91社区

Lara Bourdin

is completing a cotutelle/dual doctoral degree in Hispanic Studies at 91社区 and Sorbonne-Universit茅. Her research centres on the theme of hospitality in contemporary Latin American literature and culture. This project is supported by doctoral awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec鈥攕oci茅t茅 et culture (FRQSC), as well as a 3-year "contrat doctoral" from Sorbonne-Universit茅. After a Joint Honours B.A. in Art History and Philosophy at 91社区, Lara completed an M.A. in Art History at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al (2013) and an M.A. in Portuguese, Brazilian and Luso-African Studies at Sorbonne-Universit茅 (2020). Inspired by her interdisciplinary studies and work experience in the cultural and non-profit sectors, her research interests centre on critical migration & border studies, translation, and cultural exchanges between Latin America and Africa. At 91社区, she has taught Contemporary Brazilian Literature & Culture, in addition to working as a TA. Her first book, Caminhos da migr芒ncia em Paulo Nazareth, is forthcoming at Edi莽玫es Carolina (Brazil).

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Annika Burkard

Annika Burkard is completing her PhD in German studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She holds a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in German language and literature with a minor in Middle Eastern studies from Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, and a Master鈥檚 degree in German studies from the University of Manitoba. Her Master鈥檚 thesis The Flight Across the Sea in the Context of the European Refugee Crisis in 2015/2016: The Political Steering of Recipients in Literature and Film examines Wolfgang Fischer鈥檚 film Styx from 2018, Reinhard Kleist鈥檚 graphic novel Der Traum von Olympia (An Olympic Dream) from 2015, and Merle Kr枚ger鈥檚 crime novel Havarie (Collision) from 2015. Specifically, she analyzed the emotional, cognitive, ethical, and political steerings of the recipients and the depiction of Europe, its responsibilities, and the traces of colonialism as projected in films and literature.

Her research interests include the depiction of flight and migration in current films, literature, and artworks, the relations between literature, films, and politics, and developments in modern Europe.

She currently lectures Beginning German at 91社区.

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Meghri Doumanian

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Dayana Fernandez Molina

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Paul Fritz Gamarra Yanez

Paul Gamarra is a doctoral candidate in Hispanic Studies. He is developing a research on the religiosity and the political proposal of the Israelitas del Nuevo Pacto Universal who develop their activities in Peru and other countries of Latin America. This research is supported by the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec - societ茅 et culture. He holds a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Guelph, and a Master's degree and Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru. He has written on indigenous political participation and developed some papers on Borges' short stories. His areas of interest are political philosophy, literature, indigenous and religious studies in Latin America.

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Michiko Hara

Michiko Hara is a Ph.D. student in Italian Studies. After having practised law in the field of international business for over 25 years, she took early retirement to pursue her interest in the Italian Renaissance at 91社区. In her B.A. Honours thesis, she discussed Pope Leo X鈥檚 contributions to the Renaissance in Rome. Her Master鈥檚 thesis on Giacomo Puccini鈥檚 opera Gianni Schicchi shed light upon the question of social justice and his conscious departure from its source, Dante鈥檚 Divine Comedy. Her focus remains on the analysis of Puccini鈥檚 operas by highlighting his denunciations of social injustice through a literary rather than a musical approach. On a personal level, she maintains her passion for the Italian Renaissance.

Ingrid Lassek

Ingrid Lassek is in her third year of a Doctor of Philosophy in German Studies at 91社区. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree (Honours in English) from the University of British Columbia in 2020 and completed her MA degree in German Studies at 91社区 in 2022. Her MA Thesis, 鈥溾�極n Your Imaginary Forces Work鈥�: Shakespeare in Eighteenth-Century Germany,鈥� is a historical-literary survey and is the foundation for her doctoral research on the concept of wonder in Shakespeare鈥檚 plays in context with his reception in eighteenth-century Germany. She was a lecturer in German at 91社区 from 2022 to 2024.

