New faculty members in Arts

Fri. Nov. 17, 2017

The Faculty of Arts is pleased to introduce new faculty members in six departments.

"I am very pleased to welcome such a diverse and accomplished group of new members to the Faculty of Arts," says Dr. Glenn Moulaison, Dean of the Faculty of Arts. "I hope all will find here a place to thrive, a community building upon all their strengths."

Stephanie Balkwill
Assistant Professor in Religion & Culture

Stephanie Balkwill is very happy to be back on the Canadian prairie! From Regina, SK, Dr. Balkwill completed her BA (High Honours) in Religious Studies at the University of Regina, where she also began studying Mandarin. Upon completion of her undergraduate degree, she set off to China on a U of R exchange to study the language intensively for one year at Shandong University. Now—almost fifteen years later—she has lived in China on and off over the course of her graduate studies, has traveled extensively across all of Asia, and is ever more fascinated with the question of how people have been religious across the long history of the region. Dr. Balkwill’s work focuses on the social, literary, and political lives of Buddhist women who lived in China between the fourth and sixth centuries. Read more

Davina DesRoches
Assistant Professor in Sociology


Davina DesRoches is an emerging scholar with specializations in the political economy of communication, museology, heritage conservation, cultural production, labour, and urban studies. She completed her PhD in 2016 at Queen’s University under the supervision of Dr. Vincent Mosco. Dr. DesRoches’s research critically examines museums in capitalist societies, with particular attention paid to the labour and working conditions of museum staff. Her current research project is a comparative study of museum employees across four different institutions, and documents how these workers are responding to changes in museum workplace organization and culture, including increasingly insecure employment, declining levels of compensation, and shrinking labour protections.

Dr. DesRoches is a former Research Associate at the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and has previously taught at the University of Lethbridge.

Karen Froman
Lecturer in History


Karen Froman is a lecturer at the University of Winnipeg and a PhD student at the University of Manitoba. She is a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, Mohawk nation. Her research interests include contemporary urban Indigenous identity and culture, and imagery and representations in film with a focus on the documentary record of the National Film Board in the mid 20th century.

Adam Parboosingh
Assistant Professor in Theatre & Film

Adam Parboosingh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film where he teaches in the Design area of study. Mr. Parboosingh holds a Diploma in Technical Theatre from Mount Royal College, a B.F.A. in Drama from the University of Calgary and a M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia focusing on Scenery and Lighting design.

Mr. Parboosingh has been teaching at the university and college level for the past 13 years in the USA. He has taught in Minnesota, Illinois and most recently Louisiana where he was the lighting and projection design faculty at LSU in Baton Rouge.

One of his goals as a researcher is the development and execution of integrated projections, specifically video, into the scenographic process. This field of theatre design should be an exploration between the story, performer and the technology, more than just another layer of visual stimulation for the audience. Read more

Derek Spencer
Assistant Professor in Criminal Justice

Derek Spencer holds a Bachelor of Arts, Juris Doctor (law degree) and a Master of Laws (LLM). Concurrent to his LLM studies he completed a two-year certificate in Learning and Teaching Higher Education. He completed his LLM at the University of Victoria, undertaking a detailed examination of the Protecting Canadians by Ending Sentence Discounts for Multiple Murders Act, a piece of legislation enacted by the Harper government in 2011 as part of their “tough on crime” agenda. His work examined sentencing for murder in Canada from historical, comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. His thesis has been of considerable interest to lawyers working on cases involving the new legislation. A chapter of his thesis is published in the current edition of the Canadian Criminal Law Review (volume 22(2)) and another chapter is forthcoming in Criminal Law Quarterly. A predominate theme in his work involves the role of hope in the criminal justice system. He continues to research in the areas of criminal law, including sentencing and constitutional law, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 

Tara Williamson
Instructor in Indigenous Studies

Tara Williamson is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was raised in Gaabishkigamaag (Swan Lake, Manitoba), and has close family ties to Beardy’s Okemasis. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work (University of Manitoba, 2006), a Juris Doctor (University of Victoria, 2010) and a Master of Arts – Indigenous Governance (University of Victoria, 2010).

She was a professor at Fleming College in Peterborough from 2011 – 2014, has been an instructor at Trent University in Indigenous Studies and continues to teach in the Ryerson/First Nations Technical Institute Public Policy and Administration Program.

Ms. Williamson has worked with and for local, provincial, and national Indigenous organizations and communities since 2002. Some of her past work experiences include: The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Native Women’s Association of Canada, Native Youth Sexual Health Network, and Grand Council of Treaty 3. Her work focuses on Indigenous governance and policy as it relates to social services, youth, gender, and community organizing. She is also a mom, aunty, musician, and writer.