A graduate of the Robson Hall, Fenske was called to the bar in 2008. After beginning her legal career with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, she joined Legal Aid Manitoba’s Public Interest Law Centre in 2015 and has represented residential school survivors, First Nations organizations, and equity-deserving groups. She taught courses on women and the law and the Canadian legal system at the University of Winnipeg and gender and the law at the University of Manitoba. In 2013, she received the Manitoba Bar Association Pro Bono Award, which is awarded to lawyers or firms for the donation of professional services towards the enhancement of access of public interest legal services in Manitoba. In 2016, Fenske was commended by the Clerk of the Executive Council for her work on behalf of patients seeking medical assistance in dying for which she also received the Manitoba Bar Association Access to Justice Award.

Fenske has appeared before all levels of courts in Manitoba, the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as numerous provincial and federal administrative tribunals. She has served, and continues to serve as a presiding member of the Housing Cooperatives Appeal Tribunals.

For Fenske, taking on the position of a clinical instructor at Robson Hall is a sort of homecoming. As a student here, she was a Solomon Greenberg finalist and top oralist (2^nd) at the Wilson Moot. “These experiential learning opportunities were foundational in developing my skills as a litigator,” she explained.

In addition to court work, Fenske has co-authored publications in the areas of access to justice and public interest litigation including “Justice Starts Here: A one-stop approach for achieving greater justice in Manitoba,” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2017 and “Wheels of Justice: Reflections from the Public Interest Law Centre of Legal Aid Manitoba,” published in the book Public Interest Litigation in Canada, edited by Cheryl Milne and Kent Roach, 2019 (LexisNexis: Toronto) and Supreme Court Law Review, 90:2.

“I have focused my advocacy work on navigating legal issues through an intersectional feminist and social inclusion lens on behalf of people and communities marginalized through state and systemic oppression,” said Fenske, describing the path she has taken since leaving Robson Hall.

Having focused her legal practice in public law (including in the areas of human rights, constitutional and Aboriginal law), and administrative law, Fenske brings much-needed focus to teach students how to litigate in these areas. Her experience working for Legal Aid Manitoba makes her a perfect fit to be returning to the Manitoba Law Foundation-supported UMCLC. The University of Manitoba’s Strategic Initiatives Support Fund’s investment in the forthcoming international human rights clinic is also in good hands as Fenske gets settled at Robson Hall.

Dr. Asomah

Dr. Joseph Yaw Asomah joins the Department of Sociology and Criminology as Assistant Professor. He hails from Ghana, where he obtained a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Ghana, Legon. Dr. Asomah is a proud alumnus of the University of Manitoba, where he completed an MA in Sociology in 2015. His research interests generally focus on human rights, international development, mass media, policing and white-collar crime. He has attended several conferences and has also published in both respected Canadian and international journals. Prior to joining UM, Dr. Asomah has taught at St. Thomas University (Fredericton, NB) and the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK), where he also obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology in 2018.  

Dr. Brosowsky

Dr. Nicholas Brosowsky joins the Department of Psychology as an Assistant Professor. He is a UM alumnus, receiving a BA (Honours) in 2021 and an MA in 2014. His PhD was earned from the City University of New York and he held a postdoctoral research position at Duke University. Dr. Brosowsky investigates how people adaptively regulate attention and the consequences of control regulation across a variety of domains such as skill learning, creativity and multi-tasking. At UM, he is starting the Attention and Learning Lab.

Dr. Diehl

Dr. Lindsay Diehl joins the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media as Assistant Professor. She received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Colombia, Okanagan campus. Her areas of expertise include Canadian literature, Asian Canadian studies, postcolonial theory and transnational feminism. As a creative writer and critical scholar, Dr. Diehl often blends scholarly and creative methodologies to explore intersecting issues of nationalism, settler-colonialism, race, gender and identity. She is particularly interested in how storytelling allows for personal, emotional and affective elements frequently overlooked in conventional forms of criticism. 

