Postdoctoral Associates

Sandra Houle

I received my PhD in rehabilitation sciences at the University of Ottawa in July 2026. My doctoral thesis is entitled Fostering social connection: An arts-based inquiry with graduate students. I am currently in a one-year postdoctoral appointment at Western University supervised by Professor Dr. Debbie Rudman.

Research Interests / Specializations: Exploring third places and community arts and their role in the lives of diverse marginalized groups for social connection, social inclusion and access to resources. I use arts-based and qualitative approaches.

Becky Parkin

Rebecca completed her Ph.D. in Occupational Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2026. Her dissertation, Going Skin Deep: A Collaborative Ethnographic Study of White Caucusing and Antiracism Praxis in the Everyday, integrated occupational science and critical theories of race, racism, and critical whiteness to provide a theoretical understanding of how social processes among people who identify as White can cultivate intergenerational complacency and complicity in structural racism. The research also demonstrated how those same social dynamics can be transformed to build antiracist capacities and practices that challenge structural racism and its normalized patterns. The findings have broad relevance for scholars, educators, practitioners, and community members seeking to advance racial equity.

Research Interests / Specializations: Using critical qualitative and participatory methodologies, Rebecca's postdoctoral research focuses on antiracism pedagogy in postsecondary professional education programs across the United States and Canada. Building on her doctoral scholarship, this research examines how commonplace and often unexamined norms contribute to the persistence of structural racism across classroom, faculty, institutional, and broader societal contexts. It also seeks to identify actionable strategies for addressing and transforming these harmful structures and practices.