Affiliated Graduate Alumni News

Welcome to news from Canadian Studies Affiliated Graduate Students of the Center. Our students have gone on to become experts in their fields and to contribute to a greater understanding of Canada in the United States. We hope you enjoy their stories.

Affiliated Grad Alumni
2011-2012 Graduates 
2010-2011 Graduates
2009-2010 Graduates
2008-2009 Graduates
2007-2008 Graduates
2006-2007 Graduates
2005-2006 Graduates
Alumni News 

2011–2012 Graduates

Christopher Herbert

Christopher Herbert
History, Winter 2013
University of Washington
Christopher studies the linkages of race and gender between Canada and the United States. Specifically, his dissertation, "White Power, Yellow Gold: Colonialism and Identity in the California and British Columbia Gold Rushes, 1848 – 1871," focuses on white manliness, how it was created, understood, and acted upon, in the California and British Columbia gold rushes. He was a Visiting Professor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the History Department at Columbia Based College in Pasco. 
Chair: John Findlay 
Last Updated: June 2013

2010–2011 Graduates

    

Xiaozhi (Jeff) Cao
PhD in Forest Resources, Winter 2011
Jeff is now a research associaite in the Asian Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (AIEES) at Seoul National University. 
Last Updated: May 2012 

Mihyun Seol
PhD in Forest Resources, Summer 2011 
Mihyun working at the Korea Forest Research Institute as research scientist in Forest Carbon Policy in the Center for Forest and Climate Change, Korea Forest Research Institute. 
Last Updated: May 2012 
 

Tania Elliot
MBA, Spring 2011 
Last Updated: May 2012
 

Melanie Beckwith
Law, Spring 2011
Last Updated: May 2012

Jennifer Leider
Public Affairs, Spring 2011
Last Updated: May 2012

2009–2010 Graduates

Marci Brajcich

Marci Brajcich

Social Work, December 2009
Marci received a master’s degree in Social Work and did her practicum with the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a Canadian organization that helps ease the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa by funding over 100 community level initiatives that provide care and support to women, orphans, grandmothers and associations of people living with HIV and AIDS in 14 countries. I am currently working as a care coordinator in community health as part of the Washington State Mental Health Integration Project.
Updated July 2010
  Lisa Connell
French and Italian Studies, July 2010
Pedagogically Speaking: Francophone Women's Autobiography and the Learning Subject
Lisa defended her dissertation in July, and is now working as an Assistant Professor of French at the University of West Georgia.
Chair: Richard Watts
Updated August 2010
Ann Huang

Ann Huang
Co-leader of the 2010 MBA Canada Study Tour and UW recipient of the 2009 Ottawa MBA Leadership Institute, Ottawa.
Updated May 2010
Erin Maloney

Erin Maloney

Ethnomusicology, June 2010 (2008–09 FLAS Fellow)
Nationalism and the Celtic revival in Québec and the Maritimes
As an ethnomusicologist, Erin's interests lie primarily with the impact of music on cultural identity, national identity, and politics.
Morna McEachern

Morna McEachern

Social Work, June 2010
Is Knowledge Power?: A Textual, Historical and Practical Study of 'Sex Ed' Policy and 'Teen Pregnancy' in Canada and the United States
Morna's doctoral research focused on the history of North American educational policies for underserved youth, particularly pregnant and parenting teens. Her committee included Susan P. Kemp and Michael Prince, University of Victoria.
Meharpratap Singh

Meharpratap Singh

Business, March 2010
Meharpratap Singh was the co-chair of the 2009 Study Canada Tour. He is interested in international trade and business development.
Kelly Voss

Kelly Voss
International Studies, June 2010
Foster School of Business, 2009
Kelly wrote her thesis on the History of Coffee in Korea. The chair of her department is Dr. Clark Sorensen. She will most likely stay at Starbucks corporate after graduation. Right now she is currently in international marketing.
Updated May 2010
Robbert Zamitis

Robbert Zamitis

Business, March 2010
Robbert received an MBA and was a co-chair for the 2009 Canada Study Tour. He is interested in pursuing cross-border trade and international market development.

