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School of Child and Youth Care

SCYC Welcomes First PhD Cohort Since 2019

October 21, 2026

11 PhD students standing in front of the Transformation Pole outside the School of Child and Youth Care office.

This September, SCYC had the pleasure of welcoming a diverse group of eleven students to the university for a two-week intensive seminar. These students represent the first SCYC PhD cohort in seven years. During that time, our doctorate program underwent a major renewal process and was relaunched as the Doctor of Philosophy Program in Child, Youth, Family & Community Studies earlier this year.

The renewed program is designed to give graduates the skills and knowledge to uphold decolonial ethics, engage in interdisciplinary knowledge production, apply critical theory and scholarship, demonstrate change-driven leadership, and promote knowledge mobilization for social impact. One of the biggest changes to the program is that it is now offered in a primarily online format, with one on-campus seminar held in the fall term of the first year.

Students travelled from across the province, country and globe to gather on the University of Victoria campus. On the first day of the session, students were welcomed to the territory by Songhees Elder Terri Barnhard, and to the Faculty of Education and the School of Child and Youth Care by Associate Dean Kathy Sanford, SCYC Director Mandeep Kaur Mucina, and SCYC Graduate Advisor Shemine Gulamhusein. They also had a tour of campus and UVic Child Care. Students then embarked on full-day class sessions of their first two core courses.

Coursework focused on critical, interdisciplinary knowledge generation and research design and knowledge mobilization. Most importantly, the seminar was an opportunity for students to have in-person engagement with the content of their courses, their instructors, their academic supervisors, and their classmates, creating meaningful connections which will enrich their research throughout the program.

This story was originally featured in the Fall 2026 issue of our newsletter. View the full newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future issues of the newsletter here.