Faculty of Social Sciences

Salsabil Sarhan is graduating with a combined Honours in Labour Studies & Political Science with a minor in Public Leadership: that reveals itself immensely with her extracurricular commitments.  

Throughout her undergraduate career, Salsabil has left services & clubs better than they started by supporting the growth of her fellow peers. Through her involvement on the McMaster Social Sciences Society as first year representative, undergraduate representative for the equity, inclusion and Indigenous strategies committee, and President of the faculty; Salsabil introduced inclusive hiring practices & revitalized the overall character of the society. 

Continuing her advocacy work, Salsabil was elected as the youngest member of the Mcmaster Student Union’s student representative assembly & sat on the municipality affairs and athletics/recreation committees to introduce fresh notions of thinking. Which encouraged her to become the media and promotions coordinator for the non for profit Bridging Borders Hamilton & the Vice President outreach for the McMaster Black Students Association to connect with various stakeholders within the Hamilton community. 

Salsabil lives by the notion of leaving a positive impact wherever she engages whether academic, socially or within her various communities, which inspired her to be a welcome week representative for four years dancing away in those blue overalls becoming a friendly face for students and parents. 

After her time at McMaster, Salsabil will be pursuing a career in municipal politics & community outreach/development within the City of Hamilton, inshallah (god willing).

Elizabeth is graduating with an Honours degree in Labour Studies and Political Science. Elizabeth served as the McMaster Students Union (MSU) Speaker in her second year and later served as the MSU’s Vice-President Education in her last year of school. At McMaster, she coordinated election awareness events on campus to increase student voter turnout. Elizabeth advocated to the provincial and federal government on various student issues such as affordability and housing.

Elizabeth’s commitment to advocacy and education goes beyond McMaster’s campus through her role as the elected Ward 1 Trustee at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Elizabeth seeks to give back to the community and to advocate for accessible education for all students.

Elizabeth would like to express sincere gratitude to her family and friends for their never-ending support throughout her journey at McMaster. 

Shaza Zahir Hassan is a graduating student of the Honours Social Psychology program at McMaster. Over the course of her undergraduate degree, Shaza has maintained an active membership within the McMaster community by taking on several roles such as International Student Ambassador Lead for the Faculty of Social Sciences, Teaching Assistantships within the Social Psychology and Health, Aging and Society departments, executive membership within the Social Psychology Society, and Volunteer Facilitator for the Community Volunteer Circles, to name a few.

Shaza is dedicated to cultivating a sense of community for students at McMaster, especially for those who are far from home and their lifelong sources of social support. As she continues her academic journey with McMaster by pursuing the M.A. in Health and Aging, Shaza wishes to pursue her research interests at the intersection of mental health, education and cultural diversity to hopefully support international students and recent immigrants.

Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard is a highly regarded social worker, educator, researcher, community activist and advocate of social change. She was hired into a tenure-track position at the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University in 1990 – Dalhousie’s first African Nova Scotian tenure-track hire – and in 2007 was promoted to Full Professor. She was the first Black Canadian to become a full professor at Dalhousie University. 

In her early days of practice, as a social worker in Nova Scotia, Dr. Bernard worked in rural community practice at the municipal level, and in mental health at the provincial level. She was one of the founding members in 1979 of the Association of Black Social Workers, an organization that works to improve welfare and child services for Black families in Canada through legislative advocacy. In 2005, she was appointed to the Order of Canada for her work addressing racism and diversity in the field of social work. 

In 2016 Bernard was named to the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit as an independent. She is the first African Nova Scotian woman to serve in the Senate Chamber. Dr. Bernard has long worked for the recognition of the day in 1834 that Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act, signaling the end of slavery in Canada and the country’s other colonies. She proposed a private member’s bill in 2018, and in March of 2021, the Government of Canada officially designated every August 1 as Emancipation Day across the country. 

Dr. Andy Knight is a world leader in the study of international organizations, global governance and human security. His extraordinary academic career is distinguished by prolific and innovative research, and a remarkable record of public engagement in Canada and abroad. 
 
Dr. Knight is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Alberta, a Fulbright scholar and Distinguished Chair in International Relations at Yale University in the 2021/2022 session, the Governor of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) between 2007 and 2012 and director of the Institute of International Relations, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad & Tobago, between 2013 and 2016. 
 
A McMaster graduate, Dr. Knight’s work is at the forefront of global thinkers helping to make sense of seismic changes in the political sphere on a worldwide scale. His research has focused on societal or global challenges, including the UN system, radicalization/extremism, xenoracism, post-conflict peace-building, globalization and regionalization and piracy. Dr. Knight’s research oeuvre is eclectic, rich, robust, cutting-edge and ground-breaking.