2008–2009 Graduates

Susan Albrecht

Susan Albrecht
 MA, Civil and Environmental Engineering, June 2009
Advisor, Anne Goodchild
Susan has a master’s degree in Policy Studies and graduate certificates in Global Trade, Transportation and Logistics Studies and Environmental Management, Program on the Environment. She completed a second master’s in International Studies. She was a research assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering where she worked with Professor Anne Goodchild researching transportation logistics at the Canada-US border and the Port of Prince Rupert.
Updated September 2009
Lillian Benjamin Lillian Benjamin
Lillian, a 2006–07 FLAS Fellow, recently completed her Master of Public Health and Master of Arts in International Studies. She is currently working in Gabon with a hospital's Community Health Outreach Program.
Updated September 2008
Li Leung

Li Leung

MA, Civil and Environmental Engineering, August 2009
Advisor, Anne Goodchild
Li was a master’s student working under the supervision of Anne Goodchild in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Transportation Engineering. Her thesis is entitled, "Statistical Analysis of Commercial Vehicle Border Crossing Times and Volumes: Case Study of the Pacific Highway Port-of-Entry Free And Secure Trade Lane.”
Updated October 2009
 

John Norton

MA, Geography, 2009 (2007–08 FLAS Fellow)
I graduated from the UW Geography dept. in 2009 with an MA after writing a thesis about the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway in Québec, Ontario, and New York.
Updated July 2010
Timothy Randall

Timothy Randall

Business, March 2009
Timothy co-chaired the 2008 Canada Study Tour and has a strong interest in international business. Tim currently works as a full-time engineer at Boeing.
Jonathan Santiago

Jonathan Santiago

Public Health and Community Medicine, August 2009 (2008–09 FLAS Fellow)
Jonathan's research has been in migrant health, investigating health disparities among Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. Migrating for political and economic factors, Haitian migration experiences from Haiti to Canada differ sharply from that of Haiti to the Dominican Republic. Drawing upon his previous research with Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican Republic, Jonathan explored health disparities between immigrant and second generation Haitian residents in francophone Canada, home to one of the largest populations of Haitians outside the Caribbean.

2007–2008 Graduates

Cody Case Cody Case
MA, Ethnomusicology, 2008 (2006–2008 FLAS Fellow)
Cody is currently on a Fulbright Scholarship doing research on popular music in Tunisia, in addition to organizing an alternative music education project for children in disadvantaged schools in Tunis.
Chair: Ter Ellingson
Updated August 2010
Natalie Debray Natalie Debray
Lecturer, Department of Communication
University of Washington
PhD, Communication, 2008
Natalie was just appointed as a full time Lecturer with the Department of Communication where she will teach six courses in 2008-09 that will include Canadian and Québec content.
Chair: Tony Chan
Updated July 2008
Kate Dunsmore Kate Dunsmore
Assistant Professor, Communication
Fairleigh Dickinson University
PhD, Communication, 2008
Kate was appointed to a tenure-track position at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey where she is teaching international and intercultural communication, using lots of Canadian cases. Next up—a project studying public discourse in the late 1700s to early 1800s!
Chair: Nancy Rivenburgh
Updated July 2010 
Tim Pasch Timothy Pasch
Timothy completed his dissertation, Inuktitut Online in Nunavik: Mixed Methods Web-Based Strategies for Preserving Aboriginal and Minority Languages, in August of 2008, and his dissertation was accepted by the Graduate School on September 24! He holds the first-ever FLAS fellowship for Inuktitut in the country and has received FLAS fellowships every year since 2005.
Updated September 2008
Karen Rosenberg Karen Rosenberg
Women Studies, 2008
Alternative Justice Models in Canada and the United States: The Case of Family Violence
Chair, Judy Howard
Karen received her Ph.D. in Women Studies in 2008. Her dissertation examined responses to violence against women in Canada and the United States. This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian government. Karen directs the Writing Center at UW Bothell. Her profile is at http://www.uwb.edu/writingcenter/about/karen
Updated August 2010
 