Dr. Gadzala

Dr. Krysteena Gadzala joins the Department of French, Spanish and Italian as a French Instructor. She earned a BEd from Nipissing University as well as a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Waterloo. Her research focused on child loss in 21^st century French literature as experienced by fathers. She specifically looked at the rituals, material culture and the writing process as they relate to the loss of a child. She has been teaching in universities across Canada and in France since 2012.  

Dr. Goulet

Dr. Nicole Goulet joins the Department of Religion as an Instructor. After completing her PhD in Religion at UM, she went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she became Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, and was Acting Director for Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research focuses on representations of race, class, gender and sexuality in religion, with a primary focus on Hinduism. Some topics of publication include how people use religion to fight gender-based violence and how to teach World Religions with attention paid to race, class, gender, and sexuality. At UM, Dr. Goulet’s teaching focuses on introductory and themed religion courses, as well as Eastern religions specifically.

Dr. Jenner

Dr. Jonathan Jenner joins the Department of Economics (Economics & Society stream) and the Global Political Economy Program as Assistant Professor. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Prior to arriving at UM, Dr. Jenner completed a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Johannesburg. His research, situated in the political economy tradition, explores the roots and effects of colonial labour regimes, particularly in East Africa. Dr. Jenner is also a member of the Center for Popular Economics, an instructor at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a Senior Researcher at the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg. He is excited to continue researching, teaching and learning at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Murchison

Dr. Melanie Janelle Murchison has joined the Department of Sociology and Criminology as an Instructor and is happy to be back in Winnipeg. After earning her PhD in Law from Queen’s University Belfast in 2016, Melanie then spent six years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Lecturer in Legal Studies. She recently held a British Academy Leverhulme Grant as a Co-Investigator with Dr. Alex Schwartz on Ethnic Voting Behaviour on the Constitutional Court in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Melanie’s recent work has been with Dean Jochelson (Law) and Assistant Professor Ireland (Law) on legal pedagogy in the pandemic.

Dr. Nijdam-Jones

Dr. Alicia Nijdam-Jones joins the Psychology Department as Assistant Professor. She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology (forensic specialization) from Fordham University and has an MA in Criminology from Simon Fraser University. After her doctoral studies, she completed a clinical psychology postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Nijdam-Jones specializes in the area of violence risk assessment, malingering assessment, stalking, and the use of forensic assessment measures with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse samples.  At UM, she is starting the Cross-Cultural Forensic psychology lab. 

Dr. Paris

Dr. Jamie Paris joins the department of English, Theatre, Film & Media as an Instructor. He is a mixed-race scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He received his PhD in English from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver in 2015. Before coming to UM, Dr. Paris was an associate professor of English for Corpus Christi College at UBC. Dr. Paris works primarily in the field of premodern critical race studies, where his research focuses on the representation of whiteness in the work of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. His secondary field is Canadian literature and culture, with a focus on non-dominative Black and Indigenous masculinities. Dr. Paris has published scholarly articles in Digital Studies, Canadian Literature, Renaissance and Reformation, Early Theatre, and the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. He is in the process of completing a book on whiteness and racial crossdressing in early modern drama.

Dr. Schnerch

Dr. Gabe Schnerch joins the Department of Psychology as an Instructor. He has a range of teaching experience in undergraduate and graduate psychology courses across numerous institutions, both as a sessional instructor and as an assistant professor. He is UM alumni, having received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Manitoba. He completed his pre-doctoral residency/internship in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. His primary areas of teaching include ethics and assessment in school and clinical psychology. His areas of current research interest include the intersectionality of neurodivergent (e.g., autistic) and trans experiences; autistic-prioritized outcomes in therapy; and operant learning relating to infant and early childhood development.

