Current MA Students

Zuhal Akay

Zuhal entered the MA program in Sociology in the Fall of 2022.

Supervisor: Lindsey Freeman

Regina Baeza Martinez

Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Regina (she/her) studies the experiences of Indigenous migrant farmworkers recruited to work in Canada. Specifically, she focuses on the place-making practices of Mayan migrant farmworkers from Guatemala. Looking at the role of transnational social networks (including other-than-human-relations), Regina argues that while these workers are deemed 'temporary', they construct vibrant indígena (Indigenous) worlds in rural Canada. Her research is part of a larger political project that aims to achieve permanent residency upon arrival for all migrant workers because, as the motto goes, 'good enough to work, good enough to stay'.

Co-Supervisors: Evelyn Encalada Grez & Michael Hathaway

Patrick Begg

Patrick entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024

Supervisor: Maureen Kihika

Mary Berger

Mary entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2023.

Supervisor: Barbara Mitchell

 Liv Bing

Liv entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2023.

Supervisor: Wendy Chan

Rincy Dominic Calamba

Rincy entered the MA program in Sociology in the Fall of 2021. She has a BA in Interdisciplinary American Studies at the University of Tübingen in Germany and a BA in International Studies major in American Studies, with a minor in Sociology from the Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines. Her research interests are on temporary migrant labor issues and the experiences of migrant families in Canada with regards to race, gender, and citizenship issues. Other interests include: Filipino studies, Filipino diaspora and integration, sexuality and transnational movement.

Co-Supervisors: Evelyn Encalada Grez and Cindy Patton 

Madison Casper

Madison entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Lindsey Freeman    

Rajdeep Dhaliwal

Rajdeep entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Kyle Willmott

Xingtong Fan

Xingtong entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Travers

William Grayer

William entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2023.

Supervisor: Pamela Stern

Ramy Habib

Areas of study: masculinities, gender socialization, social roles and identities, and social change

Ramy entered the MA program in Sociology in the Fall of 2021. Prior to that, he completed a BA in English Language and Literature in Damascus University, Syria. Although from a different academic background, Ramy’s interest in sociology stems from his three years of work on gender, legislations and policies related to gender equality, and gender-based violence with the United Nations in Syria. His research interest is in masculinities and how specific conceptions of masculinities are developed, maintained, and/or challenged. Also of interest is the shifting roles and responsibilities between men and women in the wake of the Syrian crisis, the relationships between those changes and emerging forms of masculinities, and the influence of globalization and UN intervention on masculine identities in the Syrian context.

Co-Supervisors: Cindy Patton and Amanda Watson

Quang Huynh

Research Interest: transnational labour, precarious work, Vietnamese migrants, mental well-being.

I graduated from UBC with a degree in psychology. My interest in Sociology came from one of my visits to a Vietnamese temple in Japan. That temple has supported many Vietnamese migrants who were unfairly fired during the pandemic. As a result, the migrants became homeless and jobless overnight. It exposed an exploitative system backed by governments to bring young Vietnamese to Japan to do dirty and dangerous work. My research focuses on how religious institutions, such as temples and churches, as well as other "third places," directly support the mental well-being of the migrants and build a sense of community among the Vietnamese population in Japan. I hope to contribute more to the existing literature about migration and precarious work by focusing more on the mental aspect of migrant workers.

Supervisor: Evelyn Encalada Grez
Committee Member: Alexia Bloch

Nelson Juma

Nelson entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Prof-Collins Ifeonu

Sarah Law (袁文)

Areas of study: ecological grief, neoliberalism, climate justice, power and violence, political economy, politics of softness, cultures of capitalism

Sarah entered the Sociology MA program in the Fall of 2022. She graduated from SFU with her BA in Sociology (Honours) and a Certificate in Social Justice. Her undergraduate honours thesis research presented ecological grief as an embodied social practice that mourns environmental losses, hopes for the future, and deeply held beliefs about our socio-political realities. She is interested in further exploring the relationships between the climate crisis and ecological grief with cultures of capitalism and neoliberal identity politics.

Supervisor: Kyle Willmott
Committee member: Amanda Watson

You can read more about Sarah’s honours thesis here and her community engagement work here.