Lee Traynham

Civil Engineering, December 2007 (2006-07 FLAS Fellow)
Impacts of Future Climate Conditions and Forecasted Population Growth on Water Supply Systems in the Puget Sound Region

2006–2007 Graduates

Graeme Bushey Graeme Boushey
Assistant Professor, Political Science
San Francisco State University
PhD, Political Science, 2007
Graeme, a 2002-03 FLAS Fellow, is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University where he incorporates some Canadian content into his teaching and research on comparative political systems.
Updated July 2008
Tema Milstein Tema Milstein
Assistant Professor, Communication and Journalism
University of New Mexico
PhD, Communication, 2007 (Chair, Gerry Philipsen)
Tema Milstein is Assistant Professor of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico.
Updated June 2007
Maria Fannin Maria Fannin
Lecturer, School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
PhD, Geography, 2006 (Chair, K. England)
Maria, a 2002-03 FLAS Fellow, is currently a Lecturer in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.
Updated Winter 2006

2005–2006 Graduates

Devon Leger Devon Léger
MA, Ethnomusicology, 2005
Devon Léger directs Hearth Music, a Seattle-based arts promotion organization. He produces concerts of Canadian music, promotes Canadian musicians to American media (and vice versa), and generally works to highlight Canadian and French-Canadian culture in the Pacific Northwest. In 2007 Devon created the Canadian Traditional Music Collection for the Center.
Updated July 2010
Erich Steinman Erich Steinman
Assistant Professor, Sociology
Pitzer College
PhD, Sociology, 2005
Steinman is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, Claremont, CA.
Erich examines indigenous movements, rights and identity in North America, and especially contemporary decolonization. In both teaching and research regarding these topics, and more generally dynamics of evolving relationships between Indigenous Nations and settlers, he utilizes comparisons between United States and Canadian contexts. He is also involved in efforts to establish a relationship between Pitzer College, which engages in community-based partnerships with Southern California Indian Nations, and the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria, a leader in such pedagogy and partnerships.
Updated July 2010

Alumni News
 

Canadian Studies Alum, Kate Dunsmore (2008), Reports from Fairleigh Dickinson University

 

Kate Dunsmore


Kate Dunsmore (2008) received her Ph.D. in Communication and is now an assistant professor of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Her doctoral thesis is entitled, Mediating Alliance: The Role of the Press in Sustaining Reciprocity in the US-Canada Relationship. In summer 2010 Kate spent a week in Ottawa visiting the National Press Gallery and Libraries and Archives Canada. She saw firsthand how the Press Gallery currently functions and the ways it is adapting to Internet-enabled communications. At Libraries and Archives Canada she began exploring newspapers from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is part of a new project examining the roots of current news frames in coverage of the US-Canada relationship. In April 2011, Kate was at the University of Montreal for the 13th Annual Conference of the International Association for Dialogue Analysis.

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Timothy Pasch, Communication

Tim Pasch with his Inuk grandfather from the Inuit region of Nunavik, Québec.

The assistance of the Canadian Studies Center was completely invaluable in the successful completion of my Graduate Program. As my research focuses on the Canadian Arctic, travel to the area was integral to conducting fieldwork and collecting data about social networking among the Inuit. When beginning this project, I had very little knowledge of the language of Inuktitut and very few contacts among the Inuit and the Canadian government. Thanks to several Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships awarded through the Center, I was offered the singular opportunity to study Inuktitut and prepare for extended fieldwork in the North. Having knowledge of the language was doubtless the single most important aspect of my communicative and cultural journey North: speaking Inuktitut opened doors of friendship and research opportunity that would have been otherwise inaccessible. A Canadian Embassy Graduate Fellowship enabled payment for the flights up to the Tundra: especially important considering that these flights are some of the most expensive in the world. Meetings with the Avataq Inuit Cultural Attachés in Ottawa, members of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and even interviews with Inuit mayors: so many of these experiences and opportunities were facilitated by the Canadian Studies Center here at the University of Washington in general, and by the tireless and stellar assistance of Associate Director, Nadine Fabbi in particular.

