Gabriel Alejandro Peña Tijerina, PhD in Humanities
2016 – 
Supervisory committee: Dr. David Howes, Dr. Nicola Pezolet, Dr. Carmela Cucuzzella

Gabriel Peña is an artist, architect and lecturer, currently pursuing a PhD in Humanities at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, at Concordia University. His research ‘After Transparency / The sensorial, and spatial affects of glass atmospheres’. His research is a re-evaluation of glass properties such as reflection and its interplay with transparency as a medium to construct atmospheres that modify the perception of the built environment.

Gabriel holds a Bachelor in Architecture from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and a Masters degree in Collective Housing from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. After his masters, he has specialized into to the perceptual dimension of domestic and the built environments through his artistic practice. He has taught architecture studios at UDEM, CEDIM and UANL. Grantee from the Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda de Madrid, FONCA Young Creators / National Trust for Culture and the Arts Mexico, Arquetopia and CONACYT / National Council for Science and Technology. He has exhibited work at Museo Metropolitano de Monterrey, Jardín de las esculturas Xalapa, Galeria Conarte Monterrey, Mexico National Library, Gallery 2 CRGS, FEMSA XII art biennale and Desai Matta Gallery San Francisco.

Madelyn Capozzi, Undergraduate Student in Design
2017 –

Madelyn Capozzi is an undergraduate student in the Design Program, Faculty Fine Arts. She won the Faculty of Fine Arts Heather and Erin Humanitarian Award in 2018. She also ran a community-based policy development program as a research project funded by MITACS, in Switzerland during the summer of 2019.

Sherif Goubran, INDI PhD student
2016 – 2020

Supervisory Committee: Dr. Carmela Cucuzzella, Dr. Bruno Lee, Dr. Thomas Walker

Noémie Fortin, MA Art History
2019 – 2020
Supervisor: Dr. Cynthia Hammond

Noémie Fortin is currently completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University. She lives in the Eastern Townships, originally coming from Lac-Mégantic and currently established in Cookshire-Eaton with her partner and daughter. She holds a Double Honours BA in Art History and Fine Arts from Bishop’s University. Under the supervision of Dr Cynthia Hammond, Noémie’s master thesis seeks to uncover the potential for rural art institutions to intervene directly and locally in larger questions of landscape and collective stewardship in the wake of global environmental crisis and change, and to pose questions about the different ways that institutional frameworks, methodologies and practices have grappled with those issues.

Clara Freeman-Cole, MSc in Geography, Urban and Environmental
2019 – 2020
Supervisor: Dr. Jochen Jaeger

Clara is currently pursuing a MSc in Geography, Urban and Environmental studies and her supervisor is Dr Jochen Jaeger. Her research is currently titled, “Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas in Canada with respect to landscape fragmentation and connectivity, using a BACI study design". Her research interests are mainly regarding landscape fragmentation and the ability of animals to move through a certain landscape that has been influenced by humans. For her thesis, she is using geospatial analyses to monitor how this has changed for Canada’s National Parks since their designation, considering the parks are protected in order to keep them in an unimpaired state for future generations. She also has an interest in the structure of built-up areas and how they effect the natural environment.

Cheryl Gladu, INDI PhD student
2010 – 2020
Supervisor: Carmela Cucuzzella

Cheryl Gladu is a jack of all trades and master of some. She received a degree in International Business from Carleton University, and an MBA from Simon Fraser University. After working for several years in the trenches of the environmental movement, she co-created and managed an upstart green real estate development company. She returned to school in order to pursue an interdisciplinary PhD in the innovative interdisciplinary INDI program at Concordia University, where she studies at both the John Molson School of Business and Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Arts. Against better judgment, she is also slowly chipping away at a part-time degree in painting and drawing at the same institution. C. Gladu’s main field of interest is design to facilitate collective behavior change. She has studied design for sustainable behavior change, via something called “ecofeedback,” as well as art for social change. Her thesis will focus on to the design of processes contributing to the successful completion of co-housing communities in Canada.

Stefania Hernández, MDes student
August 2017 – August 2018
Supervisor: Carmela Cucuzzella

Stefania Hernández, born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she completed studies in architecture at Universidad del Zulia in 2016. In her B.Arch thesis she explored how the poetics of an architectural project could turn a forgotten coastal park into a urban rhizome, as a way to engage the community with nature. She is keen in the idea of design as a catalyst for social integration, using art and architecture as way to transform issues into positive experiences, through the performed action moreover than the outcome. This theme has led her to further research, which she is developing in the Master of Design Program at Concordia. Her work is directed in the lines of approaching design in an interdisciplinary way, integrating art, poetics, and architecture, always exploring the meaning of belonging and enhancing the positive and important qualities of the built environment, and its intersection with nature and community.

