Our program is empowered by a welcoming and diverse community of students with a uniquely global perspective. Together we are making things right for our communities and our future.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Modern Greek History; Migration History
Biography: Alexandros Balasis has studied and published on issues of modernity and nationalism, and his current focus is on transoceanic migration. His dissertation examines Greek migration to Toronto during the post-WWII period, with a comparative approach that draws insights from Australian migration contexts. He focuses on the migration experience, identity formation, integration into local society, and the influence of migrant elites. He is also a researcher with the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archive and has been awarded the HHF International Graduate Fellowship in Modern Greek History.
Contact: 听balalex@yorku.ca
PhD
Research Areas: History of Science; Global History; East Asian History; Cultural History
Biography: Clement Qiang Huang鈥檚 research in global history examines the intersection of nineteenth-century knowledge production, religious missions, and colonial networks, focusing on French Catholic missionaries鈥 natural history collecting in zoology and botany in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. Huang received a joint MA in Transcultural Studies from Heidelberg University, Germany and Kyoto University, Japan.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; History of Education
听Biography: Corey Orszak (he/him) researches the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (1965-1975); citizenship-building and the 鈥渟cience鈥 of education in Ontario; and the civic responsibility ascribed to and assumed by academics and academia in mid-20th century Canada. He has an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies (91亚色), a Master of Arts in History (91亚色), and a Master of Information in Archives and Records Management/Library and Information Sciences (University of Toronto).
PhD Candidate
Research Area: Transnational medical networks between Europe and East Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Recognition:
MA
Research Areas: 听Canadian History; Military History
Biography: David holds a 91亚色 BA, and is finally doing an MA in history after many years working on staff in 91亚色's Communications Department and the Schulich School of Business. His period is the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on military history of the World Wars. His MRP, supervised by Michael Moir, is about the creation of the Canadian Government Merchant Marine in 1918. He is also a baseball history fan and former newspaper editor.
PhD
Research Areas: Canadian History; Migration History; Environmental History
Biography:听Elizabeth (Liz) Jansen, PhD History, explores how the experiences of her Russlaender ancestors prior to arriving in Canada in the 1920s influenced how they adapted interculturally and ecologically. She focuses on听how the wisdom from those times can be applied to creating healthy intracultural, intercultural, and ecological relationships today.
PhD
Research Areas: History of Slavery; History of the Atlantic World
Biography: Fabio Silva Magalhaes is a Brazilian historian with a research focus on the slave trade, slavery, and abolitionism in the North Atlantic during the Age of Revolutions (1775鈥1848). His doctoral project examines early experiences of Liberated Africans, the impact of North American legislation on the suppression of the slave trade, the intersection of the American Constitution and slavery, as well as the role of Quakerism and abolitionist associations in these developments.
Fabio earned his MA in History from 91亚色 in 2021 with a biographical study of Caetano Mauricio Machado, a prominent slave trader who operated in Bahia, Brazil, from 1774 to 1807. He also holds a BEd in History from Universidade Federal da Bahia.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Fabio has a remarkable musical background. For over 30 years, he led the Brazilian rock band Cascadura, which achieved critical and popular acclaim for its prolific contributions to Brazilian rock. Owing to his role in the band, he is also widely known as听Fabio Cascadura.
Guido D鈥橢lia is a PhD student in the Department of History. His current research focuses on Italian return migration from Canada between the 1950s and the 2010s. His work explores the complexities of this phenomenon and investigates how returnees resettled in Italy through a transnational perspective. Oral histories are essential components of this analysis as they provide valuable insights into these individuals鈥 experiences. His research interests include migration, the history of modern and contemporary Italy, transnationalism, and oral history. Contact: deliag@yorku.ca.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Indigenous History; Settler Colonialism; Social History of Health
Biography: Jason Nichols (he/him) researches settler colonialism in Canada, and is currently examining how government policy shaped housing and health for Indigenous peoples and settlers on the prairies during the late-19th听and early 20th听centuries. Jason holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts (History) and a Master of Arts (History) from Lakehead University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Women, Gender and Sexuality; Canadian history; Cultural History
Biography: Jess is an activist and historian of queer Canadian history. Her current research explores the queer history of Nova Scotia through ephemeral archives and archival practices during the late 20th听century. She is also interested in queer theory, visual culture, community archival projects, and the pedagogy of teaching.
Contact: jwilton@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: United States History; Cultural History; Women, Genders, and Sexualities; Tourism; Memory
Biography: Joanna (she/her) researches the narrativization, romanticization, and memory of New Orleans and its relationship to the 鈥極ld South鈥 following the American Civil War and Reconstruction. She seeks to examine how Northern Union States, particularly New 91亚色, leveraged a nostalgic and romanticized image of antebellum New Orleans to craft and shape narratives about the Civil War, slavery, emancipation, race, urbanization, and gender. She is interested in analyzing the construction of national identities and myths in print and popular culture and their persistent reinvention in the present. She received her HBA in History and Linguistics and MA in History from the University of Toronto.
