Past Members

 I am currently completing my thesis in the Master of Arts in Social and Cultural Anthropology program. My research interests stem from my non-profit work experience in British Columbia at a transition house that provides services to women and children who are fleeing abuse. British Columbia transition houses give an impression that a neoliberal government is trying to ameliorate violence against women. However, my research apprehends how the infrastructure of a “safe place” (house) rearticulates settler-state power through its policies, protocols and paperwork that co-terminously creates and monitors subjects who bolster the neoliberal class divide.

John is a production assistant at Best, C. Podcast and is currently in the Sociology masters program. He is also a Muay Thai coach and amateur Muay Thai world champion researching combat sports participation as his thesis.

Nora T. Lamontagne is a Master’s student in Media Studies, under the supervision of Dr. Kim Sawchuk. Her research revolves around older adults’ negotiation of technologies in a context where the recent and the brand new, traditions and heritage co-exist. At the Ethnography Lab, she studies kombucha and its makers.

During her time at Concordia, Tristan Biehn has worked with burlesque performers, environmental educators, and business students turned hippies. She’s interested in the ways that people try to improve the world, whether that be through performances of feminist sexual agency, or attempts to instill people with a love of nature, or to build a self-sustainable community. She is currently completing an MA in Cultural Anthropology, studying hope and social change via utopian studies and feminist political economy.

Bio coming soon

Vjosana Shkurti is a filmmaker based in Montreal, Canada. Born in Albania and raised in Greece, she explores aspects of origin, memory and human relationship with technology. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals around the world: the Propeller Center for the Visual Arts in Toronto, the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York, the Independent Days Filmfest International (IDIF) in Germany, the Festival du Film Étudiant de Québec (FFEQ) in Quebec City, the Montreal World Film Festival, the Patmos International Film Festival in Greece and the Balneário Camboriú International Film Festival, in Brazil. In 2017, Vjosana received the highest award from Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University for outstanding achievement in film production.

For more info: vjosana.com

Shoshana is a Ph.D. student in the Social and Cultural Analysis program at Concordia University. Her doctoral research currently focuses on equality legislation, and how unconscious bias can affect its writing and implementation especially in cases where the rights of protected classes, such as a person’s sexuality or religion, come into conflict. She is also interested in individual and collective human rights, and the differences in how society understands and protects those rights. Shoshana has a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland OR, and an M.A. in Gender, Sexuality and Culture from the University of Manchester in England where her M.A. dissertation explored the social impact of the U.K.’s same-sex marriage law.