Chanelle Lalonde, PhD in Art History
August 2018 – March 2019
Supervisor: she is currently doing her PhD at McGill University

Chanelle completed her Masters in Art History with supervisor Dr. Cynthia Hammond in 2018. She is involved in the copy-editing of research texts. She continues to be involved in the new SSHRC funded project of Eco-didactisism of Art and Design Installations for the Public realm

Feras Al-Assafin: Masters Student in Building Engineering
January 2013 – August 2016

Feras obtained his architecture undergraduate and professional degrees from Syria. He completed his Masters in Building Engineering at Concordia University. His area of interest is sustainable architecture practices.

Tracy Valcourt: Masters Student in Creative Writing
September 2013 – November 2015

Sheena Hoszko: Masters Student in Studio Arts
May 2012 – August 2014

Laura Broadbent: Masters Student in English Literature
September 2011 – May 2013

Manuela Hummel: Masters of Arts
May 2012 – August 2014

Alice Wei: Undergraduate Student in JMSB Marketing
April 2016-September 2016
Alice is currently an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Accountancy at Concordia University. Having completed a Science degree at John Abbott College, she obtained the Student Involvement Recognition Certification, Environmental Studies Certification and English Honors Portfolio upon graduation. Through her involvement in school and in the community, her contributions have pertained to environmental issues. She joined Concordia’s Sustainable Action Fund on the Board of Directors representing students at large. She is part of the John Molson Sustainable Enterprise Committee as the Vice President Logistics where she works to incorporate sustainability and business. Notably, she is the Social Media Community Coordinator for CoLLaboratoire. Overall, she is an environmentally conscious person with a pursuit for a sustainable future.

Eric MacKay: Undergradute Student in Design
September 2014 – April 2015
Eric holds a BFA in Design & Computation Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, after previously studying Industrial Design at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. He holds a Journeyman Red-Seal Certification in Welding from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Before studying in design, he spent nearly 10 years in various construction related fields including oilfield construction, welding, and playground construction. His work focused on exhibition, public space, and furniture design.

Karolyn Martin: Undergraduate Student in Design
May 2014-August 2014
Karolyn Martin is an interdisciplinary designer and artist. She has an unconditional love for raw material, from wood to fiber. Having experience in woodworking and sewing, she gives priority to local, renewable or reclaimed materials to create in various spheres: from space and furniture design to garments and accessories. In 2014 she received a Concordia Undergraduate Student Research Awards (CUSRA) supervised by Professor Carmela Cucuzzella. “I think that we must design like humans should live: in total consciousness that we are all linked, as we are in a constant relation with Earth." www.karolynmartin.com

Michael MacLean: Undergraduate Student in Design
November 2015–December 2017
Michael is currently living in Montreal is an artist and designer currently studying at Concordia University. With a background in photography and sculpture, his focus lands somewhere between the 2D and 3D realms. Having been born and raised in a rural Quebec context and having been influenced by experiences in the Canadian north his work is influenced by location, nature and place. He has interests in the relationship between the urban, the rural and the isolated. How these topics and narratives influence life, design and the arts. In his practice, he works with a combination of contemporary technologies such as 3D printing/laser cutting as well as traditional tools and methods in print and design.
michaelmaclean.ca

Pascal Xavier Poirier: Undergraduate Student in Design
November 2015–August 2017
Pascal is a bilingual illustrator & designer based in Montreal, Quebec. Trained very early in life to sketch his ideas, thoughts and perceptions on pictorial surfaces, his practice in the field, nowadays, has taken five major forms, namely: illustration, graphic design, object design, installation design and animated footage. At the moment, his skills acquired from a Technical Program in Illustration at Dawson College and a University Degree in Design with a Minor in Film Animation at Concordia University are targeted at working on interdisciplinarity projects where versatility of skills and creative thoughts are needed. pascalxavierpoirier.ca/

Tatev Yesayan: Undergraduate Student in Design
January 2016 – May 2016

Rachel Tardif: Undergraduate Student in Design
May 2013 – August 2015

Catherine Bissaillon: Undergraduate Student in Design
May 2013 – December 2015

Eli Kerr: Undergraduate Student in Design
May 2012 – May 2014

Lupe Perez: Undergraduate Student in Design
May 2012-August 2014

Matthew Mackay-Lyons Undergraduate in Design
May 2012 – May 2014