Members
Dr. Adam Kemezis, chair (he/him) is a professor in the Classics section specializing in the historiography of the Roman Empire. He is the author of Greek Narratives of the Roman Empire under the Severans: Cassius Dio, Philostratus and Herodian (Cambridge, 2014) along with articles and edited volumes on related topics. He has in the past been director of the Classics section and director of graduate programs for our department and his teaching includes courses on a variety of cultural topics in Greco-Roman antiquity, such as Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World and Race, Class and Identity in Imperial Rome.
Emad Afkham is a PhD candidate in History, writing his thesis on aspects of early modern Central European and Iranian history.
Stephanie Dennie (she/her) is an ATS Assistant Lecturer in Greek and Roman history, literature, and myth in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion. She specializes in the history of Sparta from the Archaic to Roman period. Before moving to Edmonton to join the staff at the 天涯社区, she taught at the University of Western Ontario and completed her doctorate there in 2024. She is currently working on a project about the impact of the representation of Sparta in Canadian Right-Wing Extremism, tentatively titled Sparta and the Rhetoric of Right-Wing Extremism in Canada.
Nicola DiNicola (she/her) is a Graduate Student Advisor in the Humanities Division in the Faculty of Arts, and she has worked as a full-time support staff member at the university since 2010. She has a BA (Honors) in History from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Diploma in Communications - Professional Writing from Grant MacEwan University. Her professional interest focuses on equity and inclusion in post-secondary institutional policies. Personally, as a bicycle commuter, she has a strong interest in city planning and advocating for safe and inclusive spaces and infrastructure for people of all abilities to use transit and active transportation modes.
Tristan Ellenberger is an ATS lecturer in the field of Classics. He studies the concept of identity and its articulation in a Roman provincial setting, particularly how it is manifested in the funerary rituals in Roman Pannonia. Tristan is also currently cataloguing and analyzing the stone finds found as part of the Kastro Kallithea Archaeological Project (KKAP). He enjoys teaching topics in Greco-Roman mythology, sex and sexuality in the Greco-Roman world, Athenian democracy, Latin and cultures of the ancient world.
Stéphane-D. Perreault is a scholar of Canadian history who is especially interested in deconstructing the colonial dynamics that have and continue to make up the Canadian settler identity. His graduate research focused on the history of the d/Deaf communities in Montréal from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Since coming to Alberta, his focus has shifted to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), with a specific interest in the intersection between the academic teaching of history and the practise of teachers of social studies in the K-12 system. In addition to his teaching and scholarly activity, he has been active within the Alberta Francophone community, having been part of the boards of the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta and the Société historique francophone de l'Alberta, and having chaired the Réseau santé albertain. He is also active in the SoTL community and sits on the EDI committee of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and is Francophone VP on the executive of its Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL Canada) affiliate organisation.
Tulika Singh is a PhD Candidate in History, writing her thesis on perceptions of bodies and disabilities in early South Asia. Her research interests include the social, cultural, medical, and disability history. In her doctoral project, she engages with the intersectionality of physical impairments and disabilities with caste/class, sex/gender, and age based identities. Tulika investigates how identities based on discourses of bodily “difference” and “otherness” are conceptualized and perceived in premodern South Asian societies.
Deepannita Srabon (she/her) is a third-year honours student in History pursuing a minor in political science. She is the VP External for the History, Classics, and Religious Studies Undergraduate Society (HCRUS) and one of the humanities councillors with the Organization for Arts Students & Interdisciplinary Studies (OASIS). Her academic interest lies in modern South Asia and its colonial legacy. Outside of academia, she is interested in increasing student engagement and fostering community within the department.
Dr. James A. White (he/him) is an ATS lecturer in pre-modern history with a focus on the European Middle Ages. He focuses on sainthood, gender, and the body in medieval history with a particular interest in how women interpreted the body of Christ during the late Middle Ages (c. 1200 - c. 1500). Originally from the United States, he has degrees in biology, French, German, and history, with additional studies in leadership--all of which are surprisingly related. Medicine and religion were often intertwined during the Middle Ages, and women could achieve leadership in holy circles or be condemned as witches, depending on how their audiences perceived them. When he is not thinking about the past, he is interested in issues of gender, sexuality, and accessibility today. At the 天涯社区, he is particularly interested in how first-generation undergraduate students and potential first-generation graduate students can better receive advice about their prospective careers--not just the theory, but also the resources and "how do I...?" details. A first-generation student himself, he benefited greatly from generous mentors as an undergraduate and wants to break down these barriers that are often presumed knowledge.