People

Suzanne Chew

she / her

Suzanne Chew is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary. She researches inclusive participation and environmental decision-making, and is learning from Inuit communities in the western Canadian Arctic. She is passionate about storytelling, teaching, climate change, and mental health advocacy.

Suzanne has over 7 years’ experience working in the private and non-profit climate sector, previously serving as the Director at the non-profit Nexus, focused on low-carbon, poverty-alleviation programmes in Asia and Africa, and Regional Manager at TFS Green in London, focused on financing global low-carbon projects. Her project management experience includes household energy, water purification, small scale renewable energy, clean cooking solutions and waste-to-energy, efficient lighting, brick manufacturing, bio-energy from agricultural waste rice husk, run-of-river hydropower, and biogas recovery and utilisation.

Suzanne completed her undergraduate degree in Physics at Imperial College London, and has a Masters in Environmental Technology, majoring in Environmental Economics (MSc).

Research Interests: Public participation, Environmental decision-making, Place-making, Communication, Arctic studies, Indigenous governance, Critical social theory

Harrison Campbell

he / him

Harrison Campbell is a Doctor of Philosophy student at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. His area of scholarship explores the use of theatrical phenomenology in understanding secondary student experiences of literacy. His PhD research has been generously funded by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, through the Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS Doctoral), and The Killam Trusts through the Izaak Walton Killam Doctoral Memorial Scholarship.  

Research Interests: Drama Education, Literacy Education, Theatrical Phenomenology, Inventive Literacy Pedagogy

John Gabriel Cabayao

he / him

John Gabriel Cabayao is a second-year master's student in political science at the University of Calgary. His research broadly focuses on the comparative politics of Southeast Asia, with a strong focus on environmental politics, Indigenous peoples, and social movements. Currently, he is conducting a comparative study on Indigenous land claims and agrarian land reform in the Philippines. This study explores the relationship that Indigenous peoples and rural and peasant communities have with the postcolonial, developing state. 

He currently holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Bachelor of Sciences in plant biology from the University of Calgary (2019). 

Research Interests: Environmental politics, Southeast Asian comparative politics, Indigenous peoples, Rural and peasant communities, Social movements and democratisation

Apoorve Chokshi

he / him / his

Apoorve Chokshi is a third-year Doctor of Philosophy student in Educational Research (Learning Sciences specialization). He previously completed his B.Sc. (Ottawa) & M.Sc. (Calgary) in Computer Science. His research focus is creating anti-racist pathways in coding and computer science education.

A fun fact: Prior to COVID, I was looking forward to taking more beginner tap dance classes. I also enjoy playing tennis and soccer with my kids

Research Interests: Computer Science Education, Critical Phenomenology, Anti-Racism Research, Agent-Based Simulations, Human-Computer Interaction

Veronica Briseño-Castrejon

she / her

Veronica Briseño-Castrejon is a doctoral candidate in Environmental Design at the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at the University of Calgary. She holds a Master’s degree in Innovation, a BSc in Architecture (ITESM), and a Specialization in Epistemologies from the South (CLACSO). Her background includes professional work experience in architectural design, construction, and project management in both private and public sectors in Mexico.

She holds the Graduate Student Sustainability Award 2020 by the University of Calgary for her work as founder and participant in the non-profit organization Aula Verde in Mexico. Aula Verde convenes interdisciplinary groups to identify different sustainability problems in local communities and design activities that allow collaborative co-creation of solutions and positive socio, cultural and environmental impact.

Her doctoral research focuses on the Critical Environmental Design study of ancestral stingless beekeeping practices, landscapes, and dwellings with Maya people in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

Research Interests: Critical Environmental Design, Participatory Design for the Social Production of the Habitat, Vernacular Design, Political Ecology, Feminist Studies, Indigenous Studies, socio-environmental justice, Sustainability.

Cara Peacock

she / her

Cara Peacock is a second-year master's student in political science at the University of Calgary. Her research examines how Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies inform the theoretical and political base of Indigenous peoples’ decolonial resistance. She is particularly interested in how this political resistance forms a politics of “refusal”, which defies conventional, liberal models of “recognition”. She is specifically interested in answering how Indigenous social movements reject the dominant, settler-colonial structures and create alternative, decolonial politics that meaningfully challenge settler-colonial sovereignty and ultimately substantiate and empower Indigenous sovereignty.

