Pre-Social Work

Samantha’s research and teaching experience includes sociology and language revitalization as well as English as a Second Language teaching and academic writing.

After graduating from Simon Fraser University, Samantha gained first-hand experience as an international student while on the Japanese government MEXT program in Okinawa, Japan.

She completed her master’s in Linguistics and Communications and doctorate in Comparative Regional Culture and Area Studies at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, and continues her Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL)-sponsored research on language reclamation in Okinawan cultural arts.

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Dr. Panahi obtained her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She was a recipient of Ph.D. award from the Genentech Pharmaceutical Company, California, USA. She was also awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Canadian Blood Services to perform research on blood coagulation proteins at the Centre for Blood Research of the University of British Columbia.

She has worked as a research associate at the University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia and Health Canada. She has many years of teaching experience teaching many biology courses in various colleges and universities in Ottawa and in Vancouver.

Dr. Panahi believes in involving students in “active learning”. That means that students will learn best if they are given the opportunity to express the concepts and ideas through discussion and experimentation.

To accomplish this goal, Dr. Panahi actively engages them in class participation and discussion in order for them to express their ideas to their peers in a professional and respectful way.

Fairuz is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Ottawa, majoring in Feminist and Gender Studies. Her dissertation focuses on Garo women, a small matrilineal indigenous community in Bangladesh, examining their work in Dhaka’s beauty parlors, exploring the ethnic conflict, and investigating their migration and mobility within the capital city and the beauty industry.

Fairuz is also passionate about the pedagogical exploration of Canadian academic spaces in the post-pandemic era. She has published extensively and presented at conferences on the discrimination against racialized bodies and minds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, she has proposed solutions for reconstructing educational institutions using a model of pedagogy centered on care and inclusion.