Geri Lee

Geri completed a joint degree in Sociology and Anthropology from SFU in October 2022 and entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2023. Her research interests include sex work, Indigenous women in Canada, labour precarity, and perceptions of the self and the body in relation to labour. Her proposed thesis topic explores the lived experiences of online sex workers who pivoted to the industry during COVID-19 lockdown periods, with a specific focus on the social and economic stigma-related barriers they face when transitioning to a non-sex-work related industry following the lifting of pandemic policies

Supervisor: Maureen Kihika
Committee member: Dany Lacombe

Molly MacKay

Areas of study: Eco-tourism, environmental theology, conservation ethics and policy, Indigenous land rights and relations

Molly completed a BEnv in Resource and Environmental Management and a BA in World Languages and Literature at SFU in 2023 and entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2023. Her thesis will focus on conservation politics and the ramifications of eco-tourism in East Africa. Molly will be predominantly conducting research on Chyulu Hills National Park in southeastern Kenya. 
In her free time, Molly is either reading or walking her husky. 

Supervisor: Yildiz Atasoy

Gloria Moon

Area of study: neurodivergence, neuroqueer practices, queer theory

I am entering into the Sociology MA program in the Fall of 2024. I graduated from SFU with my BA in Sociology (Honours) and Certificate of Social Justice. My undergraduate honours thesis was completed under the supervision of Dr. Lindsey A. Freeman and Dr. Amanda Watson and explored how neuroqueer individuals engage in the process of world-making by collectively queering a space for themselves through the symbolic practices of neuroqueering. I am interested in further expanding on the practices of neuroqueering in my MA thesis.

Supervisor: Lindsey Freeman
Committee Member: Amanda Watson

Noah Sim

Areas of study: Affect, Phenomenology, Post-phenomenlogy, ANT, Feminist Loneliness Studies

Noah is an immigrant from Singapore to Canada, and finished a joint major in Sociology and Anthropology at SFU in the Fall of 2022. His studies during the pandemic sparked his interest in the issue of social isolation; it got amplified during the crisis and his volunteering at the Student Learning Commons (SLC) at SFU brought him into contact with many individuals struggling with this. His research considers how the usage of technology, specifically AI-generative chat bots, could affect how people form, experience and maintain social connections. Down the road he hopes to study more in-depth how technology has altered how people experience the world beyond considering their usage as tools and conveniences. While Noah loves all things geeky, his true passion lies in boardgames with social deception mechanics!

Supervisor: Amanda Watson
Committee Member: Lindsey Freeman

Pavel Vlasov

Areas of study: Sovietology, Marxism, Collapse of the USSR, Slavic Studies

Pavel Vlasov is an MA student in sociology and a teaching assistant in the department. He earned his Associate's degree in Sociology from Douglas College before completing his BA in Sociology at SFU in 2022. He began his MA in 2023, investigating the collapse of the USSR by analyzing, categorizing, and evaluating the validity of various scholarly explanations for this historic event.

Supervisor: Gary Teeple

Student Profile

Isabella Wang

Areas of study: autotheory, contemporary poetry and poetics, experimental forms, queer activism, health policy, precarity and harm reduction for homeless youths, resistance and rebellion

Isabella the author of two poetry collections, On Forgetting a Language (Baseline Press, 2019), and Pebble Swing (Nightwood Editions, 2021)—shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. In the Canadian literary community, she is an editor with Room magazine, a bookseller with Massy Books, web coordinator with poetry in canada, program advisory consultant and mentor with the UBC Learner's Exchange, and directs her own non-profit writing program, 4827 Revise Revision St., which offers career consultations and mentorship services for at-risk youths free-of-charge. In her MA, Isabella hopes to develop Choreography of Forgetting, an experimental poetry manuscript that teases out the stories contained in the strokes of Chinese calligraphy, and explores the ‘forgotten’ when China, during the Great Leap Forward, made its full transition from traditional to simplified characters.

In her undergrad, Isabella worked as the department dog sitter for SFU English.

Supervisor: Lindsey Freeman
Committee members: Stephen Collis and Amanda Watson

Samantha Wong

Samantha entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2022.

Supervisor: Kyle Willmott

Adam Yahav

Adam entered the MA program in Sociology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Amanda Watson

Ying Zhang

Areas of study: Education reform in China; policy analysis;

Winnie entered the MA program in Sociology in the Fall of 2022. She graduated from SFU with her BA in Sociology in the summer of 2022. Her thesis focuses on China's newly released educational policy, the double reduction policy, and explores its impact on the Chinese education system as well as on those affected (teachers, students, and parents).

