Concordia doctoral researchers awarded Vanier Graduate Scholarships
Three Concordia PhD researchers have been selected this year for Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. Jiami Yang, Lauren Laframboise and Francesco MacAllister-Caruso will each receive the three-year awards, valued at $50,000 annually.
Launched by the Government of Canada in 2008, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program aims to position the country as a centre of global excellence in graduate research. Each year, the program recognizes select PhD researchers from around the world for their significant contributions to the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, engineering or health.
Meet the winners, discover their research
Jiami Yang
Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Supervisor: Yong Zeng, professor
“Unearthing Human Behaviour Patterns from Textual Data for Sustainable Product Design”
Jiami Yang’s research focuses on linking sustainable product design with human behaviour by developing advanced AI algorithms to analyze patterns from natural language texts. Yang uses frameworks like TASKS, ROM and EBD in their work to promote environmentally responsible product use through better design. The 2024–28 project aims to develop tools to help designers create products that promote sustainable behaviours, potentially redefining the role of products in fostering sustainability.
Lauren Laframboise
Department of History
Supervisor: Steven High, professor
“The Gendered Pathways of Decline: Lived Experiences of Deindustrialization in Montreal and New York’s Garment Industries”
Over the past 60 years, the North American economy has shifted dramatically, leading to widespread job losses in manufacturing due to increased imports, globalization and new technologies. Deindustrialization has significantly affected industries like steel, auto, electronics and textiles; in Montreal alone, roughly 27,000 clothing manufacturing jobs were lost in between 1976 and 1996.
Lauren Laframboise’s PhD project examines how women and immigrant workers, particularly those in Montreal and New York City, experienced and resisted these changes, focusing on strikes and the role of unions during this period of decline.
Francesco MacAllister-Caruso
Department of Political Science
Supervisor: Kimberley Manning, professor
“Democracy Beyond the Binary: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Political Representation of Two-Spirit, Trans, and Nonbinary People in Canadian Federal and Provincial Legislative Elections”
Since 1979, over 40 out lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) people have been elected to office in Canada. By comparison, only five out Two-Spirit, transgender or nonbinary (2S/TNB) people have been elected since 2015. Research on gender and sexual minorities in Canadian politics often lumps all these identities together under the LGBTQ initialism, overlooking the distinct needs and experiences of 2S/TNB individuals.
Francesco MacAllister-Caruso’s study aims to fill this research gap by exploring how 2S/TNB political representation compares to that of LGBQ people, examining the policies each group promotes, how they are perceived by their communities and how their demographics match their electorate.
Discover more graduate funding opportunities from Concordia’s School of Graduate Studies.