She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, History, and Economics from The King's University (2019).

Research Interests: Indigenous politics, Political theory

Joyce Percel

Biography to be published

Jeremy Torio

Biography to be published

Kristal Turner

Biography to be published

Hector Turra

Biography to be published

Ana Watson

she / her

Ana Watson is a doctoral candidate in Geography at the University of Calgary (Canada) wherein she is a member of the Environmental Policy & Governance research group. She is originally from Peru and holds an MA degree in Environment and Development, and a BSc in Life Science. Her background includes more than 8 years as a biodiversity specialist with pastoralism and grassland ecology projects in the Andes, as well as biodiversity and ecosystem services action plans for energy projects in the Amazon. She was involved in research projects that identify the conditions that enable participatory environmental governance in Latin America. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the human dimensions of environmental conservation in Liquified Natural Gas operations in the Amazon. Her main objective is to support efforts that bridge transdisciplinary academic knowledge and decision-making to advance nature conservation and development efforts.

Research Interests: Biodiversity conservation and Indigenous rights, Environmental and territorial governance.

Ariane Wilson

she / her

Ariane Wilson is a second-year master's student in political science at the University of Calgary. Her research interests focus on Indigenous governance, identity, and membership in the Canadian context. More specifically, She is interested in unpacking the ways in which membership codes can be revitalised in an era of Indian Act governance. She plans on examining the political implications of moving away from colonially imposed criteria for determining band membership and the way that rejecting Indian Act governance enables the assertion of Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood.

She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Calgary (2020).

Research Interests: Indigenous politics

Shuyin Yu

Biography to be published

Roberta Rice

she / her

Roberta Rice is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Her research expertise is in Indigenous politics in Latin America. She is currently completing a comparative project on Indigenous rights and representation in Canada (Nunavut, Yukon) and Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador). Her latest project looks at Indigenous activism in response to Canadian extractive industry in Canada, Ecuador, and the Philippines.

She completed her PhD in political science at the University of New Mexico. She also holds a MA and BA in environmental studies at York University.

Research Interests: Indigenous politics, Latin American politics, Environmental politics, Indigenous movements, Protest and democracy, Identity politics, Civil society and collective action

Gabriela Alonso-Yanez

she / her

Gabriela Alonso-Yanez is an associate professor at the Werklund School of Education. Her research focuses on the processes of learning and education in the context of sustainability multi-sector partnerships. She is interested in understanding the factors and conditions that influence how teams produce integrated, action-oriented socioecological knowledge in networks that include knowledge keepers, local community members, and academics. Within this broader research programme, she currently pursues two strands of inquiry. 

The first one concerns methodological approaches to collective work. I am interested in exploring a wide range of resources, infrastructures, and methodologies designed to facilitate the synthesis, systematization, and analysis of varied types of data to stimulate advances in sustainability research including processing large qualitative datasets, including quantitative content analysis and situational analysis methods. 

The second strand of inquiry concerns a theoretical interest in the intersections between collective work, Sustainability Science, Critical Theory and Political Ecology. These intersections are key to elucidate and examine how questions about knowledge and knowing converge with issues of inequality, power and differentiated access to resources, legitimacy, and authority when approaching sustainability science problems.

Learn more about her work here: https://werklund.ucalgary.ca/gabriela-alonso-yanez 

Aruna Srivastava

she/her

Aruna Srivastava is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary, and is also affiliated with the International Indigenous Studies Program in the Faculty of Arts. Over her years at the University of Calgary, she has engaged in research and teaching in race, racism and anti-racism, decolonization, Indigenous peoples in global contexts, the politics of reconciliation, disability and chronic illness. She has worked particularly on pedagogies related to these fields.

She has been an advisor to the Faculty of Graduate Studies on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, focussing especially on Indigenous initiatives; is currently Equity Leader-in-Residence at the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and has worked in the Calgary community as an anti-racism educator and consultant.