhD student Vimaldoss Jesudhas says of the giant flume he works with, one of two of its kind in the new engineering building.

Children of Arab immigrants caught between two worlds, PhD student finds

Ashley Paterson clearly remembers the first day of one of her classes when all of the students had to say a little about themselves. A boy in the class introduced himself, noted that he was from the Middle East, and added the caveat “And I’m not a terrorist.”

“That’s an example that really highlights the importance of identity,” said Paterson, a PhD student in psychology. “You could see how he was struggling with his cultural identity in a society that so often discriminates against people.”