Meet Team Giles
Ph.D. Students
Umerdad Khudadad Britta Peterson Talia Ritondo |
Master's Students
Sofia Pantano Meredith Wing |
Undergraduate Students
Stay tuned! |
Umerdad Khudadad
Umerdad is a second-year PhD student in Human Kinetics. He completed an undergraduate degree in Nursing and a MSc in Health Policy and Management from the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where he lived as a refugee from his homeland of Afghanistan. He was awarded the competitive National Institute of Health Fogarty International Collaborative Trauma and Injury Research Training (ICTIRT) fellowship to complete his MSc training. His doctoral research is co-supervised by Dr. Giles and Dr. Ian Pike of UBC. Through his research, he examines the intersections of deprivation and home injuries. Umerdad enjoys playing football and working out. Britta Peterson A second-year PhD student, Britta has lived and played across Canada, from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Central Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Her formal education has targeted all things recreation and leisure, while her research is focused on Indigenous conceptualizations of leisure in relation to the development of personal and community identity. In her leisure time, she is passionate about exploring nature by canoe and bike, drinking lattes, and challenging social and systemic inequities. Britta received the 2023 Marion Miller Award from the Canadian Congress for Leisure Research for the most outstanding paper authored by a Canadian graduate student. Talia Ritondo Talia is a second-year, SSHRC-funded PhD student in Human Kinetics. She is co-supervised by Dr. Francine Darroch in the Department of Health Science at Carleton University. Her research is contributing to Dr. Darroch (PI) and Dr. Giles' (Co-I) SSHRC-funded research on elite athletics and pregnancy. She is examining the nexus of pregnancy, safe sport, and human rights. Talia completed her Master of Arts in Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University. Her thesis critically examined postnatal women’s community team sport participation. During the year between her MA and PhD, she was Brock’s Gender & Sexual Violence Education Coordinator. For her leisure, Talia plays competitive beach volleyball and enjoys weightlifting, baking, video games, and board games. Talia received the 2022 Marion Miller Award from the Canadian Congress for Leisure Research for the most outstanding paper authored by a Canadian graduate student. Sofia Pantano Sofia is in her first year Master of Arts at the School of Human Kinetics. She completed her Bachelor of Commerce, Honours, in Management at Carleton University where she continued to grow her love for the water. Sofia took on leadership roles with Ravens Artistic Swimming and Ravens Women's Waterpolo. Sofia is passionate about aquatic safety and drowning prevention, especially in marginalized groups. Throughout her Master's thesis, she hopes to discover and analyze the trends between demographics and the risk of drowning. Sofia continues to engage with her athletic and aquatic passion by playing Gee-Gees Water Polo and hopes to promote aquatic safety in different realms and environments. Meredith Wing Meredith is a first-year master student under the co-supervision of Dr. Audrey Giles (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Nancy Spencer (University of Alberta). Meredith graduated from Queen’s University with a BSc in Kinesiology and a Certificate in Disability and Physical Activity. She fostered her passion for disability advocacy and health promotion throughout her time as a student trainer in the Revved Up accessible gym and as an undergraduate researcher. While at Queen’s, Meredith also spent time exploring their love of music and philosophy, hosting a weekly radio show on CFRC 101.9. Embarking on this new stage of her education, Meredith looks forward to developing her skills as a qualitative researcher in the field of disability studies, while contributing her unique perspective as a disabled person. As part of developing these skills, they continue to engage with Indigenous research and decolonize their thinking and awareness. In her free time, Meredith enjoys reading about anything and everything and has recently begun skateboarding (so she needs all the tips and tricks she can get)! |