Dr. Shaw

Dr. Kris Shaw joins the Department of Economics as Assistant Professor in the Economics & Econometrics stream. He grew up in Winnipeg and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Winnipeg. After earning an MA from Queen’s University and working for several years in economic forecasting, he entered the PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania and successfully defended his dissertation last spring. His job market paper studied the macroeconomic implications of replacing a progressive labour income tax with a progressive consumption tax. His research interests span the areas of public finance, labour economics and quantitative macroeconomics. At UM, Dr. Shaw will be teaching macroeconomic theory at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level.

Dr. Weinberg

Dr. Erin Weinberg is a new Instructor in the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media. She has taught at Queen’s University, Brandon University, University of Alberta Augustana and Royal Military College. She earned her PhD from Queen’s in 2017, where she researched the emotions in Shakespearean comedy. She has showcased that work internationally, including a presentation at Shakespeare’s Globe and articles in New Statesman and Early Modern Literary Studies. She is passionate about teaching and learning and intends to dedicate her time to mentoring and collaborating with the CATL. Erin teaches entirely first-year English courses; her contagious enthusiasm has influenced a number of students to take further English courses, major in English and pursue graduate study. 

Dr. Yadav

Dr. Srishti Yadav joins the Department of Economics as an Instructor for the Economics & Society stream. She has a PhD in Economics from The New School in New York. Her dissertation research focuses on the political economy of development in India, investing the relationship between agrarian change and structural transformation through the framework of the Agrarian Question. Her ongoing research examines changing agrarian class relations in the face of growing rural-urban migration and the caste- and gender-based dynamics of this process through fieldwork. Her teaching interests are in Marxian Political Economy and Development Economics. 

Promoted to Assistant Professor

Dr. Dallas Hunt

Dallas Hunt joined the department of Native Studies in 2017 as a Lecturer and, following successful defense of his PhD last fall, was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor. Dr. Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapisewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. He holds a PhD from the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, as well as an MA in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies from McMaster University and a BA (Hons.) from the Department of English at the University of Alberta. He has had creative and critical work published in The Fieldstone Review, Decolonization: Indigeneity Education & Society, and Settler Colonial Studies. His work looks at the intersections of Indigenous studies, urban studies and Indigenous literature. Hunt’s research benefits from Winnipeg’s location, being the largest urban Indigenous population in Canada, as well as provides multiple opportunities to engage in the city’s vibrant literary and arts scenes.

New members of faculty

Dr. Réal Carrière

Réal Carrière joins the Department of Political Studies as Assistant Professor. He is Nehinuw (Cree) from Cumberland House, Saskatchewan.  He grew up on the land – home-schooled, no road access, running water or electricity.  He successfully defended his dissertation in May 2018 and his research focus is on Indigenous political theories and practices, specifically of the Nehinuw people.  Dr. Carrière has presented his work at numerous conferences around the world.  He previously held positions at the University of Saskatchewan in Political and Indigenous Studies.  His teaching is currently focused on Canadian Government and Indigenous Governance and he is working on a research grant to continue his doctoral research in Northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Katrina Dunn

Katrina Dunn joins the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media as a Lecturer and Theatre specialist. She received her BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University and did her graduate work at the University of British Columbia. In between her undergraduate degree and her graduate studies, Dunn distinguished herself as a professional stage director, producer and dramaturg in Canadian theatre, basing herself out of Vancouver. She was the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre for nineteen years and co-founded Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, now a significant player in Canada’s Arts and Culture scene. She has directed over seventy professional plays, most of those Canadian. Her scholarly work explores the spatial manifestations of theatre. Her MA thesis looked at performance in rural space, documenting and analyzing plays and modes of production at Canada’s four professional farm theatres. Her doctoral project looks at three spaces of large performance in the downtown core of Vancouver. It charts how they reflect the economic flows of capital and property in the city since 1950, and how they impact local urban and cultural landscapes. At UBC, she was the recipient of the Errol Durbach Graduate Scholarship, The Mary Ellen Henley Award, and the Heather McCallum Award. In addition to seven nominations and two wins for Outstanding Direction of a Play at Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, Dunn has twice won the Robert G. Lawrence Prize for an Emerging Scholar from the Canadian Association for Theatre Research. Her papers have been published in Canadian Theatre Review and Performance Research.

