Note: The following list represents a portion of the graduate students in our joint Laurier-Waterloo PhD program in Religious Studies.
Doaa Shalabi
PhD Candidate
B.A., 2009 (Semitic Languages and English, Ain Shams University); M.A., 2011 (Semitic Languages, Ain Shams University); M.A., 2017 (Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Doaa’s research focuses on faith-based institutions and minority integration in Canada. For her PhD, Doaa is examining the relationship between Muslim schools and the integration of Muslim youth in Canadian society to showcase the complex relationship between religious identity, education policies, and social integration in multicultural societies.
Supervisor: David Seljak
Ben Szoller
PhD Candidate
B.F.A. (Art Education; Theological Studies, Concordia University); B.Ed. (Intermediate-Senior, University of Western Ontario); M.T.S. (Specialization in Theology and Ecology, University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto)
Intrigued by how faith and sense of place inform agricultural practices, Ben is looking forward to engaging Christian farming communities in Southwestern Ontario to explore how religious communities and associations are responding to current political and environmental changes and their impact on agriculture and animal ethics.
Supervisor: David Seljak
Wilfrid Laurier University
Sahver Kuzucuoglu
PhD Candidate
B.Sc. (University of Waterloo); M.A. (Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University); M.A. (Cultural Analysis and Social Theory, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Sahver has worked for many years as Interpreter/Translator in the settlement of new Canadians in Southern Ontario fueled by her passion for volunteerism, community, decoloniality, pluraversality. and intercultural dialogue. Her current research areas include Turkish Cultural Studies, Sufism, Biopolitics and identity negotiation as a ‘minority within a minority.’
Supervisor: Meena Sharify-Funk
Kate McCartney
PhD Student
Honours BA., 2013 (Religion and Culture; English, Wilfrid Laurier University & Philipps-Universität Marburg); Post Graduate Diploma in Education, 2015 (The University of the West of Scotland); MEd., 2018 (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Research interests: Religious conversion, Christianity, Islam, Interfaith dialogue, lived religion. Kate’s research focuses on complex experiences of religious conversion and lived religious experiences of those who have chosen to convert from Protestant Christianity to Islam. Currently, Kate is looking forward to beginning fieldwork across Canada in the fall of 2021 to study how former Protestant Christians who converted to Islam navigate and negotiate their faith, identity, and social relationships while living in Canada.
Supervisor: Meena Sharify-Funk
Elijah Smith
PhD Candidate
Honours B.A., 2015 (History and History of Religions, University of Toronto); M.A., 2016 (Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University)
From Lady Gaga to Moonlight to YouTube-comment cultures, Elijah’s research focuses on intersections of religion and sexuality in popular media.
Supervisor: Carol Duncan
Hasaan Sobaan
PhD Student
HBSc., 2022 (Psychology), University of Toronto: M.A., 2025 (Global Justice, Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University)
My research interests include Islam and Sufism, identity, modernity, and transnationalism among South Asian Muslim communities in South Asia and in the diaspora. Specifically, I am interested in exploring the ways in which traditional Sufi beliefs and practices are taken up by these communities in the present day, and the role they play in identity formation and articulation.
Supervisor:
Irem Osmanoglu
PhD Student
B.Sc. International Relations, Ankara University, M.A., Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe, University of Bologna &Vytautas Magnus University & Saint Petersburg State University & Conrvinus University of Budapest. M.A., Social Justice Studies, Lakehead University.
My research focus is reconceptualizing notions of identity and religious relations within the framework of Balkan Orthodox Christiniaty in the context of post-nationalism and post-socialiam. Specifiaclly, I intend to analyze the Traditional and North American Orthodox Christinan Churches in Southern Ontario. By exploring the challenges of integrating into Canadian society, my research study aims to shed light on the differences among Balkan Orthodox Christians and analyze how self-identity paradigms address these complexities within the context of urban religious phenomena in Canada's Balkan diasporas.
Supervisor: Dejan Guzina