Current Graduate Students

Eric Awuah (PhD Student)

Kristal Barrywood (PhD Student)

Kristal is a PhD student specializing in Sociocultural Anthropology. Her research in Paganism began at the University of Chicago where she became an expert on environmentalism within pagan rituals through her Master's thesis. At the University of Alberta, her dissertation research focuses on the emergence of Western Paganism in Japan. Kristal is one of only a handful of academics in North America studying Paganism. 

Nataliya Bezborodova (PhD Candidate)

Dietlind Bork (PhD Candidate)

Kyla Cangiano (MA Student)

Darush Farrokh (PhD Student)

Janine Funk (MA Student)

Hajar Ghorbani (PhD Candidate):

Hajar is aPh.D. candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Alberta, honored as a Killam Scholar. Her focus is on death studies in Iran, exploring themes like space, art, rituals, and material culture. For six years, she conducted fieldwork in Iran, studying the modernization and politicization of death. She co-edited "Social Studies of Death in Iran," a groundbreaking volume involving experts from various fields. As Iran's ambassador to the Association for the Study of Death and Society, she tries to globalize discussions on death in Iranian contexts. She has presented keynote speeches, including at the University of Bath, UK. Beyond academia, she is skilled in wood carving, pastel painting, and graphic design. She has also created art pieces honoring influential Iranian women, exhibited at the Isfahan University of Art. Currently, she's researching the agency of dead bodies, challenging traditional views by emphasizing their inherent power and voice. This perspective sheds light on Iran's societal dynamics, contributing fresh insights to anthropology and the issue of unmarked graves in Canada. 

Vivian Giang (PhD Candidate)

Hande Gür (PhD Candidate):

Hande (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Anthropology with a specialization in the anthropology of religion, spirituality, gender, and religious and social movements. Her doctoral research is an ethnographic study of the rise of Sufi—or mystical Islamic— practices among mainly young, middle-class women of Turkish origin living both in Türkiye and in the West. Gür brings to this research a solid record of academic research and publishing. She published her first solo article on this research in the Journal of Empirical Theology in 2020 and co-wrote a Turkish book based on a nation wide research, entitled  “Spiritual Seeking in Türkiye” (Türkiye’de Spiritüel Arayışlar) in 2021. 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hande-Guer-3

https://ualberta.academia.edu/Handeg%C3%BCr 

Uthman Khan (PhD Student):

Uthman is a PhD student at the University of Alberta, specializing in Sociocultural Anthropology. 

Serafina King (MA Student):

Serafina is a second-year master's student in religious anthropology working under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Hill. 

Oleksandra Kushnir (MA Student)

 Oleksandra is a Master's student in Sociocultural Anthropology working under the supervision of Marko Zivkovic. She completed her BA in International Relations and European Studies at Coventry (UK) and Lazarski (Poland) Universities with honours. She obtained her MA degree with distinction in Culture, Media and Society from the Polish Academy of Science and Lancaster University (joint degree). Her academic interest resides in exploring political, historical and social processes in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in Russia and Ukraine. Currently, in her MA research, Oleksandra applies the lens of sociocultural anthropology and cultural psychology to examine historical “Great Patriotic War” narratives in the Kremlin-originated propaganda, providing it with a broader cultural and social context. 

Cynthia Olufade (PhD Student) 

Zhiyan Ren (MA Student):

She is working on the family food practices in present China, especially those conducted by women and influenced by social media.

Samira Torabi (PhD Candidate)

Stenette van den Berg (PhD Student)

Keyna Young (MA Student)

Devyn Caldwell (PhD Candidate)

Zhouran Dai (PhD Student)

Christine Hymanyk (MA Student)

Jennifer Laughton (PhD Candidate):

Jennifer (she/elle/она) is a PhD candidate specializing in biological anthropology. She is a member of the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP) and is supervised by Dr. A. Weber. Her research focuses on the dental anthropology and odontometrics of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers of the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia, Russia. 

Женя - аспирант в Университете Алберты. Она по специалностью биологической антропологой, и является участником Байкальского Археологического Проекта (БАП) под руководством А. Вебера. Её исследование - сосредоточено на одонтологии и одонтометрии охотников-собирателей Предбайкалья. 

Sara Lefurgey (MA Student)

Xingyu Man (PhD Candidate) 

Elizabeth McKay (MA Student)

Etner Matibha (PhD Student)

Tristan Mula (MA Student)

Timothy Allan (PhD Student)

Megan Bieraugle (PhD Candidate)

Megan Bieraugle is a PhD candidate in the department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, exploring the relationship between Indigenous People and dogs on the Canadian Plains during the mid to late Holocene. Megan specializes in zooarchaeological assemblage analysis and biometry, having completed her MSc in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy at the University of Sheffield. Beyond school, Megan enjoys teaching, coaching volleyball, and spending time with a good book. 

Faith Boser (MA Student): 

Faith obtained her BA (honours) degree in archaeology from the University of Saskatchewan in the spring of 2021. She is currently a second-year master's student studying under the supervision of Dr. Robert Losey. For her thesis, she is working with collections from Lake Midden, a site located in southern Saskatchewan, dating to the Pericolonial period. Her project is focused on analyzing faunal remains from the site. Faith’s research interests include zooarchaeology, Great Plains archaeology, the archaeology of food, human and animal relationships, and mortuary archaeology. 

Elizabeth Goldberg (PhD Student)

Stephanie Halmhofer (PhD Candidate)

Jesse Heintz (MA Student)

Ben Kucher (MA Student)

Katherine Latham (PhD Candidate)

Solène Mallet Gauthier (PhD Candidate):

Solène studies overwintering Métis identity using plant and insect remains found at Chimney Coulee, located in SW Saskatchewan. Her research interests include foodways, identity, colonial contexts, historical archaeology, and environmental archaeology. 

Séamus Rudden (MA Student)

Blanka Stepankova (MA Student)

Dawn Wambold (PhD Student):

Born and raised between the Bow and Clearwater Rivers, and within sight of the Rocky Mountains, Dawn continues to live in the same lands that her Métis and Cree family were connected to. As a scholar at the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, she aims to tell the stories of her ancestors’ connections to Southern Alberta using archaeology. She is married to Robert and together they have a daughter named Cassidy who is an undergraduate student in the anthropology department. 

Kaitlyn Young (PhD Candidate)

Sarah Mann (MA Student):

Sarah (she/her/elle) is a Francophone second year graduate student at the University of Alberta. She completed her Bachelors in Anthropology from the University of Alberta in 2023. Her research interests include Michif, language inclusion in archaeology, and Métis history. Sarah is a southern Michif, French Michif and Muskogee learner. 

MA

Maggie DeCoste (2025), Allyson Lynch (2025), Emmy Marks (2025), Maria Nelson (2025), Viktoriya Popovych (2025), Saba Nuzhat (2025), Sadie Trambley (2025), Brianne Bertram (2024), Maegan Huber (2024), Lyndsay Dagg (2024), Ben Louter (2024), Emily Haines (2024), Nazia Mahmoud (2023), Selina Ertman (2023), Josie Baker (2023), Ella Forgie (2021)

PhD

Rachel Simpson (2025), Rebecca Bourgeois (2025), Brenda Guernsey (2025), JunHong Ma (2025, Morgan Moffit (2025), Liam Wadsworth (2025), Jennifer Nelson (2024), Philbert Katto (2024), Katherine Gadd (2021), Katherine Bishop (2021)

*Lists are not exhaustive