Dr. Julia Gamble

Julia Gamble joins the Department of Anthropology as Assistant Professor in Biological / Physical Anthropology.  Within the modern health context, more is being learned about how early life experiences can impact later life health. Early life ‘stress’ can influence susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and a host of other chronic diseases. Dr. Gamble’s research looks at these questions from another angle, using the large number of skeletal remains available from past populations, specifically through the bioarchaeological analysis of dental enamel microstructures found in human remains. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach. A current SSHRC Insight Development Grant project on ancient pathogen DNA in medieval Danish populations aims to identify some of the infectious diseases present in these populations beyond those we can see from skeletal changes. This includes the time period of Black Death, which had a significant impact on human populations and may still be impacting descendent groups today. The research looks at what diseases are present and how they changed over time, as well as whether certain immune factors were selected in the populations in relation to the Black Death epidemic. She is also working on a developing project that aims to reconstruct patterns of stress over time from archaeological caribou and to tie this in with modern patterns observed so that we might better contextualize what we are seeing in today’s herds. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Paleopathology and in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.  Dr. Gamble completed her PhD at the University of Manitoba in 2015, where her doctoral research was supported by the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.  She returns to UM from a position at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream), bringing extensive instructional experience and an integrative approach to research and teaching.

Dr. Ryan Giuliano

Ryan Giuliano joins the Psychology Department as Assistant Professor in Developmental Psychology. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Oregon in 2017, with a focus in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Before joining the University of Manitoba, he completed post-doctoral research at the Prevention Science Institute at the University of Oregon, where he maintains collaborations with multiple groups examining family-focused interventions aiming to improve healthy parent-child interactions. Dr. Giuliano’s research examines the effects of poverty and other stressful life experiences on brain function in young children and adults, utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) measures and various biomarkers of a person’s physiological responses to psychological stress. His most recent findings suggest that early chaotic environments lead to deficits in a child’s ability to filter out distracting sounds, and that alterations in brain development are driven by early changes in stress physiology. His ongoing work aims to identify physiological and behavioural patterns in children and families resilient to chronic and acute stressors. At UM, he is starting the Hearts and Minds Lab with Co-Investigator Dr. Leslie E. Roos.

Jesse Hajer

Jesse Hajer joins the Department of Economics and Labour Studies program as a Lecturer. He is a University of Manitoba alumnus, having completed his MA in Economics, and undertook his PhD studies at the the New School for Social Research in New York.  Jesse spent several years with the Government of Manitoba leading initiatives in areas including community economic development, education and training and poverty reduction.  His broad research interests lie in examining the political economy of publicly-funded service delivery in advanced economies, its evolution over time and its impact on socioeconomic inequality and the precariousness of work.  Within this framework he is focused on the analysis of privatization and its variants, and the alternative public policy responses being generated from labour and community movements.  

Dr. Nancy Kang

Nancy Kang is an Assistant Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies program. She comes to the University of Manitoba having served as Assistant Professor of Multicultural and Diaspora Literatures at the University of Baltimore, where she earned tenure and promotion in 2018. Dr. Kang was formerly Visiting Assistant Professor of World Literatures at Clarkson University and Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in the Humanities at Syracuse University. She earned her Honors BA from the University of Calgary, her MA from Queen’s University, and her PhD from the University of Toronto. A recipient of SSHRC funding, the Chancellor Jackman Research Fund, the Alberta Heritage Fund, and others, Dr. Kang’s scholarship has appeared in such journals as LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, Canadian Literature, Women’s Studies, African American Review, Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, MELUS Journal, and Latino Studies. Her co-edited film studies collection The Culture and Philosophy of Ridley Scott (with Adam Barkman and Ashley Barkman) was released in 2013. She is co-author, with Silvio Torres-Saillant, of the recent book The Once and Future Muse: The Poetry and Poetics of Rhina P. Espaillat (2018). Dr. Kang’s current research examines narratives of alternative mothering, interracialism and forms of violence against North American women of colour.

