Summer 2020 successful PhD and MA defences

Congratulations to Dr. Jelena Golubovic, who successfully defended her PhD thesis in anthropology this week: Zones of Violence: Serb Women inside the Siege of Sarajevo.

Her thesis was based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork among Serb women in post-war Sarajevo. "Capturing nuances and complexities of ethnographic research," says Professor Parin Dossa, "Jelena Golubovic makes a compelling case for listening to the voices of women in post-war societies; gendered silencing, she argues, can hamper the work of reconstruction of social life." And according to Dr. Erin Baines (UBC), who was the external examiner, Dr Golubovic's "decision to place her won struggle to understand [the experiences of Serb women] and her moral judgements of them was a sophisticated way of guiding the reader into the complex ways one becomes complicit in a politics of misrecognition." Well Done, Jelena!

We are pleased to announce that Shaughna Cooper and Conor Moore successfully defended their MA theses in sociology during the just completed Summer term. Shaughna's thesis examined the arguments of Maple Ridge, BC residents as they struggled against services and social housing for homeless people in that city. Conor also took on a social issue, namely how professional theatre artists in Canada might successfully improve their wages and working conditions. Ironically, perhaps, Conor reported, the Covid-19 pandemic has given them time and opportunities to talk about collective action. Congratulations Conor and Shaughna.

Pamela Stern
Associate Professor
Chair of the Graduate Program
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Simon Fraser University