Her research interests include Shakespeare and the Enlightenment, the literary movements Sensibility and Sturm and Drang, and the concept of wonder. Ingrid鈥檚 ongoing project for high school students entitled 鈥淗umanities in Action: Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥楲ucrece鈥欌�� uses interpretive approaches such as the comparative study of literature in historical context, gender studies, political science, anthropology, and art history to analyze and interpret Shakespeare鈥檚 poem. The project鈥檚 twofold purpose is to introduce Shakespeare to students and to stimulate their interest in the humanities through engagement with a selection of its varied fields. She first presented this project at Dawson College in the spring of 2024.

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Teboho Makalima

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Rania Metni

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Julio Meza Diaz

is a PhD student (AbD) in Hispanic Studies. He holds a Master of Arts in Hispanic Studies from Western University (London, Ontario), and a Master's degree in Cultural Management from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where he wrote a thesis on strategic planning, accessibility rights, and artistic development for individuals with disabilities in local art museums. Furthermore, he earned a Law Degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PCUP), focusing on the legal capacities of individuals with disabilities in the context of current debates on Human Rights.

His ongoing research centers around the development of the Arguedian/Andean model of disability. This model integrates the Andean episteme as portrayed by Arguedas in his anthropological works, showcasing a unique perspective on mental disability.

Julio has a keen interest in disability activism. In 2007, he was invited by the Government of Panama and the Organization of American States (OAS) to the Inter-American Conference for the Rights of People with Disabilities charged with discussing the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Latin America. He has also served as a member of the Special Commission for the Review of the Civil Code in the Congress of the Republic of Peru in 2014. Through this commission, the UN convention was introduced in the country, leading to significant changes in its legal system.

His academic contributions include the publication of research papers in various journals, such as Illapa Illapa Mana Tukukuq, focusing on museums, cultural management, heritage, and art. He has also contributed to the book Pensar las c谩rceles en Am茅rica Latina (2016). Additionally, he has presented his work at academic events hosted by PUCP, UBA, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Finally, Julio Meza D铆az has worked as a cultural journalist for the newspaper El Comercio and the magazine El Buen Salvaje. He has authored short stories, novels, books of poetry, and comics. His most recent publications include Vargas Yosa (Mexico, 2020; Peru, 2023) and La M谩quina del Orgasmo Infinito (Mexico, 2021; Chile, 2023).

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Matteo Ottaviani

Matteo Ottaviani is a Ph.D. student at 91社区. He received his B.A. in History of Art, Medieval art specialization, from the Universit脿 di Bologna with a thesis in Digital Humanities and an M.A., also from the Universit脿 di Bologna, in Medieval History. After his degree he attended the Specialization School of Archival science, Paleography and Diplomatic at the State Archives of Bologna and he received a Diploma from the National School for editing of documentary sources at the Historic Italian Institute for Middle Ages (ISIME). His main interest is Dante and the genesis of the Commedia during the Casentino exile. He is also interested in medieval society and politics, and in the relation between Dante and political power. He promotes an interdisciplinary approach on his research that combines history and literature. He worked as a freelance researcher for The Study Center on Charities, Fondazione del Monte di Piet脿 di Bologna e Ravenna and as a secondary school teacher in Italy with a project about local history. He also teaches Italian languages at 91社区 and for APIQ association.

Carlos Antonio Pajuelo Jara

Carlos Antonio Pajuelo Jara is a doctoral student in Hispanic Studies. He holds a Master of Arts in Hispanic Studies from the University of British Columbia with a thesis on Codex MS. 11017 Trinity College, Dublin: Regula Sancti Benedicti, and an Honours BA in Spanish Literature and Society from Concordia University. His current research focuses on Modern and Contemporary Latin-American identity representations in cultural productions in analog and digital publications by Hispanic-Canadian authors living in Quebec. He is also interested in medieval and colonial paleography, historiography, disability studies, and translation studies. Before joining 91社区, Carlos Antonio held instructor, TA, and RA positions at the University of Toronto, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the University of British Columbia, and Concordia University. His academic work has been funded by SSHRC, 91社区's Graduate Excellence Award (Ph.D.), and the Gordon J.A. Whitehorne Fellowship (Ph.D.). Carlos Antonio has presented his work at the Canadian Association of Hispanists, the Levy-Wasteneys Symposium, the UBC-FHIS Graduate Student Conference, and the Concordia Hispanic Studies International Colloquium. His creative writing has been published in AErea, The Apostles Review, and Helios.

