Graduate Student Achievements and Highlights

Congratulations to Nadeesha Samaraweera who successfully defended her MSc thesis (Textiles & Clothing) on January 15.
Congratulations to Elham Kaviannasab who successfully defended her MSc thesis (Textiles & Clothing) on January 15.
Laura Munevar Ortiz successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled Effects of accelerated aging on the performance of moisture barriers used in firefighters’ protective clothing on January 19. Congratulations Laura!
Congratulations to Shakil Mahmud who successfully defended his MSc thesis (Textiles & Clothing) on January 22.

Congratulations to Jonathan Lai who successfully defended his MSc thesis (Aging) on September 12.
Congratulations to Malcolm Stielow for successfully defending his MA thesis entitled Playing in the Pursuit of Reflexivity on September 20.
Congratulations to Anita Labonno for successfully defending her MSc thesis (Textiles and Clothing) on September 20.
Welcome to our incoming graduate students:
- Family Ecology & Practice: Emily Hong & Navdeep Kaur
- Material Culture: Andrea House, Chenshuo Li, Darren Tellier & Zoe Wagner
- Textiles & Clothing: Shan Wing Ip, Abdun Noor, Emily Prefumo, Md Abu Sayed, Mansi Sharma & Utkarsh Sharma

Josephine Bojali successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled Single Fit Bespoke Bra for Individuals with Atypical Breast Shape and Size, Fabric Testing, Fitting Tool, and Wear Trial. Congratulations Josephine!
Congratulations to Malcolm Stielow for winning the best student paper award at the 2023 AHFE Conference. What a great accomplishment! The paper is published in an open-access book from the conferences at: https://openaccess.cms-conferences.org/publications/book/978-1-958651-76-6/article/978-1-958651-76-6_7

Congratulations to Chelsea Freeborn for successfully defending her doctoral dissertation, Learning In Relations: Engaging with Decolonization in Early Learning and Child Care. The findings from Chelsea's research provide new insights about decolonization and relationality principles, policies and practices in early learning and child care and post-secondary environments. Chelsea's dissertation offers recommendations for the micro to macro changes needed in early learning and child care and post-secondary settings. Since January 2022, Chelsea has been working as a faculty member in the Department of Sociology/Family Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Ph.D. student Saiful Hoque has published his first paper from his doctoral research. The article titled "Hydrothermal Aging of Fire-Protective Fabrics" is published in The Journal of Applied Polymer Science. This article offers a breakthrough finding regarding the aging of fire-protective fabrics. The results showed that sulfur present in larger amounts in some fibres as a residual from the fibre manufacturing process, may lead to the reduced mechanical performance of some fire-protective fabrics over time when exposed to water. The finding has a major impact on manufacturers of flame-resistant fibres/fabrics as well as on end-users of fire-protective clothing and personal equipment. Well done Saiful!

Laura Woodman successfully defended her Master's thesis on May 31. Congratulations Laura!
Congratulations to Elena Kosareva for receiving the GSA Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award! And thank you for all your hard work and the excellent contribution you have made to our undergraduate program. This award is well deserved!
Master's student Laura Woodman is a finalist for the UofA's 3-minute thesis (3MT) competition. Watch her video presentation on "Creating the Village: Increasing Understanding and Supports for Alberta's Day Home Educators" and read more about Laura and her research here. Congratulations Laura for making it to the finals! And best of luck!!!

Congratulations to Razak Oduro for successfully defending his doctoral thesis, which is entitled Organizing Against Poverty in Edmonton: A Case Study of EndPovertyEdmonton Movement Organization. This is such an awesome achievement. The findings from Razak's research provide new insights about social movements that organize on the basis of poverty and that emerge from within institutions, both of which are understudied dimensions of social movements. As well, Razak's dissertation offers recommendations for EndPovertyEdmonton to consider in their ongoing efforts to build a movement to eliminate poverty within a generation. Razak recently started working as a policy analyst with Alberta Health.
Doctoral student Laura Munevar-Ortiz was the first author of a study evaluating the effect of smaller-sized specimens in tear strength tests. The manuscript has now been published in ASTM's Journal of Testing and Evaluation. The findings open new opportunities for researchers to obtain meaningful results even when working with fabrics in limited supply, for instance when working with prototype fabric samples or specimens collected from used garments.
- Munevar-Ortiz, L., Batcheller, J., & Dolez, P I. (2021). Influence of Specimen Size on the Tear Strength of Fabrics by the Trapezoid Procedure. Journal of Testing and Evaluation. DOI: 10.1520/JTE20210357.

Saiful Hoque has been awarded the Verna M Lefebvre Graduate Student Award from the Canadian Home Economics Foundation (CHEF-FCEF). This is the first year that the Graduate Student Award is being given in recognition of Dr. Verna M Lefebvre who passed away in 2017. Congratulations Saiful. This recognition is well deserved!
Congratulations to Lara Pinchbeck, Saiful Hoque & Chelsea Freeborn for successfully completing their comprehensive exams!
Lara Pinchbeck is the 2021 recipient of the Margery Boyce Bursary from the Canadian Association on Gerontology. Lara was awarded the Margery Boyce Bursary for making an outstanding contribution in her field. Her application demonstrated academic merit, engagement and original thinking, and contributes to Gerontology research. Congratulations Lara for this achievement!