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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!
Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!

Department of History

Department of History

MA Graduate student profiles

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Teejay Bhalla 

Supervisor — Dr. Elena Razlogova 

Thesis Title: "A Nation of Students: The 1960's Montreal National Identity Crisis." 

Research Interests: Nationalism, Decolonization, Race, Language, Montreal, Transnationalism, Neoliberalism

(He/They) is a third year MA student, studying History at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Their work and interests explore the nature of community organization, the development of national identities, and the role of marginalized voices in the making of nations. He looks for ways to bring his work and experience back to the community through film curation, public speaking, photography and design. They are formerly the manager and programmer of Cinema Moderne in Montreal, currently the General Coordinator of Concordia’s Graduate History Students Association and organizer of the 26th annual History in the Making graduate conference. Recently, they held a photo exhibition entitled El Pueblo Unido, exploring the relationship between humans with the natural world and the impact of neoliberalism on the land and people of Chile.

Liam Devitt 

Supervisor - Dr. Steven High 

Thesis Title: "Queer Youth and Deindustrialization in Cape Breton." 

Research Interests: queer history, labour history, 20th century Canada, deindustrialization, Marxism, queer theory, oral history

Liam Devitt (they/them) is a freelance writer and graduate student based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. They are in the second year of their MA in History at Concordia University, studying histories of queer youth amidst deindustrialization in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

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Gabrielle McLaren 

Supervisor — Dr. Anya Zilberstein 

Thesis Title: "How the Empire Built Malaria: A Medical and Environmental History of the Rideau Canal." 

Research Interests: Canadian medical, environmental, and labour history; science and technology; settler colonialism. 
 

Gab is a first year MA student at Concordia University. She graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2020 with an honours degree in history and a minor in world literature. Her current project explores disease's impact on colonial environmental perceptions in Canada, using the malaria during the Rideau canal's construction as a case study. She knits in class and her roommate is a hedgehog.

Karl Ponthieux Stern

Supervisor —  Dr. Anna Sheftel

Thesis Title: "ExisTransInter : Faire l´histoire des personnes trans par leur activisme."

Research Interests: Trans Studies; Oral History; History of Activism; Jewish Cultural History; Yiddish; Language; Cultural Revival. 

Karl is a writer, one of the rare Ashkenazi French Jews, and a trans gay activist. They hold a licence in History from the University of Paris Nanterre. They started their research activities way before university, by documenting medical violence against women, trans men, and non-binary people in France. They also led a self-educated research on Jewish Women in leftist organizations, for the revolutionary Jewish organization JJR. Karl joined Concordia University to study Oral History and has flourished in the field of Oral History of Activism. They have wandered in a wide range of topics such as the Saint-Petersburg squats´ scene, or Jewish presence in Poland. Their thesis though is focused on an Oral History of the ExisTransInter, a yearly demonstration led by trans activists since 1997. They were on the organizing committee of the 2023 edition of History in the Making (in their capacity of beginner Zoom tamer), and organized pub nights and potlucks for the GHSA during the 2022/2023 academic year. 

 
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