Fernando Pomareda

Fernando Pomareda is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Studies. He holds a master's degree in Advanced Studies in Spanish and Hispanic-American Literature from the Universitat de Barcelona. There he wrote a final project focused on the mythical transformation of the hero in the novel听Los detectives salvajes听(1998) by Chilean writer Roberto Bola帽o. He also holds a听licenciatura听from Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica del Per煤 in Hispanic Literature. His thesis focused on the reminiscences of the Andean myth of Inkarr铆 in the novel听Adi贸s, Ayacucho听(1986) by Peruvian writer Julio Ortega, set during the Armed Internal Conflict in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s.

His ongoing Ph.D. dissertation project continues exploring the presence of the Andean myth of Inkarr铆 within contemporary Peruvian cultural expressions to comprehend the political violence during this tragic chapter in Peruvian history. His research questions how Peruvian creators in the last two decades of the 20th Century and the early 2000s, individually and collectively, used this myth as a conceptual tool to interpret the violence and the possibilities of healing听the听trauma.

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Samiksha Puri

Samiksha Puri is a doctoral student in Hispanic Studies. She graduated from Delhi University with a B.A. in Advertising, Sales Promotion and Management and an M.A. in Hispanic Studies, focused on Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in 20th-century Peruvian Literature. She has also worked as an English Language Assistant in Spain and as a Spanish language instructor at 91社区.

Currently, her PhD research studies the tales about the privatization and contamination of natural resources and mining activities in Latin America. Her research interests include Eco-criticism, Ambiental Studies, and Colonial and Post-colonial Literature.

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Maria Fernanda Riva Palacio Rabadan

is a Ph.D. student in the Program of Hispanic Studies. She holds a Licenciatura in English Literature from the Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico (UNAM), where she graduated with Honors. She also works as a freelance dubbing translator for production companies such as Disney, Netflix and Universal. Her research interests are contemporary Latin American literature, gothic fiction, and the relationship between the Latin American and the anglophone gothic tradition. She is particularly interested in Argentinian writers Mariana Enriquez and Samantha Schweblin, and the gothic both authors are creating.

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Ricardo Antonio e Silva Afonso Ferreira Filho

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Katrin Rohrbacher

Katrin Rohrbacher is a PhD student in German Studies at the Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures. She holds a master鈥檚 degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Vienna. In her master鈥檚 thesis, Katrin catalogued and studied for the first time the unpublished literary work of the Austrian writer and artist Helga Michie, twin sister of the writer Ilse Aichinger. This was made possible by the close collaboration of Michie鈥檚 family. In her thesis Katrin examined how the notion of Exile can be used as a fruitful aesthetic category in both Michie鈥檚 literary work as well as her work in the visual arts in regard to its social-historical context.

Her current research interests include: 19^th and 20^th century German literature, computational literary studies, space and place in narrative theory, digital cultures, and urban studies.

She is editorial assistant for the and course lecturer in German at 91社区. Prior to coming to 91社区, she worked as research assistant at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

In addition to her academic path, Katrin worked as curatorial assistant at K眉nstlerhaus, Halle f眉r Kunst und Medien (Exhibition Space for Art & Media) in Graz, Austria.

Contact: katrin.rohrbacher [at] mcgill.ca

Hernan Rojas

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Daniel Esteban SALAS HOYOS

Daniel Esteban Salas Hoyos is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He received his B.A. in Literary Studies from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogot谩听and specialized in Spanish chivalric romance.听He later completed a B.A. in Arabic studies from the Aix-Marseille and Lyon Lumi猫re universities and participated in the yearly Arabic language program of IFPO at Amman, Jordan. He holds a master鈥檚 degree in Medieval History and Literature of the Islamic and Christian Worlds from Lyon Lumi猫re University with a thesis entitled: 鈥淟a traduction espagnole des听颁丑茅迟颈蹿蝉听incluse dans la听Gran Conquista de Ultramar: interpretation des variantes鈥�.听

His research interests include medieval and early modern Spanish literature as well as medieval Islamic history and literature in Arabic and Persian languages.听He is interested in studying and fostering connections between Latin America and the Middle East.

