Grad Chat - Queen's School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs

This week’s show is hosted by Suyin the DJ Bear. Suyin the DJ Bear interviews CJ the DJ, Colette Steer, and KM on the FM, Katie-Marie McNeill, about Grad Chat’s history and future. As you may have heard, CJ the DJ is retiring from her role at Queen’s University, and she has passed hosting duties of Grad Chat to her colleague KM on the FM. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on...

A social choice represents the collective decision of the individuals based on their preferences over the alternatives. There are societal services operated by governmental or non-governmental organizations which implement a social choice model. For example, the allocation of shelters to homeless individuals considers both the preferences of homeless individuals and the shelters. However, the pref...

With Canada’s aging population and rising immigration rates, this research explores the unique transportation challenges faced by older adult women—both local-born and immigrants—in mid-sized Canadian cities. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website.

Nithikaa looks at the effect of the Parent-Administered Sensorimotor Intervention (PASI) on the developmental outcomes in infants born preterm at 18 months of age and to determine the long-term impact of this program. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website.

Nikta’s research for my dissertation, titled “Queer Remembering: Fractured Memory and Haunted Futures in Contemporary Novels of the Black Diaspora,” focuses on the contemporary re-imagining of archiving Black pasts and futures in Afrofuturist, diasporic, fantasy novels. The authors and texts that I examine refuse the fluidity of time and truth, opting for fantastical representations of space...

Danielle studies triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive breast cancer subtype associated with poor survival. Unlike other subtypes for which there are targeted therapies, treatment options for TNBC are limited. In order to better understand the biology underlying TNBC, she studies a family of proteins called calpains. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen&#8...

The Arctic is host to cold, hypersaline, perennial springs that flow through 600m of permafrost.  I studied 44 samples from cores, sediments, filtrates and microbial mats from these springs. Surficial life at these springs has been studied for decades, but this is the first investigation that looks at the deep subsurface life. This is of interest as a Mars analogue site for deep subsurface life on...

Canadian provincial education systems play a vital role in developing the social and academic interests of youth who, typically, spend over thirty hours in classrooms per week. Yet, significant consistency in terms of provincial guidelines and teacher booklists restrict these classrooms’ approaches to diverse literary content. The lack of both diverse content and representative teachers can skew o...

Alyssa’s research focuses on nuances in observer perceptions and treatment of tattooed colleagues based on tattoo content. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website.

Lara is looking at Canadian documentary film through both a contemporary and historical lens, as well as the limits of radical pedagogy and activism. Some of the themes that interest her include environmental racism, Indigenous sovereignty and food security. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs web...

My research focuses on looking at black holes. Some black holes are so energetic, that they tear up the bright hot matter spinning around them and funnel it into jets shooting out their top and bottom. And once in a while, we luck out and a few black holes are oriented so that the jets are pointed straight towards the earth! We call these kinds of black holes Blazars, and it’s my job to look at th...

This research explores the interplay of social and political imaginaries in Mexico, both secular and religious, during the twentieth century. It uses archival research and discourse analysis to examine how liberal and revolutionary political leaders and various Catholic groups have interacted, how they have handled their contradictions, how their relationships and imaginaries have evolved, and wha...

Machine learning is very popular nowadays for solving problems in many fields, including wireless networks such as 5G networks that we use to make calls and connect to the internet using our phones. Next-generation wireless networks (NGWNs), such as 6G networks, will include more diverse devices and applications that make them more complex to control, even using machine learning approaches. In my...

Between 5-10% of breast and 20-25% of ovarian cancers are inherited. The majority of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer cases are caused by deleterious mutations (variants) in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which normally prevent cancer through protecting and repairing our DNA. Genetic testing is used to identify pathogenic BRCA carriers who would subsequently benefit from personalized screening, pr...

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a significant complication linked to uncontrolled inflammation, which not only causes immediate distress but also heightens risks in future pregnancies. It is hypothesized that inflammation during pregnancy induces long-term changes in maternal immune cells, altering their responses in subsequent pregnancies and increasing complications. For upcoming interviews ch...

This session talks about the PhD-Community Initiative program at Queen’s University and one of the projects with a community partner (KFL&A Public Health) to provide a Program Evaluation of the Efforts to Prevent Invasive Meningococcal Disease in Kingston. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Aff...

Rooted in Victorian England as a response to a number of social and religious factors, Muscular Christianity is a set of beliefs that revolves around contact sports, the physicality of the male body, and a return to a “traditional” masculinity (a term always fraught), much writing has been done on Muscular Christianity in it’s heyday during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. What my research...

Zebra mussels are some of the most high profile and impactful invasive species in Canada, and have transformed the Great Lakes watershed in the past three decades. Voracious feeders that consume all algae, they have clarified our lakes, caked our beaches with their sharp shells, and denied other species precious food. Interactions between zebra mussels and algal blooms, another notorious nuisance,...

A look at what graduate events are coming up in 2025 from GRADflix to the Three Minute Thesis. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website – https://www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc/research/share/grad-chat

Reflecting on this years interviews. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website – https://www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc/research/share/grad-chat

Triphenyl phosphate is used as a flame retardant and plasticizer in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products in Canada. TPhP is also an environmental pollutant found in air, water and soil. TPhP has been shown to act as an Endocrine Disrupting Chemical, meaning it interferes with normal hormonal signalling. I’m investigating how epigenetic modifications may lead to changes in hormo...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an immune disorder leading to chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. It affects 0.8% of the Canadian population with a recent increased prevalence in the pediatric population. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs website – https://www.queensu.c...

Hemophilia A (HA) is an X-linked bleeding disorder caused by a mutation in the factor 8 (F8) gene that codes for FVIII coagulation protein. FVIII is naturally synthesized in the liver and the mutation results in the loss of function of FVIII protein which is critical in the blood clotting cascades. HA occurs is 1 to 5000 male births and it is estimated that there are a total of 3000 patients with...

Although tech platform companies often claim in their advertisements and public relations efforts that they represent the public interest, as private companies, their primary goal is to maximize their own profits. Equating private interests with public interests not only overlooks the issues arising from the increasingly blurred lines between the two but also worsens the damage that conflicts of i...

The Queen’s chapter and why be part of the American Chemical Society will be hosting the “Celebrating the Late Dr. Alfred R. Bader: A 100th Birthday Symposium” on Monday, November 18th, 2024. This interviews highlights the work of Dr Bader and how Queen’s will showcase his love for chemistry and the arts.  To round it off we delve a little bit into Max’s own research- Combining Q...