BRIEFING NOTES
The Graduate Fellows program with GAC is designed to provide students an opportunity to gain mentorship and guidance from senior scholars as they advance their own policy research and writing skills.
Under the program, clusters of three to four students are selected to participate in projects led by BSIA faculty that engage them in both independent and collective research and policy analysis. The program is divided into three phases. The first is the research phase, during which students develop a high degree of substantive expertise on the subject matter of the project. The second phase is the policy brief stage, when students co-author a briefing note that draws on their collective research from the first phase. The third phase is the presentation phase, which includes a day of oral briefings at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa. Students will be given an opportunity to present their briefing notes and the findings of their research to, and receive critical feedback from, policy experts with global experience. Following the presentation in Ottawa, students are invited to revise their briefing notes based on the feedback they received prior to submitting the notes for publication.
2023 Individual Policy Briefs
Geopolitics and Climate
Challenging Assumptions: Repositioning Canada in the Multilateral Order
Joseph De Sapio, Larissa Prata Varella, Alan Sovran and Oshish Ungras
Mentors: Jill Sinclair, Seyed Ali Hosseini and Eric Hubberstey
Climatizing Canadian Security: Reframing Security for an Uncertain Future
Nidhu Jagoda, Logan Smith, Francis Grenier and István Kéry
Mentors: Simon Dalby, Justin Barnes and Burgess Langshaw Power
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: Economics, Trade, Regional and Cyber Security
Kankshi Amin, Drake Kindred, Fahd Shah and Ty Sorensen
Mentor: Kimie Hara
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: Sustained and Sustainable Middle Power Cooperation
Benjamin Khan, Anthony Samuels and Jacklyn Yee
Mentor: David Welch and Jacob Benjamin
Technology
COVID-19 Consumer Trends and GAC’s Role in the Digital Economic Recovery
Benedikt Beck, Shawn O’Connor, Natalie Playford and Ayla Rath
Mentors: Alan Whiteside and Indra Noyes
Medtech and the Future: Canada as a Global Leader in Advancing Health Care and Innovation
Oliver Campbell, Chelsea Sidloski and Natalie Suzor
Mentor: Hani El Masry and Karim Sallaudin Karim
Combatting Disinformation: Confronting Digital Authoritarianism and Strengthening Democracy
Brandon Dickson, Zahra Ludin and Emily Miller
Mentor: Mariam Mufti and Abbas Imam
Canada’s Foreign Policy Objective: Combatting the Pillars of Digital Authoritarianism
Aleyna Aygor, Mehnaz Hossain, Shalin Nayak and Temi Reju
Mentor: John Abraham and Naireen Khan
Shaping Responsible AI Governance and GAC’s Role in Regulating Lethal Autonomous Weapons
Sascha Simon, Jacob Storto-Ahearn, Fathima Bushra Zaheer and Nermeen Zia Islam
Mentor: Colin Chia and Mohamed Soufan
International Assistance
Queering Canadian Development Policy
Anya Johnson Poon, Chloé Currie and Shaza Ahmed
Mentors: Andrew Thompson, Felicia Clement and Ben Skinner
Canada’s International Assistance and the Disability-Food Insecurity-Conflict Nexus
Laura Manners, Saya Soma, Alma Stafa and Sarah Thoutenhoofd
Mentors: Andrew Thompson and Sarah Murray
Global Skills Mobility Partnerships: An Opportunity for Canada
Zainab Al-Jaiashi, Ruth Farkas, Rena Harrison and Luke Lustig-Bruce
Mentors: Margaret Walton-Roberts and Leah Cabral
Projecting Canadian Social Values in Managing International Refugee Crises
Yaseen Abdulhai, Suha Osman and Mackenzie White
Mentors: Ann Fitz-Gerald, Hari Jnawali and William Gillam