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

Starting off with discussing Queen’s first International Education Week and why this event was such a good match to Rubaiyat’s own research. The purpose of her study is to investigate the influence of first language (L1) and individual culture of multilingual international undergraduate students (MIUS) on their academic English language (L2) writing, and how best to support them to bec...

Laura’s research at Queen’s combines numerical modeling, remote sensing, and in-situ observational data to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the coastal nearshore environment especially during coastal storm events, such as hurricanes. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chap webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Stud ies website – https://www.queensu.c...

Canada has the highest prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world; 1 in 140 Canadians suffer from the disease. One of the most common and debilitating symptoms of IBD is abdominal pain. Traditionally, opioids are used to manage pain. While effective, they are accompanied by severe side effects (e.g., addiction and increased risk of death). Thus, there is an unmet need for safe and...

Homecoming and the importance of alumni connections, what an IDP can do to help you in your journey, our new professional development framework and why we wanted to change it. To find out what’s coming up next go to

When you see barriers to getting involved in field research, what do you do about it? Emily and Kristen share their passion that resulted in the formation of QOFEI (pronounced Coffee). To see upcoming Grad Chats go to – https://www.queensu.ca/sgs/grad-chat    

Overview:  My research topic is around the foreign body reaction (FBR) which describes a patient’s biological response to an implanted material or device, and includes tissue injury, blood-material interactions, provisional matrix formation, acute and chronic inflammation, and fibrous matrix deposition surrounding the implant. The inflammatory response to the implant can impair its performance and...

Overview:   I am interested in understanding how and why people walk the way they do. I leverage robotic exoskeletons to change people’s natural way of walking, and I investigate how they adapt to this new environment. I am also the manager of the Queen’s Ergonomics Consulting Program (QECP), and we conduct ergonomic assessments for Queen’s staff and faculty members. Recently, we conducted a surve...

“In response to ongoing and systemic Racism in both Canada and the United States, students within the Queen’s University Department of Public Health Sciences expressed interest in improving our understanding of Racist Policy in epidemiology and public health.  With this, we decided to form the Racial Considerations in Epidemiology (RaCE) Task Force, where we could meet to develop, share, and expre...

T opic:  What’s happening in Fall 2021! Overview:   Looking at professional development workshops, the new Individual Development Plan, Career Week and more

A look into Queen’s PHD-Community Initiative – Team United talks about their project titled “Resilient Kingston” Presented by Team United – Emma, Nancy, Skylar, Philip and mentor Jane

CJ the DJ talks to Kim Krezenozki from the School of Graduate Studies on a new initiative for grad students, the Summer Wellness Series.

Topic:  Wrap up for the Winter term  Overview:  Bloopers, wellness, technology, community. Listen in to find out how we have all fared over the past year and what’s install for summer.  Here about our students resiliency.

Topic:  How does a Resident in Anesthesiology fit in time to do a masters and what is the connection? Overview:   Daenis comes from a nursing background, is now an MD and doing his residency in Anesthesiology, it is no wonder he wants to contribute in other areas.  The MSc in Healthcare Quality, helps improve healthcare quality, risk and safety in Canada and worldwide.  Daenis explains how.

Topic:  Storytelling as Medicine: Autoethnography of a Two-Spirit Anishinaabe Nurse Practitioner. Overview:  Looking at decolonising health care practices, Zongwe’s research will explore the use of a ceremonial self-reflective practice to promote resilience and address compassion fatigue in nurses. Zongwe creates social change through storytelling in her podcast, “Under the Same Stars” and w...

Topic:  Queen’s Annual Northern Research Symposium. Overview:   What is the Northern Research Symposium and why it is important to all of us.  Learn more and how to participate on the  Symposium website

Topic: “ How does the coordination of your lower body change based on how high you jump?”. Overview:   By understanding the lower extremity coordination patterns that people use to jump to submaximal and maximal heights, my research can help further knowledge in how to train athletes to jump higher and how to help athletes recover following injury. If you are interested in finding out more a...

Topic: Understanding the lived experiences of spouses who are separated in long-term care facilities. . Overview:  The aim of my research is to explore the lived experiences of older adults who are separated from their partners in two separate long-term care facilities – specifically in relation to feelings of loneliness and isolation

Topic:  Women’s Representation in New Democracies: Underrepresentation of Ethnic Minority Women in Burmese Politics. Overview:   My research will investigate how political parties’ actions and attitudes contribute to this underrepresentation, particularly in regions with high concentrations of ethnic minorities.

Topic:  Zambian Political History. Overview:   I am studying the Chona Commission, a constitutional review commission that ushered in the era of the single party state in post colonial Zambia, 1972/3

Topic:  Racialized sexual attractions and sexual responses Overview:   I’m specifically interested in examining Black people’s sexual responses relative to white people’s.

Topic:  ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) in the Canadian energy sector Overview:   I am taking a deep dive into sustainability reporting for major Canadian energy companies to identify gaps and key areas that are material to their business, which may help to de-risk some of the social, political, and technological issues as well as public perception related to different types of energy develo...

Topic:  The Double Minority Dilemma and Conflict Settlement Negotiations in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. Overview:   My research outlines the theory of the Double Minority Dilemma (DMD) which argues that each community’s security dilemma is defined by their perception of their own minority status both domestically and in combination with the geopolitical environment of third-party actors, which se...

Topic:  Retinal Implants. Overview:   My research looks at ways to lower the cost of retinal implants for people with age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, two of the most common outer retinal degenerative problems and the predominant cause of most blind related diseases.

Topic:  Changing the landscape: A critical race informed narrative inquiry of a Canadian University told by racialized students.. Overview:   The proposed research study will use community based participatory research principle that prioritize racialized student experiences to design, conduct and assess a training resource to progress diversity , equity and inclusion from a state of awareness to a...

Topic:  The Galaxy Manifold: A statistical and systematic analysis of intrinsic galaxy properties. Overview:   I am exploring a multi-dimensional approach to galaxy modeling. Most traditional analysis is performed on correlations of two parameters at a time. I am developing a framework for examining trends in any number of parameters simultaneously. I use machine learning models and techniques to...