Contact:听joannasm@yorku.ca/smolecjo@yorku.ca
PhD
Research Areas: Canadian History; Political History
Biography: Joel鈥檚 research examines the liberal opposition to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Canada from 1932 to 1962, highlighting how liberals actively sought to contain the perceived socialist threat to their hegemonic order. By analyzing the Medicare debate in Saskatchewan as a case study, Joel鈥檚 research demonstrates how liberal critiques, rooted in individualism and property rights, shaped the political and ideological battles that influenced Canada鈥檚 social and political development into the 21st century. 听Joel has an honours BA from听the听University听of Ottawa and an MA from McMaster听University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Environmental History; Canadian History; Animal History; Indigenous History
Biography: John鈥檚 area of interest is the historical environment: how environmental actors have influenced humans throughout history, and how their own history has changed over time, both from human and non-human actors. His research project is a historical study of the lynx (animal) and its important role in Canadian history, with special focus on the historical fur trade, Indigenous-settler relations, the emergence of modern science and ecology, and Canadian culture. He holds a Master of Arts from Queens University in Kingston, Ont., and a Bachelor of Arts from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, B.C.
Contact: jniescie@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Roman History
Biography: The research focus for my PhD dissertation looks at ethnography in the context of the ancient Roman Empire. The project focuses on the Roman and Greek perceptions of Persia to answer questions like, how did imperial powers appropriate other cultures, often through the construction of stereotypes? The Greeks and Romans had a well-established habit of appropriating foreign cultures, with Mithras being one such figure. My goal is to examine the ethnographic discourses employed by the members of the cult, subjects themselves of Roman imperialism, to construct ideas of Persia.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas:听 Latin American History;History of Women, Gender and Sexuality.
Biography: My research lies at the intersections between gender, feminisms, international politics, diplomacy and inter-war ideologies. I explore Brazilian female international thinkers and their transnational participation in both feminist and right-wing networks in the Americas during the first half of the 20th century. I have a MSc in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations at the University of S茫o Paulo (Brazil) and a BA also in IR from the School of International Service at American University (USA).
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Sephardic Jewish History; Identity and Language; Immigration History
Biography: Lydia Vlasidou studies Sephardic Jewish history and the Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) language. Her research focuses on Sephardic identity formation in the late-Ottoman and early modern Greek periods. She also researches the Sephardic diasporic experience, especially migration from what is now the Greek geographical space, questions of integration, and relationships between communities of the diaspora and the homeland.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: US History; Canadian History; Cultural History
Biography: Mak Galabuzi received his MA in History from 91亚色 and a Double BA in History and Film Studies from Brock University in 2022. His research emphases are in modern United States culture, with particular attention to the history of Hip Hop and Violence in the Hip Hop Community. Applying a Marxist lens to critiquing policy that negatively affects marginalized groups, his research engages a critical rethinking of the Black urban experience from the perspective of the West, through comparative studies of North American cities where Hip Hop and violence intersect historically. His work aims to develop a conception of Hip Hop History as constantly evolving in response to policies imposed on performers rather than the victim blaming narrative that 鈥渙thers鈥 the struggles of racialized communities. The goal is to shed light on the ways government policy can be used to help or hinder marginalized groups and have a direct effect on what is being performed, unlike any other music genre.
Contact: mgalabuz@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Cultural History; Political History
Biography:听Margrethe (Maggie) McKoen is working under the supervision of Marcel Martel. Her research interests include 20th听century Canadian听cultural and political history with a particular emphasis on the relationship between state and society during the Cold War. Margrethe's current doctoral research primarily focuses on the cultural and regional history of early Cold War Canadian nuclear civil defence programs. She is also interested in digital public history and has collaborated on a digital exhibit with Wilfrid Laurier University and the Diefenbunker: Canada鈥檚 Cold War Museum titled 鈥淐anadian Cold War Propaganda Posters: Lessons from Bea Alerte and Justin Case鈥. She has also collaborated on developing a digital exhibit exploring Canadian involvement in the Spanish Civil War in conjunction with the Virtual Spanish Civil War Museum. She received her MA in history from Wilfrid Laurier University and her BA from Simon Fraser University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Chinese History; Social and Cultural History
Biography: Marijn Fennema (he/him) is a doctoral student focusing on the sociocultural history of China in the late-Qing and Republican periods. His research explores the history of the betel nut in early 20th-century Southern China through its roles as a commodity, a leisure item, and a risk. He holds a BA in Human Geography from the University of Amsterdam, an MA in Political Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, and a Research MA in Asian Studies from Leiden University.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Environmental History; Labour History; Canadian History; US History
Biography:听Matthew is a PhD student interested in the history of the Great Lakes as a borderlands region during the early period of industrialization. His SSHRC-funded research project is situated at the intersection of environmental and labour history, with HGIS as a guiding methodology. Before entering the PhD program, Matthew received an MA in History from the University of Saskatchewan and an honours BA in Urban Studies from the University of Toronto. His MA thesis project examined the transfer of geographic knowledge from Indigenous peoples to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
PhD
Research Areas:听History of Technology (particularly energy history, agriculture, and mining); Canadian History; Material Culture.