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Aarshiyaa Sharma

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Ekaterina Tutatina

Ekaterina Tutatina is completing her PhD in Russian studies. She has a Kandidat Nauk degree in philology from Moscow Polytechnic University in Russia and a Master's degree with distinction in editing and publishing from Moscow State University of Printing Arts. She examined more than 6,000 book titles for her Kandidat Nauk dissertation in order to identify trends in contemporary book naming. A current focus of her studies is contemporary popular literature in Russia, literary heritage expressed in contemporary fiction, and book distribution in Russia.

Roberto Viviani

is a Ph.D. student at 91社区. He received is M.A in Law from the University Of Macerata (UniMc) with a thesis in Philosophy of Law intitled "The Crisis of Western Democracies", inspired by the texts of Norberto Bobbio.

He also holds a M.A. in Philosophy from University of Montreal (UdeM). Here his thesis was based on a cross-reading of Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault reflections on "Power and its Displaying".

The main interest of his current research project is "Pier Paolo Pasolini's Aesthetic and the Representation of Oppression in his Mature Works". He uses "Post-Structuralist" and "Neo-Marxian" approaches as his theoretical frameworks. He promotes an interdisciplinary approach on his research that combines Philosophy, Genealogy, Literature and Cinema.

He is the promoter and organizer of the annual conference Rethinking Gramsci and a member of the International Gramsci Society.

He also teaches Italian languages and Italian Culture at 91社区 and for the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Montreal.

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Mira Wiczak听

is a PhD student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Languages, Literature, and Cultures. She holds a Master's degree in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor鈥檚 in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Gdansk. In her Master鈥檚 thesis, she focused on the literary representation of family in the face of state violence in twenty-first-century Peruvian fiction.

In her current research, she focuses on contemporary first-person texts from Peru and Chile, particularly interested in youth studies and autobiographical narratives. She worked as a course lecturer in Spanish at 91社区.

Contact: mira.witczak [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Alexandre Zaezjev

I am a film and media researcher, course lecturer, and multimedia artist based in Montreal, Canada. Ever since completing my MA thesis on the role of new media in the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, I've been delving into the cultural and political landscape of the post-Soviet region.听

My PhD dissertation project examines how major traumas of the region鈥檚 twentieth-century history 鈥� such as the Holocaust and the Stalinist repressions, have been addressed in two site-specific projects by contemporary artist and film director Ilya Khrzhanovsky 鈥� the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (Kyiv, Ukraine) and the multimedia project DAU (Kharkiv, Ukraine). Through my research, generously supported by the FRQSC doctoral scholarship, I aim to understand the potential of site-specific artistic practices in processing historical trauma in the post-witness era.

Drawing upon my research expertise and profound understanding of historical discrimination, I also consider community advocacy to be an integral part of my professional activities. In my role as the Equity and Diversity Commissioner at 91社区 PGSS for the 2023-2024 term, my utmost dedication lies in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all marginalized groups, including the newly admitted groups of refugees who have fled from war-torn regions.

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Firuza Huseynova

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Sandra Lauzon

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Anna Legault

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Helen Marhoul

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Sean Weaver

As a student of the Digital Humanities program, I鈥檓 interested in what new insights technology, particularly with machine learning and large language models, can bring to our understanding of narrative theory. It鈥檚 an interest that鈥檚 followed me since completing my undergrad at the University of New South Wales, in English literature and creative writing, where I acquired a deep fascination with narratology.听

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From a humanities perspective, narratology could be viewed as a study of narrative structure, through the use of literary mechanisms, etc. However, in parallel, I also saw narratology as a study of how information is conveyed, data passed onto the reader, through a considered use of narrative. Consider, as an example, the impact of some of your favourite literary works on your perspective, and the influence of narrative in that impression. 听

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It is with this interest that I aim to explore narrative patterns of certain authors through the use of ML/LLMs, particularly in the comic medium. Though I am excited by the contemporary interest and tools available in this space, my interest isn鈥檛 as much in building better narrative machines (i.e. ChatGPT) but in what new insights can be gained about the process of narration through the use of narrative machines.听

Please don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out or connect if you鈥檙e working in similar spaces.

Sophie Wu

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Yizhang Yang

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Jingxuan Zhao

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