Dr. Shiva Nourpanah was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Post-Doctoral Fellow hosted by the CSSLRV from 2019-2021. She is also the Provincial Coordinator of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, a community organization representing and advocating for women’s transition houses and support centres across Nova Scotia. Dr. Nourpanah graduated with a PhD in Social Anthropology from Dalhousie University in August 2017 and brings with her extensive experience conducting research on the experiences of refugees and temporary migrants. She has published research on the ethics of refugee aid, women’s human rights in refugee aid, and the experiences of settlement and integration of Afghan refugees in Canada. Currently, she is researching the role of sexual and gender-based violence in refugee claims. Dr. Nourpanah has also taught at Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University in Halifax and at Vancouver Island University in British Columba. She immigrated to Canada from Iran in 2008 where she had worked for the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees.

Dr. Amy Peirone was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Post-Doctoral Fellow hosted by Myrna Dawson and the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence at the University of Guelph. Amy graduated with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Windsor in October 2019, where her dissertation explored the heterogeneity of experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data from the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS), her current research focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada. In particular, by using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) she is exploring the distinct types of IPV experienced by both males and females, and the multi-level factors related to these different types of IPV. Her research experience and publications include perceptions of police and court discrimination among minority youth, reporting and disclosure practices among survivors of IPV, help-seeking behaviours among IPV survivors with pets, and police response to cases of intimate partner violence in Canada.  Amy is also a long-standing member of the Board of Directors at St. Leonard’s House Windsor, a halfway house for Federal offenders.