Student Work
Within the Social Justice Studies streams, students can complete a major research project, a creative project, or work with a social justice serving agency to complete a practicum. The projects and titles from 2024-25 are listed below. The complete list of projects for each stream can be found on their dedicated pages.
Creative Projects
Maya Oversby,
“Be(ad) the Change: Confronting Land Disposition through Kinship and Beadwork.”
Supervisors: Dr. Juan Sanchez Martinez and Dr. Keira Loukes.
Maya’s project foregrounded process as much as process. She help “grabeady” workshops that led participants in a discussion and beading on maps. The symbolism of beading on topographic maps generated a way to take up space and ultimately reclaim Land that was stolen from Indigenous ancestors. While beading, participants are encouraged to engage in conversation surrounding Land. Creating dialogue between different communities and engaging in intergenerational knowledge exchange, especially within the context of extractive industries in the area. This project demonstrates the interconnectedness of art, kinship visiting, and activism all while mobilizing and enforcing movements towards Indigenous sovereignty and Land Back. By networking with other communities and people with similar lived experience, the workshop creates a diverse network of individuals who stand together in solidarity with each other during extractivist agendas being imposed on stolen land.
Complete list of creative projects.
Practicums
Jennifer Bouchard,
Placement: Ontario Native Women’s Association
Field Supervisor: Yolanda Wanakamik
Portia Opoku and Ximena Izquierdo Urbano
Placement: Elizabeth Fry Society of NW Ontario
Field Supervisor: Lindsay Martin
Raghim Mohammad
Placement: Citizens for Public Justice
Field Supervisor: Natalie Appleyard
Nahid Hasan
Placement: Bringing our Children Home
Field Supervisors: Fern Chisel and Lauren Augustine
Nahid Hasan
Placement: Thunder Bay Multicultural Association
Field Supervisor: Ahmad Hafez
Placement: NAN Research and Policy Group
Field Supervisor: Stephen Lee
Placement: Thunder Bay Multicultural Association
Field Supervisor: Tejraj Shah
Alexa Kizhakkepurathu
Placement: Beendigen: Anishinabe Women’s Crisis Home and Family Healing Centre
Field Supervisor: Cori Bannon
Complete list of practicum projects
Research Projects
Bronwyn McIlroy,
“End of Life Care and Homelessness: PACT”
Supervisors Lori Chambers and Kathy Kortez-Miller
Hilary Rogers,
“Criminalizing Indigenous Dissent through Discursive Media Accounts: A Critical Discourse Analysis of State and Media Representations of Tyendinaga Mohawk Solidarity Actions.”
Supervisor: Dr. Debra Mackinnon.
Stefani Woods,
“Education Reconciliation: Strategic Response To The Truth And Reconciliation Commission Calls To Action 62, 63, And 65 From Three Atlantic Canadian Universities.”
Supervisor: Dr. Kristin Burnett
Shannon Greenberg, “In the Aftermath of Ahluwalia: A Critical Review of the Case Law.”
Supervisor Lori Chambers and Jennifer Chisholm
Complete list of research projects.