Research Assistants
We gratefully acknowledge our research assistants.
Menar al-Najjar
Honours Arts and Business Co-op, Legal Studies and Sociology, University of Waterloo, 2024
Menar Al-Najjar is a final year Arts and Business candidate at the University of Waterloo, and she is planning on pursuing a JD and a career in the legal field. Menar has worked at the University of Waterloo since 2021 within various positions and departments, including the School of Accounting and Finance, Human Resources, and Legal and Immigration Services. Menar is dedicated to her community and volunteers wherever she can at various not-for-profit organizations, such as the Ray of Hope, the Islamic Humanitarian Service, and Muslim Social Services. Additionally, Menar sits on the Board of the Al-Zahra Youth Committee, who are dedicated to developing a platform where Muslim youth can be involved in social, cultural, spiritual, and academic activities.
Jeremy Andriano is a Master's candidate in the Joint Communication and Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. His research interests center around electronic literature and the digital humanities, particularly as they relate to critical game studies and the creation of branching narratives and dynamic texts. He is the author of the 2022 open-source online textbook Creating Playable Stories with Ink and Inky which was awarded first runner up in the DH Awards for the category BEST DH TRAINING MATERIALS.
Jeremy Andriano
Panni Ajtony
Panni Ajtony
MMSt, University of Toronto, Museum Studies, 2024
BA, University of Groningen, Arts, Culture and Media, 2020
Panni Ajtony is a research assistant of the Decameron Collective and a Toronto-based museum and cultural professional. With local and international experience in public programming and curation, she is passionate about creating engaging and accessible cultural and art experiences. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, Panni holds a BA in Arts, Culture and Media from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and a Master of Museum Studies degree from the University of Toronto. As a researcher, her main interests lie in questions of access, public programming, and museums’ adaptability in the 21st century.
University of Chicago
Harriet fisher is a creative and ambitious student at the University of Chicago studying Economics, Media Design, and Computer Science. She has a keen interest in business, research, and social and digital media. Having worked in several disciplines spanning from finance to technological development, she is eager to diversify her skills. With an eye on the future, she works at the intersection of technology and creativity, recognizing the growing digitalization of our landscape.
Harriet Fisher
Kevin Ghouchandra
MA Literatures of Modernity, Toronto Metropolitan University
Kevin Ghouchandra is an educator and researcher interested in interactivity and the impact of form on texts, game-player interactions, and LGBTQ+ storytelling. His work focuses on community engagement and anti-oppressive practice.
Griffen Horsley
MA, Communication and Culture, TMU-YorkU (2023)
HBASc, Anthropology, Lakehead University (2020)
Griffen Horsley is an emerging museum professional, educator, and research creator. His MA thesis project explored abstract photo-scanography as a means of reconciling with the inter-personal and political implications of grief. Examining sentimental objects and images through the lens of hauntology, his work asks how academic research, art, and artifacts are haunted by social and cultural forces. With a focus on themes of love, isolation, grief, and memory, Griffen hopes to imagine new ways of thinking, feeling, and being through artistic and scholarly expression.
Contact: www.linkedin.com/in/griffen-horsley
Anika Koops
Anika Koops is a Psychology and Art History student at Western University. Her studies focus primarily on psychological research and therapies, but she feels happiest in her studio art courses. Creating from a young age, Anika has found herself drawn back to art time and time again. Her creative work finds itself most prominent in dance, painting, and poetry. Finding artistic ways to express her thoughts, feelings, and experiences has fueled Anika's love for creative outlets throughout her life. Anika is honored to be a part of a research project for Athabasca University in collaboration with the Decameron Collective. She is inspired by the creative works of the scholars and artists of the Decameron Collective and hopes to continue creating her personal artwork for years to come.
Max Kronby
Max is a McGill student in Mechanical Engineering who has brought animation, photoshop, rotoscoping, web design, and hardware and VR setup skills to support the Collective's projects.
He continues to experiment with ways of creating artworks with digital tools.
MA Literatures of Modernity 2021, Toronto Metropolitan University
Alevtina supported the work of Decameron 2.0 in 2021, when she was a master’s student in the first “pandemic cohort” of the Literatures of Modernity program @ TMU. In a time reality seemed spun off-axis, working with Dr. Tschofen provided a way of seeing both through and beyond — an ability as useful to the analysis of philosophy/film/literature as it is to the development of health policy, which she does now.
Alevtina Lapiy
Julia Menezes
School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University
Julia Menezes (she/her) is a Master of Planning candidate at Toronto Metropolitan University. With experience in community engagement and design, she is interested in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of public engagement, housing affordability, and belonging in urban space.