Dr. Adam Murray

Adam Murray joins the Department of Philosophy as an Assistant Professor. He received a BA in Political Science from the University of Winnipeg, and a Masters degree in Philosophy from the University of Manitoba, before completing his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His research has been published in Oxford Studies in Metaphysics and the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and he has forthcoming papers in The Routledge Handbook of Modality and The Routledge Handbook of Propositions. His primary research interests lie in the intersection of metaphysics, logic and the philosophy of language. He is currently exploring the argument that whether or not a given state of affairs is genuinely possible is a matter that depends upon the salient features of the context in which that question is considered. For example, expressions like `tall’ or `smart’ are unique in the sense that the truth or falsity of sentences they are used in seems to depend upon the context in which those sentences are used. Thus, if one says in an everyday situation that Donald Trump is tall, it is reasonable to think that what one has said is true (after all, Trump’s height is considerably above average). But now, consider saying that Trump is tall in a conversation discussing the height of each member of the Chicago Bulls basketball team. In that situation, it seems like one has spoken falsely (after all, Trump is considerably shorter than the average Chicago Bulls player). This shows us that `tall’, and many other expressions like it, has a meaning that is sensitive to features of the context in which it is being used. Dr. Murray’s research extends these lessons from the philosophy of language to the metaphysics of modality, the study of the nature and structure of possibility and necessity.

Dr. Leslie E. Roos

Leslie E. Roos joins the Department of Psychology as Assistant Professor. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oregon following a clinical residency at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Dr. Roos studies how early life stress puts children at-risk for altered biological and behavioral development which can influence underlying mental health and achievement inequities. In her intervention research, she investigates how programs promoting parent mental health and positive parenting practices can encourage healthy child development and disrupt the intergenerational transmission of chronic stress. This work is approached from a prevention science framework; supporting families of young children during sensitive periods of rapid development may be particularly helpful for preventing the onset of future challenges. At UM, she is starting the Hearts and Minds Lab with Co-Investigator Dr. Ryan Giuliano.

Dr. Soodeh Saberian

Soodeh Saberian joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Saberian received her second Masters degree in 2012 and PhD in Economics from University of Ottawa in May 2018.   Her research interests span behavioral and environmental economics, applied econometrics and industrial organization. Recent economic studies point to the impact of environmental factors such as air pollution and temperature on health and non-health outcomes. She is currently working on two projects in this area: 1) in India, investigating the effect of hot days on the ability to work and 2) estimating the effect of air pollution on education outcomes using a natural experiment in Iran. Her work seeks to find a causal link between mental health and environmental factors helping to broaden the way in which policy makers perceive and measure the benefits of good air quality as they evaluate the cost-benefit analysis of environmental regulations. Dr. Saberian has had opportunities to work on several projects with scholars from University of Ottawa, Columbia University, University of California (UC Davis) and Harvard University. She has published papers in prestigious journals such as American Economic Journal (AEJ). 

Sarah Cooper
Assistant Professor, Department of City Planning 

Sarah Cooper’s research interests focus on social policy and the implications of privatization and commodification of social programs. She approaches her work with a social justice lens, seeking to identify and address inequity in policy development and implementation. Her current research examines housing for low-income households in Canada, with a focus on the expiry of social housing funding agreements—an issue that will transform the landscape of housing and housing policy in Canada over the next few decades.

Sarah grew up in Toronto, and completed a Bachelor of Environmental Studies at York University (Toronto), followed by a Master of City Planning at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg) and a PhD in Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois (Chicago). Prior to completing her PhD, Sarah worked as a Research Associate and Planner at the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources in Winnipeg, and as a researcher at the Manitoba office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 

Kurt Espersen-Peters
Assistant Professor, Department of Interior Design

Before joining the University of Manitoba, Kurt was the program coordinator and a professor in the Bachelor of Interior Design program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. Kurt was also a visiting lecturer in the MSc. (Interior Design) Program at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka from 2013 to 2016.

