Earning a doctoral degree is a testament to an individual's academic commitment and perseverance. It is a journey marked by countless hours attending seminars, conducting research, teaching courses, and dissertation writing. Each step taken by our PhD students reflects their dedication and intellectual rigour.
This year's cohort from the Faculty of Arts has proved that the essence of doctoral research is in its social impact; their work is an embodiment of the valuable knowledge they have acquired and their potential to effect meaningful societal change. The Faculty of Arts is proud to have supported these students and is eager to witness the positive impact they will make.
Please join us in congratulating the 2023 cohort of the Faculty of Arts on this monumental accomplishment. Their journey has been inspiring, and we look forward to their continued success in the years to come.Â
Met our 2023 PhD graduates
Jesse Abbott
Department:
History
Thesis:Ìý
Exploring the role of alcohol consumption in shaping masculine identities within the British army in the Canadas during the early 19th century.
Sarah Basco
Department:
Psychology
Thesis:Ìý
Investigating children's ability to detect and repair miscommunications in response to nonverbal cues.
Elizabeth Brey
Department:
English
Thesis:Ìý
Arguing that the layers of "voices" in games influence player interpretation and identifying how its narrative and representational elements can inadvertently uphold white supremacy while silencing potential anti-racist perspectives.
Kevin Capobianco
Department: Psychology
Thesis:Ìý
Addressing the need for a reliable method to evaluate case conceptualization quality in psychotherapy to advance understanding of treatment outcomes.
Evan Cater
Department:
History
Thesis:Ìý
Analyzing the British Labour Party's ideological split between idealism and pragmatism in countering fascism, and the shift from war resistance to collective security and rearmament.Â
Sushma Dusowoth
Department:
French
Studies
Thesis:Ìý
Addressing female submission and the desire for agency in the island societies of Mauritius and the Comoros Archipelago.
Rochelle Evans
Department:
Psychology
Thesis:Ìý
Investigating how individual traits and situational contexts affect people's perceptions of followers and identifying common follower prototypes based on factors such as work experience and socio-demographic background.
Monique Kampherm
Department: English
Thesis:Ìý
Analyzing the effect of social media on political leaders’ debates and revealing the rhetorical influence social media has on political parties, political leaders, and voters.
Jennifer Kandjii
Department:
Global
Governance
Thesis:Ìý
Exploring how the state, citizens, civil society, refugees, and the media all intersect to shape refugee experiences in urban centers in South Africa.
Yixuan Li
Department:
Economics
Thesis:Ìý
Introducing a novel definition of concentration in portfolio investment and establishing a risk threshold where diversification and concentration strategies align.Â
Artur Lukaszczyk
Department:
Philosophy
Thesis:Ìý
Critiquing the current lack of international laws and the insufficiency of extending traditional armed conflict laws to the cyber domain.
Tommy Mayberry
Department:
English
Thesis:Ìý
Demonstrating the potential of academic drag to disrupt conventional academic norms and to create a more inclusive scholarly space.
Robert Morton
Department:
English
Thesis:Ìý
Demonstrating how the Slender Man phenomenon uses digital media to merge horror aesthetics with internet trolling and often leads to serious real-world consequences.
Katharine Patterson
Department:
Accounting
and
Finance
Thesis:Ìý
Examining how peer calibration committees (PCCs) and rating distribution guidance (RDG) can impact leniency bias in performance evaluations.
Zachary Pearl
Department:
English
Thesis:Ìý
Arguing that "creative paranoia" inspired by fictocritical cyberfeminism provides a route towards a more paralogical media literacy that could redefine our future media environment.
Matthew Perks
Department:
Sociology
Thesis:Ìý
Investigating the growing emphasis on engaging and managing online communities within the gaming industry.
Brian Schram
Department:
Sociology
Thesis:Ìý
Exploring the relationship between Queer theory and surveillance technologies and linking to broader geopolitical and biopolitical phenomena such as national security, biosecurity, warfare, and statecraft.
Siobhan Sutherland
Department:
Psychology
Thesis:Ìý
Identifying the factors contributing to sexual desire in long-term heterosexual relationships and highlighting the importance of examining sexual desire from an interpersonal lens.Â
McLennon Wilson
Department:
Psychology
Thesis:Ìý
Developing new means of assessing the relationship between temperament and attention in social contexts to better support the social development of shy children.
Xinyuan Yang
Department: Economics
Thesis:Ìý
Addressing how uncertain corn market and weather factors affect optimal fertilizer application decisions of the farmer and social planner.Â