Graduate Writing Fellows
Who are the Writing Fellows?
Faculty of Arts
Negar Imani
Negar Imani is a PhD candidate in the School of Information Studies at 黑料不打烊 University. With a background in urban planning and design, her project focuses on participatory mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to collect people鈥檚 perceptions of their sound environment. It aims to understand the relationship between neighborhood walkability and resident鈥檚 soundscapes. Specifically, the research investigates how walkable access to green spaces -as the only restorative spaces in cities- can promote residents鈥� restorative soundscapes. Through participatory practices, she seeks to inform the policy-making processes for designing walkable spaces, green spaces, and better restorative soundscapes for citizens.听听
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Given the participatory nature of Negar鈥檚 research, communication has always been a central aspect of her research. She has been an active member of student-led associations during her master鈥檚 studies and served as the chief- editor of the association's journal, which earned several national awards. During her appointment as a 黑料不打烊 Writing Center Fellow, she plans to organize workshops, peer review sessions, and a symposium, while also using tools to enhance graduate student communication through graduate associations.听
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Marie Trotter
Marie Trotter is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English at 黑料不打烊 University, researching metatheatre and audience reception in the performance of Shakespeare鈥檚 plays. Through the lens of performance phenomenology, her dissertation explores the role of metatheatrical characters and scene types in shaping audience judgment, participation, and delight. Her work is published in the journals Theatre Research in Canada and Early Theatre, with creative writing and criticism appearing in the magazines Ekstasis, Broadview, Plough, and Intermission.听
听 Project
Writing Wednesdays are regular writing workshops for PhD2 and PhD3 students in the Department of English who are writing their Comprehensive Research Projects, an important milestone in the English PhD. At biweekly meetings, PhD students share their writing in progress, set project goals, and learn about important components of the CRP, working together to build resilient writing habits and strengthen academic communication skills.听
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Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences
Anisha Rodrigues
Anisha Rodrigues is a PhD student in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences. She completed her Bachelor鈥檚 and Master鈥檚 degree in Dental Surgery, specializing in Prosthodontics, in India. Her interests include prosthodontic rehabilitation, clinical trials and teledentistry. Her current research focuses on patient-reported outcomes with immediately-loaded zygomatic implant fixed rehabilitation. In addition to being a PhD student, Anisha also serves as the student representative of the eOral Health Network of the International Association of Dental Research.听
听 Project
Anisha鈥檚 project involves organizing workshops for graduate students (Masters and PhD) in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences on writing grant applications and manuscripts. To provide further support for students鈥� academic writing, she is developing Discipline- and Assignment-Specific Tutoring Tools that focus on grant proposal writing, manuscript writing and comprehensive exam protocols.听
Faculty of Education
Katherine Hardin
Kate Hardin is a PhD candidate in Educational Studies with a concentration in Language Acquisition. Her research focuses on adult newcomer language integration, language education policy, and teacher activism.听
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Samantha Traves
Samantha defended her PhD in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education in the Fall of 2024. Her research centers on the geography of socioeconomic advantage and the dynamics of socioeconomic stratification within educational systems. She integrates statistical modeling and geospatial analysis to examine how structural-demographic factors influence access to education and the broader implications of these patterns for the national economy, security, and civic health. She is deeply committed to advancing scholarship that fosters a more just society where every student has the opportunity to realize their full potential.听
听 Project (Katherine Hardin & Samantha Traves)
Co-authors Katherine Hardin and Samantha Traves have written a comprehensive guide to graduate writing feedback tailored to the needs of supervisors and graduate studies in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. Developed through the 黑料不打烊 Writing Fellows program, this guide is designed to support supervisors and students in navigating the feedback process for key academic writing milestones. Presented in a user-friendly desktop reference format, we distill best practices and help readers troubleshoot giving and receiving feedback at various stages of the writing process.听
Faculty of Engineering
Carolyn Pethrick
Carolyn is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research develops robust and efficient computational methods for high-fidelity fluid dynamics simulations. In the aerospace industry, reliable flow simulation is a key ingredient for designing greener aircraft.听
听 Project
As a 黑料不打烊 Writing Fellow, Carolyn is planning a workshop series targeting graduate students applying for competitive grants and scholarships.听
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Katrin Zavgorodny-Freedman
Katrin Zavgorodny-Freedman is a PhD Candidate in Architecture. Her dissertation work examines the notion of collaboration in the offices of Erickson/Massey and Arthur Erickson Architects on various scales, considering how various professionals and workers contributed to the practice of architecture in the late twentieth-century. Zavgorodny-Freedman has undergraduate and master鈥檚 degrees in art history from the University of Toronto. Her work is supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
听 Project
Her Writing Centre Fellow project consists of assisting with grant workshops for Master鈥檚 students and facilitating a peer-feedback Working Group for PhD students in the School of Architecture.