Kurt was born and raised on Vancouver Island, but his curiosity and desire to explore have led him to other spectacular and inspiring places. Always following his keen eye for detail, his interests in art, nature, and the built environment drive his thinking and inspire his creativity.

His passion for teaching and education is equally matched by his obsession with art and the built environment. His academic and artist works explore the creative process and reflective thought. Kurt is excited about his new appointment with the Department of Interior Design at the University of Manitoba. He will continue his research and reflection on the phenomenology of the built environment and the design process, while forever wrestling with the works of the Victorian polymath John Ruskin.

Katherine Isaac
Instructor, Environmental Design Program and Department of Interior Design

Katherine Isaac is an interior designer and educator living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has both undergraduate and masters degrees in interior design from the University of Manitoba, and is a professionally accredited practitioner with over 2 decades of experience. Her career has spanned both Vancouver and Winnipeg to date, and she has practiced at Kasian, Bricault Design and currently, Local. Katherine has previously been awarded the Students’ Teacher Recognition Award in 2015, an honour bestowed for having made a positive impact on a graduating student’s life. Current teaching and research interests centre around Beginning Design pedagogies, expanding understanding of professional practice for emerging designers, and spaces for grieving and memorialization. She welcomes this opportunity to work within and contribute to the University of Manitoba community.

Shawn Bailey
Indigenous Scholar for the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Engineering

Shawn Bailey is a Métis architect with the Manitoba and Ontario Association of Architects.  He holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from the University of Manitoba. Shawn has 12 years of experience in practice working within a wide range of project types, from small to large residential, institutional, industrial, and commercial projects which include both new builds and renovations.

Shawn’s portfolio of work includes award-winning projects situated in North Western Ontario.   Shawn is a partner at Boreal Architecture Studio with offices in both Winnipeg, Manitoba and Kenora, Ontario.  Much of their work is in collaboration with Indigenous communities.  Current indigenous works include the design of an administration complex, skatepark and a healing space exploring a careful interplay between cultures.

Shawn is a native of Kenora, Ontario and was raised in a remote area on Lake of the Woods. Being situated within a rich natural context provided him with sensitivity and a respect towards nature.  Shawn’s work seeks inspiration from his relationship with the natural environment.  He believes the method for seeking an architectural understanding that reanimates our sensory world in relation to nature is one that embraces reciprocity over prescription.

Shawn has also explored material research and digital fabrication. He is interested in exploring  digital technology in more intuitive ways that inform making.  The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:MIT has conducted a series of workshops based on the material research from his design thesis.  Shawn is proficient in Building Information Modelling (BIM) as well as algorithmic modelling software such Grasshopper.

Kamni Gill
Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture

Originally from Calgary, Kamni has worked as a landscape architect in Boston and Lausanne after graduating from the  University of Pennsylvania.

Most recently, Kamni worked in the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield. There she has focused on the craft of landscape architecture as editor of “Thinking Eye”, the visual methodology section of the Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Her teaching and research emphasizes experimental methods of landscape architecture and cultural conceptions of ecology as a human habitat and as an elemental process. Kamni sees trees as a minimal but powerful tool of landscape architects that can express a new poetics and politics of the cities. Recently, Kamni published a paper exploring the spatial and cultural qualities of the grove as interpreted by Aldo Van Eyck, Wm Boer and Mien Ruys in the Journal of Garden History and Designed Landscape and has developed a teaching practice based on urban tree planting types.  

At the University of Manitoba, Kamni will develop the same interest in the raw material of landscape architecture. through a research project Earth Moves that focuses on the structure of urban ground and its social, aesthetic and ecological implications and through the teaching of grading and site morphology. 

