Master's Students
Elianta Jaillet
Master's Student, McGill University
Elianta is a master student in the department of geography, having newly joined Prof. Riva’s lab after graduating from McGill with a BA&Sc Honours in Sustainability Science and Society in May 2024. Her research explores the polycrisis in the Northwest Territories, looking particularly at the convergence of the environmental, housing and energy crises in Yellowknife and the impact of their interconnection on the health of the local population.
PhD Students
Bavisha Thurairajah
PhD Student, McGill University
Bavisha began her PhD program in Geography Department at McGill university in the fall of 2024 after completing her MA in Geography under Prof. Riva's supervision. She joined the health geography lab as a research assistant in the summer of 2022 before starting her masters. Her doctoral research will focus on investigating the distribution and impacts of energy poverty among older Canadians using quantitative and qualitative methods, with attention to whether and how this housing issue presents challenges for healthy aging. Her research interests include housing as a social determinant of health, energy poverty and vulnerability, and the role of the built and social environments in aging. Bavisha is currently involved in the STAR Gloucester project as a research assistant.
Laurianne Debanné
PhD Student, McGill University
Laurianne is a PhD student in the Geography Department at McGill University. Through her doctoral research, Laurianne is hoping to explore how energy poverty can be addressed through Canada’s energy transition policy using a mixed method approach. At McGill since her undergraduate degree, she completed an MA in Geography in 2023 and an MSc in Environmental Sciences in 2021. She joined Prof. Riva’s lab in 2020 and has been involved in many of the research group's different projects. She is the research coordinator of the BridgES project. Her research interests center on energy poverty, healthy housing, energy justice, and community-led research.
Morgen Bertheussen
PhD Student, McGill University
Morgen graduated from her master’s in Geography in February 2023 after completing her BA Honours in Ecological Determinants of Health at McGill's School of Environment. Morgen’s research interests revolve around the protective factors of health and well-being across different cultural and geographic settings. Her doctoral research focusses on social dimensions of climate change, and how these can be integrated in adaptation strategies. Currently, Morgen is involved in a research partnership with Tuktoyaktuk, an Inuvialuit community in the Northwest Territories. She is also working on a research project in Gatineau, Québec, where the aim is to identify the psychosocial impacts of reoccurring flood victims.
Hannah Brais
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Hannah is a PhD student in the Geography Department at McGill University. She holds both a BA in Urban Planning and an MSc in Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies from Concordia University. Her research stems from her work as the research coordinator at the Old Brewery Mission, a large homeless service provider in Montreal. Hannah’s doctoral research is focused around homeless services as spaces of care, investigating the difficulty homeless substance users have accessing these spaces, and in turn, accessing support to exit homelessness. This work positions homelessness in a human rights framework, advocating for a universal right to housing. Her research employs a mixed-methods approach, using both quantitative administrative data from service providers, as well as interviews with service users.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Ana Deaconu
Postdoctoral researcher, McGill University
Ana is a postdoctoral researcher who aims to support equitable and resilient food systems. She uses a participatory action research approach and mixed methods to explore links between agriculture, nutrition and health. Currently, she is involved in research projects in Guatemala and Ecuador that work with Indigenous farmers practicing agroecology. These projects explore how agroecology, as a farming strategy and social phenomenon, can advance the health and well-being of farmers and their environments. Ana completed a PhD in Nutrition under the Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Inequalities at Université de Montréal, and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University. She has further experience around food systems and health in Belize and Peru, and lived in Ecuador for five years, with part of that time supported by the Fulbright program.
Research Assistants
Sophie Kutuka
Research Associate, McGill University
Sophie graduated from her master’s in Geography in February 2023 after completing her BSc in the Ecological Determinants of Health at McGill's School of Environment. Her research interests focus on the socio-environmental determinants of health and health disparities. Since joining Prof. Riva’s lab in May 2019, Sophie has been working on various projects related to Indigenous health indicators, housing, food insecurity, and energy poverty. She is the research coordinator for PRISE.
Asia Benford
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Asia is a research assistant in Dr. Riva’s lab, working closely with Laurianne Debanné investigating energy poverty and its intersections with housing in rural Nova Scotia. Asia is an undergraduate student completing her degree in Geography (Urban Studies) and Environmental studies from McGill University. Although her interests are varied, she is particularly interested in how the built environment and processes present in urban areas impact community health and access to resources.
Lauren Traboulsee
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Lauren is an undergraduate student in Geography (Urban Studies) with a minor in Environment. She is currently working as a research assistant with Morgen Bertheussen on the research project in Tuktoyaktuk. Lauren is interested in the interaction between humans and the environment, such as human response and adaptation to climate change. For the Winter 2024 semester, Lauren is on exchange at the University of Melbourne but will return to McGill to complete her degree in the fall!
Honours Undergraduate Students
Tula Adie
HONORS STUDENT, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Tula is an undergraduate student working towards an honours degree in Geography (Urban Studies) with a minor in Political Science at McGill University. Currently, Tula is writing her honours undergraduate thesis, which aims to investigate the relationship between housing conditions and food insecurity in four low-income neighbourhoods in Montreal, QC. Additionally, Tula is interested in public transportation and its impact on health and well-being in urban areas.
Nadia Fekih
HONORS STUDENT, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Nadia Fekih is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Environmental Health and Urban Studies at McGill University. She is interested in researching housing and health policy, especially as it pertains to addressing social (in)justice. With the generous support of the Arts Research Internship Award (ARIA), the Canadian Research Chair in Housing, Community, and Health, and the McGill Centre for Innovation in Storage and Conservation of Energy (McISCE), she has been working on a project called “The Depiction of Energy Poverty in Canadian Mainstream Media” since summer 2024. She is currently working on her Honours thesis on the same topic.
Visiting Students
Semone Armorgan
QUEEN ELIZABETH SCHOLAR, MCGILL UNIVERSITY & THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
Semone is currently pursuing her MSc. in Development Statistics at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Her research interests include Social Economics, Urban Economics and Sustainable Development in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean. As a current Queen Elizabeth Scholar, under the supervision of Prof. Mylene Riva and Dr. Ricardo Clarke, her research is centred around energy deprivation and the development of a multidimensional energy poverty index for Trinidad and Tobago.
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