Meet new faculty members through a brief Q&A showcasing them and why they chose UTSC 5Q - Vinicius de Aguiar Furuie, Assistant Professor, AnthropologyWhat does your research focus on? My research focuses on the Xingu River basin of the Brazilian Amazonia, where riverside and Indigenous communities are currently fighting for their land and livelihoods against loggers, land-grabbers and a hydroelectric dam project. I am 5Q - Shohini Bhattasali, Assistant Professor, Language StudiesWhat does your research focus on? My research is situated at the intersection of computational linguistics and neurolinguistics. I use contemporary computational models to gain further insight into language comprehension in the brain. My research program is interdisciplinary 5Q - Chad Cowie, Assistant Professor, Political ScienceWhat Does Your Research Focus On? My areas of research include Canadian, comparative, and Indigenous politics. More specifically, I enjoy focusing on Indigenous/Canadian relations, Indigenous/provincial relations, settler/Indigenous relations in former British colonies that 5Q - Xue Pan, Assistant Professor, Biological SciencesWhat does your research focus on? My research aims to provide a deeper understanding of the role of lipids in plant growth, development, and stress response. The overarching goal is to develop innovative engineering strategies to enhance crop productivity and maximize bio-oil 5Q - Keith Colaco, Assistant Professor, Health & SocietyI like to facilitate knowledge translation and exchange activities by adapting ways of communicating science and research findings to diverse audiences. 5Q - Patrick Cruz, Assistant Professor, Arts, Culture & MediaI am currently watching a lot of exorcism videos by faith healers from the Philippines on YouTube. 5Q - Stuart Livingstone, Assistant Professor, Physical & Environmental SciencesI’m really interested in scholarship that addresses the science-policy interface as it relates to biodiversity conservation and environmental issues. 5Q - Julie Mah, Assistant Professor, Human GeographyEveryone should have access to decent, affordable housing, as housing stability affects so many important aspects of a person’s life and forms the foundation for positive educational, employment, and health outcomes. 5Q - Robyn Maynard, Assistant Professor, Historical & Cultural StudiesBlack feminisms is a vibrant and growing field and I believe that expanding this, from a curricular perspective, has the potential to engage students from across many disciplines. 5Q - Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, EnglishI like to imagine my project as both historiographic and theoretical despite making situated claims about film and media from the South Asian context, and building largely upon ideas from the rich and growing body of scholarship on media and culture in the Global South.
