Graduate student profiles

Laurel Collins, INTD PhD candidate

As an interdisciplinary PhD candidate, I am in both the Sociology department, as well as the department of educational psychology and leadership studies. My research interests have been informed by my undergraduate work in classics and contemporary studies at Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College, and my master's in human security and peacebuilding from Royal Roads University. They have also been shaped by my work as a community educator and program coordinator in Victoria BC, my time as a professional performer and dance instructor, as well as my work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in northern Uganda. I am particularly interested in the theories and practices of violence and nonviolence; critical, feminist and popular adult education; social movement learning; participatory and arts-based methodologies; the role of the body, emotions and affect in adult education; and compassionate communication education.

Rebeccah Nelems, PhD Candidate

My research has been shaped by 15+ years of managing and evaluating human rights, children’s rights, international and community development programs.

During this time, I became fascinated with the social contexts, processes and experiences that influence change in people, institutions, communities and societies. I am particularly interested in understanding the factors that foster and/or inhibit empathy within and across communities – specifically amongst youth – assuming that empathy is both a capacity that can be developed, and a necessary condition for social engagement.

Related interests include: conceptualizations of the ‘other’ and how these intersect with definitions of self and community (whether by geographical, national, ethnic, class, race, sexuality, gender, ability, identity or other lines); participatory research methods that promote bottom-up accountability and participant or community voice; youth engagement; institutional ethnography; and the study of empathy as it pertains to Verstehen and the practice of interpretive sociology.

I am also interested in institutional change/capacity building and knowledge management. I come to the PhD program in sociology at UVic with a master's in social and political thought from York University and a bachelor's in honours in philosophy and literary studies from the University of Toronto.

Michael Lang, PhD Candidate

I am returning to the UVic Sociology department after earning an MA in 2013. My thesis assessed the growing involvement of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) in municipal water governance from a critical perspective, and I aim to expand on this work during my doctoral studies. At this stage I am most interested in the socio-ecological dimensions of water. Questions exploring how we choose to use water and why, and the benefits or contradictions that arise from such practices, inform my thinking and writing. More broadly, my academic and research interests include political economy and political ecology, theories of capitalism and society, critical pedagogy, and of course, water governance.

Manda Roddick, PhD Candidate

Manda Roddick is a doctoral student at the University of Victoria. After completing a year abroad at Queen’s International Study Centre in 2000, Manda attended the University of British Columbia for three years. She later returned to Queen’s and completed a bachelor's degree in geography in 2006 before commencing a master's program in sociology at the University of Victoria in 2008.

For her master's research, Manda conducted a case study with one of Canada’s largest NGOs - the World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC). The study specifically focused on WUSC’s six week International Seminar program. Manda collected empirical data in Canada through a series of longitudinal interviews and also had an opportunity to complete a point-in time study with several International Seminar participants while they were in Ghana. The analysis in the thesis focused on an in-depth examination of global citizenship and public engagement activities.

Over the past decade Manda has worked, studied, or volunteered in countries on three continents, and her passion for examining aspects of global poverty and social inequality continue to guide her work in her doctoral degree. In her dissertation, Manda will focus on the ways international development and global social inequalities are discussed in Canada by those that have volunteered abroad. Manda received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (www.vanier.gc.ca) in 2010 and is fortunate to have the generous support of SSHRC while completing her doctoral program.

Links

• The Ring article
• DevCase - International Development Case Studies (funded by WUSC and the IDRC)

LINDA OUTCALT, INTD PhD candidate

I am committed to an investigation of the deeply ingrained ageism in Canadian society that has far-reaching adverse affects – from individual interactions to long-term care policy. Specifically, the primary objectives of my research are to identify the perceptions of age and aging circulating in Western media and popular culture that promote ageism, with the hope of affecting change about attitudes towards aging in order to reduce an often internalized ageism that is largely tolerated in our society. These research goals will be achieved through the production of a collaborative video and an interactive website prototype that will include stores, photographs and videos about perceptions of age provided by the research co-contributors.

As an Interdisciplinary PhD candidate (Sociology & Theatre) my research interests have evolved out of an undergraduate degree in filmmaking, complimented by over 15 years of research and interviewing experience working on age-related research projects through the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health (formerly COAG) at UVic. In addition, I bring personal experience as well as academic knowledge to my exploration of ageism. As an older female graduate student I have witnessed first hand the destructive effects of ageism, while at the same time I have seen how personal experience and intergenerational contact can mitigate these negative effects.