Dr. Xihui (Larry)

Dr. Xihui (Larry) Liang joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Assistant Professor in January 2018. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Shandong University, China, in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and the PhD degree in mechanical engineering from University of Alberta in early 2016. After that, he worked as a Postdoc Research Fellow at the University of Alberta for about two years. He has authored/coauthored about 30 articles in prestigious journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, and Reliability Engineering & System Safety. His research interests include nonlinear dynamics, condition monitoring, fault diagnostics and prognostics, reliability analysis, intelligent manufacturing and maintenance.

The following new hires started with the Faculty as of July 1st, 2018:

Dr. Babak Mehran

Dr. Babak Mehran joins the Faculty of Engineering as Assistant Professor in the department of Civil Engineering. Babak received his PhD in Transportation Engineering from Nagoya University, Japan in 2009.  Before joining the University of Manitoba, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science of the University of Regina.  He also held research positions at the University of Tokyo and the University of Waterloo as well as an industrial research and development position with the IBI Group in Toronto. Dr. Mehran’s research is focused on development of innovative solutions to improve the performance of transportation systems. He is particularly interested in optimization of traffic operations and public transportation systems, traffic flow modelling and simulation, applications of intelligent transportation systems, and research on active transportation modes.

Dr. Jillian Seniuk Cicek

Dr. Jillian Seniuk Cicek joins the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education as an Assistant Professor. Her research focus is engineering education. Her areas of investigation include program evaluation; outcomes-based teaching and assessment; engineering competencies; student-centered instruction and active learning strategies; instructor pedagogical practices and belief-systems; curricular design; and student identity. Dr. Seniuk Cicek received her BFA (visual arts), B.Ed., and PhD (Individual Interdisciplinary Studies) degrees at the University of Manitoba, and her MFA (visual arts) and MFA (English, Creative Writing) degrees at the University of Cincinnati and Purdue University, respectively. In her doctoral research, she explored stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative importance and interdependencies of the competencies required for engineering practice to inform undergraduate curricula design. Dr. Seniuk Cicek has taught communication courses for 15 years, and is thrilled by the opportunity to continue collaborating in best pedagogical practices and research in engineering education at the University of Manitoba. 

Dr. Ahmed Ashraf

Dr. Ahmed Ashraf joins the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as Assistant Professor where he would be starting the Manitoba Learning and Artificial Intelligence Research (MLAIR) lab. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, and a Master’s and  Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He conducted postdoctoral work in the department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed machine learning and AI methods for discovering imaging markers of breast cancer, assessing cancer recurrence risk, and predicting chemotherapy response for personalized cancer treatment.

He has published in premier technical and clinical publication avenues such as the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (TMI), Medical Imaging Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), Translational Oncology, and Radiology.

Dr. Ashraf is a recipient of a five-year Fulbright Fellowship, and a two-year AGE-WELL Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) fellowship. In recognition of his work in machine learning and its fit with Vector Institute’s vision and mission, he received the Vector affiliate award in 2018 from the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Faouzi Belili

Dr. Faouzi Bellili also joins the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as Assistant Professor.  Prior to joining the faculty he received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from INRS (University of Quebec), in 2009 and 2014, respectively. From 2014 to 2016, he was a Research Associate with INRS-EMT and from Dec. 2016 to June 2018 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Toronto, ON, Canada. His research focuses on statistical and array signal processing for wireless communications and 5G-enabling technologies. He has authored/co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed papers in reputable IEEE journals and conferences. Dr. Bellili received many Awards and Distinctions including the very prestigious NSERC PDF Grant for the period 2017–2018, the prestigious PDF grant offered over the same period (but declined) from Quebec Fund for Research—Nature and technologies, and the INRS Innovation Award for the year 2014/2015. In 2011, he also received the Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students from the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport of Québec, Canada. In 2010, Dr. Bellili was also awarded the very prestigious Academic Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada and the Excellence Grant of the Director General of INRS.

To review the bio’s of other new Faculty members who have joined our team since Fall 2017 please click here.