Supervisor: Cindy Patton
Committee member: Huamei Han

Ty Bryant

Areas of study: Asian-Indigenous relationalities, the more-than-human, Taiwan Studies, and global Indigenous social movements

Ty is a citizen of We Wai Kai First Nation. He entered the MA program in Anthropology in Fall 2023. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (First Class with Distinction) at Simon Fraser University. Ty's upcoming MA thesis, "Making a Home in Vancouver: Taiwanese Reckonings With Settler Colonialism," will explore how the Taiwanese diaspora in Vancouver are reckoning with their roles and responsibilities towards Indigenous peoples and lands – and, by extension, reckoning with settler colonialism. For more on Ty's work, please visit his website.

Supervisor: Michael Hathaway

Committee members: Kyle Willmott and May Farrales

Yueming Chen

Yueming entered the MA program in Anthropology in the Fall of 2019.

Supervisor: Jie Yang

Vaughn Curioso

Vaughn entered the MA program in Anthropology in Fall 2023.

Supervisor: Kathleen Millar

Rajdeep Dhadwal (ਰਾਜਦੀਪ ਢਡਵਾਲ)

Areas of study: ethnoecology, Punjabi cultures and diaspora, climate change, ecological restoration, South Asia, Indigenous spiritualities, religion, natures of being, memory

Rajdeep entered the MA program in Anthropology in Fall 2023. She received her Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia in 2019 and an Associate of Arts in Asian Studies from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2015. Her undergraduate honours thesis explored how immigration from Punjab, India and long-time settlement in British Columbia affected relationships to and understandings of the natural world.

Rajdeep currently works in the Faculty of Environment, School of Environmental Science at SFU. She is also a community researcher and oral historian with the City of Burnaby, exploring Burnaby’s South Asian community.

Supervisor: Cristina Moretti

Wenlei Huang

Areas of study: affective labor, social work, gender, mental health, China

Wenlei entered the MA program in Anthropology in the Fall of 2021. Her thesis project focuses on urban renewal and community development in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and examines how social workers navigate shifting roles and expectations in the post-pandemic context.

Supervisor: Jie Yang
Committee member: Cindy Patton

Shirley Huo

Shirley entered the MA program in Anthropology in Fall 2024.

Supervisor: Jie Yang

Morgaine Lee

Areas of study: multispecies, anthropology of science, fungi, STS, visual anthropology, ethnographic film, affect theory, multimodal methods

Morgaine completed her BA Honours in Anthropology at SFU in 2019. Her master's project combines film, writing, and installation to explore the stories we tell about fungi. For more on her work, including her undergrad project "ANTHROPO a story about fungi in four parts" (2019) please see here.

Supervisor: Michael Hathaway
Committee Members: Lindsey Freeman and Nadia Shihab

Kabir Madan

Areas of study: citizenship, urban commons, right to the city, anthropology of sports, experimental ethnography

Kabir entered the M.A program in Anthropology in Fall 2022, after having completed his B.A in Sociology in India. As of Fall 2023, Kabir is back in India for his fieldwork on the urban planning and sports infrastructure in New Delhi. He had worked as a high school teacher as well as a soccer coach in India before beginning his Graduate studies.

Supervisor: Cristina Moretti

Committee Member: Nicholas Scott

Carolina Miranda

Carolina entered the MA program in Anthropology in Fall 2023.

Supervisor: Kathleen Millar

Julio C. Moreno Correa

Areas of Study: social psychology, education

Julio entered the MA program in Anthropology in the Fall of 2022. He is an international student from Colombia, who studied undergraduate in Psychology and master in Education at Universidad de Antioquia. He is particularly interested in research about differences regarding the perspective of peace processes between Colombians in their country and migrants living in Canada. 

Supervisor: Kathleen Millar

Niyat Ogbazghi

Niyat entered the MA program in Anthropology in the Fall of 2021.

Co-Supervisors: Maureen Kihika and Pamela Stern

Noemi Rosario Martinez

Noemi entered the MA program in Anthropology in the Fall of 2022.

Supervisor: Kathleen Millar