After the unforgettable experiences living with an Inuit family and conducting a survey in Inukjuaq, the Center continued its support of my efforts in analyzing the data and preparing the manuscript. Many drafts of the writing were proofed by the Center and committee and numerous suggestions were offered, ensuring that the information written corresponded with the latest Canadian research and development.

My dissertation was successfully defended in August, and over the past two months I have been working with professional editors ensuring the best possible document. I am humbled and exhilarated to report that my dissertation was officially accepted by the Graduate School of the University of Washington this past Wednesday, September 24 at 2:00 pm. I would like to thank Nadine Fabbi and Program Chair of Canadian Studies, Daniel Hart, for their unflagging support of this extended and ambitious project: without their help none of it would have been possible. I would also like to thank my Advisor Professor Anthony Chan, Communication (and Affiliated Faculty of Canadian Studies), now Associate Dean of the Department of Communication at the University of Ontatio Institute of Technology, who participated in the Doctoral Defense via teleconferencing - with facilities that were made available through a Center grant.

The past four years have been a deeply important personal and professional journey for me, and I would like to thank the Department of Communication, and the Canadian Studies Center, for their unflagging support of my efforts. The feeling upon having the manuscript accepted was indescribable and I am deeply grateful for all those who have supported me during this endeavor. Mille fois merci- Nakurmiik!

Timothy Pasch
 
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Kate Dunsmore Awarded for Dissertation
 

Katherine DunsmoreKate Dunsmore was selected by the Distinguished Dissertation Committee, Association of Canadian Studies in the US, as the recipient of this year’s biennial award for her thesis, Mediating alliance: The role of the press in sustaining reciprocity in the US-Canada relationship. Kate’s dissertation utilized the US-Canada relationship as an exemplar of international alliance.
This study demonstrated the active role of the press in both countries in sustaining the essential quality of reciprocity in the relationship. Most notably, in multiple cases, the press was found to pass up opportunities for their preferred simple, conflict-oriented news framing in favor of coverage supportive of bilateral understanding and cohesion.

Kate received her doctorate from the Department of Communication in December 2008. She was appointed to a tenure-track position at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the Department of Communication Studies last year.

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Alum Builds Canadian Studies in New Jersey

Kate Dunsmore
Kate Dunsmore received her doctorate from the Department of Communication in December 2008. She was appointed to a tenure-track position at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the Department of Communication Studies.

This area of New Jersey fully lives up to the state's nickname - Garden State. The tree-lined roads and traditional architecture make this a charming place to live. The Olmstead-designed former estate of Florence Vanderbilt and Hamilton Twombley, the Fairleigh Dickinson University Florham campus is beautiful.

My area of particular responsibility is international and intercultural communication. I was able to integrate Canadian material in my graduate class on globalization and intercultural communication. This semester I am bringing in many examples of Canadian multiculturalism in my global communication undergraduate course. One of my students has chosen Canada for his geographic focus area, because he wants to know more about Canada than just hockey. Another is focusing on the circumpolar region. For her first project, she explored perspectives from Russia, Nunavut and Nunavik.

The Canadian Studies community in this area is very small, but by using the approach the UW Canadian Studies Center has taken, I hope to develop ties between scholars who may now be isolated. For example, I will integrate Canadian examples into guest lectures, raising the profile of Canadian Studies among students and faculty in other departments.

Currently I am developing would have a study-abroad component that would bring Florham campus students to Vancouver, British Columbia for a week or two. Fairleigh Dickinson has a Vancouver campus so is a natural place for cross-border collaboration. The course would explore intercultural communication in the case of US-Canada relations. I hope to introduce students firsthand to the impact of official bilingualism and the different status accorded First Nations, Métis and Inuit Canadians.

I am also looking forward to activities with the Middle Atlantic and New England Council for Canadian Studies as a way to work toward regional collaboration.

I hope to see many of you at ACSUS and other conferences!

Kate Dunsmore’s research at the UW was supported, in part, by funding from a Canadian Studies Center Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

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Canadian Studies Center
University of Washington
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