Undergraduate, MA, and Ph.D. students who are working as research assistants or are completing their degrees through the Historical GIS lab. The degree a student is pursuing is listed next to their name.
Kashif Ali is a specialist in GIS who came to the University of Saskatchewan from the National University of Sciences and Technology to work on mapping, OCR, and NER.
David is in the final year of his Juris Doctor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. He also has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and a Certificate in Global Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. David has worked as a research assistant on various projects in the HGIS Lab since 2023 for Dr. Jim Clifford and Dr. Cheryl Troupe. His most significant contributions are to the Mapping Settler Colonialism in Saskatchewan project.
Rhianne Billard is currently in a final year of a Honours History degree at the University of Saskatchewan. Her academic interests include Indigenous Prairie History and the commemoration/public history surrounding Indigenous People. Rhianne plans to continue her education with an MA in History with the intention to pursue a career in Archival work.
David Blasius is studying German, English, and Computer Science for secondary school teaching at Saarland University in Germany. He is a visiting research student at the University of Saskatchewan, working with Dr. Benjamin Hoy in the HGIS Lab. His research interests centre on language, cultural identity, and belonging in German-speaking communities in Saskatchewan, with a particular interest in Hutterite communities.
My thesis research involves the use of Historical GIS techniques to examine how agricultural and soil sciences influenced the settlement and land usage patterns in Saskatchewan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My research interests are in mid-to-late 19th to early 20th century Canadian Prairie History, particularly in relation to settler-Indigenous-Crown relations, agricultural history, and the implementation of government policy.
My research examines how settlement converted Indigenous land into private property on the Canadian prairies. Between 1880 and 1930, Saskatchewan developed an intricate settler network of homesteads, large-scale farms, and more than 900 hamlets, villages, towns, and cities. Combining close archival reading with historical GIS and text mining, my dissertation asks how this network functioned, who accumulated land beyond the homestead scale, and how its growth related to the pace and pattern of Indigenous dispossession. My preliminary work shows that settler density, not reserve population, was the strongest predictor of reserve land surrender. By showing that dispossession on the prairies was driven by the accumulated, everyday pressure of settler economic life as well as by policy, I hope this work helps settler Canadians see how ordinary acts of settlement made dispossession real on the ground.
Andrew Kelly is a third-year History Student at the University of Saskatchewan. He is interested in the emergence of America as a world superpower since the Second World War and US foreign relations. As a research assistant for Dr. Ben Hoy on his Justice Across Borders Team, Andrew tracks and records late 19th and early 20th century extradition cases, and creates maps for a wide range of projects. Andrew plans to pursue a degree in Law after the completion of his Bachelors of History.
Nina Bernhardine is a second year North American Literary and Cultural Studies Student at Saarland University in Germany. She is a visiting research student through the MITACS program working with Dr. Hoy in the HGIS Lab. Their research project focuses on advancing the intersection of queer studies and border studies within the Canadian context. They seek to analyze lesbian literary works and cultural practices in the borderlands to offer new insights into how border regimes and heteronormative structures are challenged through narratives and representation. Further research interests include gendered mobility, queer temporalities, and asexuality studies.
My research uses canola to determine how the political-economy of Saskatchewan agriculture changed between 1980 and 1990. I focus on how canola helped both farmers and governments remain competitive in an expanding global market.
Farheen Malik studied international relations at Hazara University Mansehra before doing a Mitacs internship in the HGIS lab.
Kiera Mitchell is a PhD Candidate in History researching how women were impacted by and reacted to family property law in Canada during the 1970s and 1980s. She is also a research assistant on Dr. Valerie Korinek’s SSHRC funded research project, Love + Litigation = Marriage: Canadian Same-Sex Marriage and Its International Implications.
Anna is in her final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan, pursuing Political Studies and an Honours degree in International Studies. Her academic interests include international politics and the history of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Following the completion of her undergraduate degrees, she plans to pursue an MA in History with a focus on Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. Outside of academics, Anna is also working toward the very important goal of getting a cat.
Abeer Umar is a law student from the National University of Science and Technology.
Xiaoru Wen is a visiting intern from China. With an academic background in civil engineering, his interests focus on interdisciplinary approaches to spatial research, historical geography, and cultural heritage protection. At the HGIS Lab, his summer research involves mapping historical extradition cases between Canada and the US, utilizing QGIS to explore the spatial dynamics of 19th-century cross-border mobility. Passionate about the intersection of technology and the humanities, Xiaoru plans to pursue graduate studies. Outside of academic cartography, he also has a strong interest in game-based learning design and exploring how platforms like Minecraft can be used to communicate history to the public.
Hannah is finishing an undergraduate degree in History at the University of Saskatchewan
