Graduate Alumni News

Meet our Alumni!

Paulina Johnson

Paulina JohnsonDr. Paulina Johnson, (PhD 2017) Sîpihkokîsikowiskwew (Blue Sky Woman), is Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and a citizen of Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, AB, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta.

Paulina’s research interests include telling Indigenous stories through her family’s stories and lived experiences. She is focused on Indigenous women’s voices in academia and professional settings where institutional racism, gender discrimination, and oppression occur, and how we can utilize this knowledge to re-examine these realities and liberate Indigenous experiences. September 23, 2021.

 

Mingyuan Zhang

Mingyuan ZhangWe’re happy to report that recent PhD graduate Dr. Mingyuan Zhang (PhD 2018) will shortly be taking up a 2-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, where she will be working on a project entitled “From Asia to Africa: antibiotic trajectories across the Indian Ocean”. January 28, 2021.

 

 

Jennifer Spinney

Jennifer SpinneyWestern Anthropology Graduate, Dr. Jennifer Spinney (PhD 2019) has just accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position with York University's Program in Disaster and Emergency Management.  July 10, 2020. Dr. Spinney studies the connections between groups of people living and working at the intersections of environment and society, particularly extreme weather hazards and disasters, such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and heat, in both Canada and the United States. 

 

Bimadoshka Pucan

Bimadoshka PucanWestern Anthropology Graduate Dr. Bimadoshka Pucan (PhD 2019), of Saugeen First Nation, has been appointed to the position of CRC (Tier II) in Indigenous Oral Tradition & Oral History at Concordia University. Her work raises crucial questions about the relationships b/w settler collecting institutions & Indigenous communities. July 8, 2020.

 

 

Laura Kelvin

Laura Kelvin

 

Dr. Laura Kelvin (PhD 2016), who is currently conducting community-based archaeological research with Labrador Inuit, has recently accepted an Assistant Professor position in Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Manitoba. May 29, 2020.

  

 

 

Beatriz Juárez Rodriguez

Beatriz Juarez Rodriguez

Dr. Beatriz Juárez Rodríguez (PhD 2020), who completed her thesis on “Blackness, Gender and the State: Afro Women's Organizations in Contemporary  Ecuador,” has been appointed to a tenure-track position in the Anthropology of Race and Racialization in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. May 29, 2020.

 

 

Danielle Alcock

Danielle Alcock

Dr. Danielle Alcock (PhD 2019) has been appointed as the Indigenous Leader in Residence (ILIR) effective February 11. In this role, she will also be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

The ILIR acts as a champion for all aspects of the Indigenous Health Action Plan and for leading Schulich Medicine & Dentistry in achieving the goals outlined by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada action items that specifically relate to health care education.

As the ILIR, Alcock, who is a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, will also work to forge respectful relationships with Indigenous communities, particularly those in Southwestern Ontario, that support engagement and collaboration. February 11, 2020.