Biography: Mike Roberts is currently investigating the role of the small steam engine in Ontario, with special attention to the education and social roles of operating engineers in rural and remote communities.听 A fuller understanding of these engineers has the potential to shift our understanding of industrialization and agriculture at a crucial period in Canada's past.
In addition to traditional historical records, he relies on an intimate knowledge of material culture, and has been involved with a number of museums. He has served as assistant to the chief engineer of the Toronto Railway Museum and has interned at the Royal Ontario Museum.听 He received his BA in history and anthropology at 91亚色, his MA in history at University of Toronto (steam plowing in Western Canada), and did his archaeological field school on the Island of Bornholm.听 He has also held a heritage steam operator鈥檚 licence (STO) in the province of Ontario for nearly a decade, and has been the recipient of SSHRC and OGS scholarships.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: African History; Social History of Medicine; History of Technology; Environmental History
Biography: Patrick C. Okpalaeke鈥檚 research examines how coal miners navigated coal mining sites, and their collective experiences of disease, wellness, and colonial capitalism in Southeastern Nigeria during the twentieth century. Patrick obtained his Bachelor of Arts (History and International Studies) and Master of Arts (Social and Political History) Degrees from the Department of History and International Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Contact:听pco23@yorku.ca
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Burma in the late-19th and early 20th听centuries, during the period of British colonialism.
Biography: Peter Alexander鈥檚 research concerns Buddhism and politics in colonial society, with a particular emphasis on changes in the ways that ritual donations to Buddhist institutions were organized by lay Buddhists in this period. He has conducted research into the origins of the Shwedagon Pagoda Trust, and its influence on the network of pagoda trusts that developed in Burma.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Historian of Education; Social, Economic and Cultural Life; Colonial and Post-Colonial West Africa.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Germany; East Africa; Cold War History
Biography: Richard鈥檚 research focuses on the work of the mass organizations of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) in Tanzania in the 1960s. He was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at McMaster University in 2020. In addition to history, Richard is passionate about languages, political science, geography, and the outdoors. His ambition is to be a professor of Cold War history with a focus on Central Europe and East Africa.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Environmental History
Biography: Roger holds an MBA from the University of Toronto (1986) and a Master's in History from 91亚色 (2025). Roger鈥檚 area of study is the building of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and its economic, environmental, and social impact on three communities: Cornwall, Ont.; Valleyfield, Que.; and Montreal, Que.
MA Candidate
Research Areas: The Roman Empire; Roman imperial women
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: History of Science and Technology; Cultural History
Biography: Ryan studies science and technology in late 19th and early 20th century Europe and America, and in particular popular belief and speculation on what these were and could be used for. His dissertation research explores the world of people who wrote letters to the editor of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and its successors, published from 1926-1936, and what their writing can tell us about how people of the past imagined science and the future.
PhD candidate
Research Areas: Canadian History; Gender History; Immigration History
Biography:听Sarah Ghrawi鈥檚 research aims to document the role of immigrant women as entrepreneurs shaping Canadian luxury spaces in Montreal and Toronto between the 1900s and the 1970s.听Spaces of luxury retail are an especially unique and valuable entry point for historical study because they represent an intersection of economic, political, and cultural expression. Her academic work has earned her several prestigious awards and scholarships, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship and the Women鈥檚 Canadian Historical Society of Toronto Graduate Scholarship.听Ghrawi has gained diverse professional experience, including roles as a Writing Instructor at 91亚色's Writing Centre, a Loss Prevention Investigator at Holt Renfrew, and a receptionist/ security guard at Tangerine Bank headquarters. A fun fact about Ghrawi is that she earned an Excellence Award for her Iaid艒 performance at the 32nd Budo World Championship in Kyoto, Japan, in 2023. Competing as part of the Canadian team, she showcased her skills in traditional martial arts. This achievement reflects her commitment to mastering the discipline and philosophy of martial arts, as she is also associated with the Japan Integrated Martial Arts Federation.
PhD Candidate
Research Areas: Modern Greek History; Cultural History; Public History; Photography; Identity; Tourism; Material Culture
Biography: Victoria Rigas-DiDomenico鈥檚 current research focuses on the history of photography in modern Greece, exploring how images contributed to the evolving identity of the Greek people. Her work explores the diverse and often competing photographic representations of Greece in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by comparing images captured by both Greeks and foreign travelers. Tourism, migration, and population exchange are central to this research, all playing a significant role in how the country was understood and depicted.
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The Graduate Program in History at 91亚色 is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.