The Faculty of Arts is honoured to be home to AMTD postdoctoral scholars, Dr. Jenna Gilchrist and Dr. Reuben Martens. The prestigious two-year postdocs, known as the the AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowships, were founded by donor and alumnus Calvin Choi (BA '01), CEO of the AMTD Group, and the AMTD Foundation. Waterloo currently has four 2022-24 AMTD Postdoctoral Fellows — two of whom are in Arts.
Dr. Jenna Gilchrist
(PhD, University of Toronto), AMTD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology
"My program of research examines emotions and emotion regulation among youth. Examining emotions among youth is complicated by the presence of multiple, co-occurring processes reflecting long-term change (e.g., developmental processes) and short-term variability (e.g., day-to-day variability). To accommodate this complexity, my research aims to characterize emotions in the daily lives of youth and the implications for health and well-being by employing longitudinal designs and advanced statistical analyses.
"As an AMTD postdoctoral fellow, I am examining affective adaptation during the transition to university. Through the information that emotions provide, we can better understand how students adapt during this critical juncture. At present, our understanding of students’ adaptation is represented by static, often cross-sectional approaches that do not capture the dynamic nature of this transitional period, thus limiting our understanding of how this process unfolds in daily life, what resources may facilitate adaptation, and implications for student health, well-being and academic retention. Findings from this research can inform programs and policies to better support students' adaptation to university life."
Dr. Reuben Martens
(PhD, KU Leuven and Ghent University) AMTD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Communication Arts
"The main societal impact of my work relates to its intended attempt at raising broader public awareness of the violence committed on Indigenous communities through settler-colonial fossil fuel extractivism in Canada. To secure long-term societal impact, I will organize a workshop, a public lecture series, produce podcasts and develop several other modes of public engagement, which should help to create and expand such public awareness. Part of my work aims to make and facilitate recommendations regarding (Indigenous) energy policy in settler-colonial nations and beyond.
"(My AMTD) project focuses on violence related to extractivist practices, with specific attention to fossil fuel extraction, in relation to Canada’s Indigenous communities. My aim in this project is to document the still understudied (and possibly undervalued) cultural and aesthetic responses of Indigenous communities to trauma evoked by the violence of extractivism. Through an examination of contemporary Indigenous Canadian creative practices, this project will contribute a new critical perspective to this crucial discussion, to expand ongoing critical studies of extractivism, settler colonialism, and Indigenous rights and futures."