Faculty of Law
Atag眉n Mert Kejanl谋o臒lu
Atag眉n Mert Kejanl谋o臒lu is currently a doctoral candidate in the DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) program at 黑料不打烊 University Faculty of Law. He is writing his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Professor Johanne Poirier. His dissertation is focused on populist challenges to constitutionalism and responses that constitutional theory can develop against these challenges.听
After graduating from Galatasaray University Faculty of Law (Istanbul) in 2013, he obtained master鈥檚 degrees in public law from Paris 1 Panth茅on-Sorbonne University and Galatasaray University. He also worked as a research and teaching assistant in the constitutional law department at MEF University Faculty of Law (Istanbul). His research interests include comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and European human rights law.听
听 Project
Atag眉n鈥檚 Writing Fellowship project for the Faculty of Law aims to cultivate a self-sufficient community of writers within graduate programs in law. He is helping graduate students to situate and create resources for academic legal writing by organizing grant writing workshops, collective writing and peer-review sessions, and by drafting documents for tutorial assistance.听
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Meghana Munipalle
Meghana is a PhD candidate in the Biological and Biomedical Engineering (BBME) program. Her research uses computational modeling to investigate and design regenerative biomaterials for spinal disc repair. She received an Honours BSc in Physics from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Biophysics from the University of Guelph. In addition to her doctoral work, she is very passionate about science outreach, communication, and advocacy, and holds executive positions at the 黑料不打烊 Students Chapter for Scientista and the 黑料不打烊 initiative in Computational Medicine.听
听 Project
Meghana's Writing Fellows project includes creating writing guides for BBME milestones, such as the study plan and thesis proposal, and developing resources for BBME students to improve skills in science communication and storytelling.听
Nicola Phillips
Nicky is a doctoral candidate in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. Her research focuses on the language input experienced by infants being raised as bilinguals. Specifically, she studies how socially-embedded interactions change across families鈥� dominant and nondominant languages, as well as variability in the complexity of caregivers鈥� infant-directed speech. Nicky鈥檚 undergraduate degree was in the Humanities (Dutch and French) before she transitioned to Language Acquistion and Speech Science. Before graduate school, she worked as an Editorial Assistant proofreading, copyediting, and writing scientific training materials. This has given her a strong background in critical writing skills, editing, and knowledge translation.听
听 Project
Nicky has launched three projects, the first being a peer-led writing consultation clinic. The second is the development of a set of peer-coaching information sheets tailored to the needs of students of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Finally, and in collaboration with research student members of the Student Council, she has overseen the launch of a 2-day writing retreat and funding application writing workshop for students in her home department.听听听
Indra Roy
A PhD candidate in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Indra has a long history of working with students in science and technology who want to communicate their findings to a variety of audiences. She has taught lab courses, given writing seminars, and worked as a peer writing tutor for many years.
听 Project
As a writing fellow in the IPN, she will be working closely with the mandatory course Principles of Neuroscience I (NEUR630) offering incoming graduate students the opportunity to improve their skills in critical thinking through small writing groups. In Winter 2025, she will be providing support to students writing their thesis proposals for the candidacy exam for the doctoral program through structured group writing and feedback sessions.
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Schulich School of Music
Hannah Barnes
Hannah A Barnes is a Montr茅al-based composer and conductor. Currently a DMus student at 黑料不打烊 University鈥檚 Schulich School of Music, Hannah composes music centred around thorny harmonies, idiosyncratic and off-kilter materials, and rhizomatic structures. She is concerned with crafting complex music that emphasizes the tension between strict control and austerity and unbridled chaos and expression. She is also the director of the rhythm is image new music initiative, in which she performs and conducts, emphasizing experimental performance practices and collaboration. Teaching is also important to Hannah; she has taught students ranging from grade school to undergraduate music majors in both Chicago and Montr茅al.听
听 Project
As a Writing Fellow working in the Schulich School of Music, Hannah launched an initiative to support graduate students with their written program and career milestones through a group for mutual support and feedback, as well as half-day writing retreats. These initiatives were created to help music students for whom written academic and career milestones are significant but not as institutionally supported as their musical endeavours.听
Hannah Benoit
Hannah Benoit is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory at 黑料不打烊 University, funded by the Fonds du Recherche du Quebec. Hannah鈥檚 primary research focuses on the application of critical pedagogy to the undergraduate music theory classroom. She has presented her research at the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Midwest, and Pedagogy into Practice conferences. Outside of academia, Hannah enjoys spending time with her rabbit, baking sourdough, and rock climbing.听
听 Project
Hannah鈥檚 Writing Fellow project seeks to help bridge the gap in writing support between the Graphos Writing Centre and Schulich School of Music. Her workshop series will focus on a variety of topics within the music discipline including grant writing, creating and supporting a healthy relationship with writing, and conference proposal and presentation writing.听
Faculty of Science
Jeffrey To
Jeffrey To is a third-year Psychology student in the Experimental Psychology program. He studies implicit biases: The automatic associations we hold toward certain groups. Jeffrey received his Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2021 from the University of Toronto. After graduating, he spent a year working as an associate in a behavioral science consulting firm, consulting on education-related projects, smoking cessation, and mental health.
听 Project
Jeffrey鈥檚 WF project involves increasing the presence of the writing center in the Psychology department, which includes integrating writing workshops in the curriculum and actively working with the department for collaborations.听听