FAS salutes high-GPA grad students

Ebony Demers (Department of Biology):

Born and raised on the south shore of Montreal, I completed my undergraduate studies at Concordia in Biology, with a specialization in ecology. I began a Master’s Degree in 2014 with Dr. Grant E. Brown, where my research focused on studying Neophobia in Trinidadian Guppies.

I was recently fast-tracked into the PhD program, where I will continue and expand upon my research. The amazing community of students, faculty, and staff at Concordia played a large role in my decision to stay for my PhD.

 In addition to pursuing graduate studies at Concordia, I am also the Science Liaison Officer for the Student Success Center, where I work with Student Learning Services to create and design improved study and tutoring programs for science students.

The resources available at Concordia and the wonderful support from both students and faculty have played a huge role in my academic success. I have built friendships and connections that will last a life time.

Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo (Department of History):

I am second-year MA History student. In my thesis, I explore the life and work of fin-de-siècle French literary critic, novelist, and traveller Thérèse (Th.) Bentzon, writing a history of her intellectual life across borders. Using Bentzon’s travelogues about the ‘condition of women’ in the United States and Canada as a starting point, I investigate the link between mobility, the development of feminism, and the making of a modern self in the nineteenth century. 

I came to history by way of journalism, having completed a BA in Journalism and German at Concordia. I was originally drawn to the Master’s program in History because of the groundbreaking work being done at the Center for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

That said, the History Department has given me the invaluable opportunity to explore my research interests in gender and women’s history, histories of empire, travel, global feminism, and autobiography and life writings. My supervisor, Dr. Barbara Lorenzkowski, grounds me in the historical craft while also encouraging me to forge links across disciplinary boundaries.

Prior to starting graduate studies, my time as a student journalist took me to Istanbul, where I reported on the Gezi Park protests in 2013, and to Munich, where I worked in communications and penned a travel blog in the summer of 2014. As an early-career scholar, I aim to combine the storytelling elements of journalism with the academic rigueur of a historian through her work.

I hope to pursue my PhD in History, looking at the comparative emergence of feminist ideologies in France and Britain in the nineteenth century, as of Fall 2017.