Members

Stephanie Fox
Lab co-director

Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

Her research focuses on how communication processes shape and are shaped by collaboration practices across professional boundaries.

More specifically, Stephanie studied the role of communication in interprofessional collaboration in health care, both in primary and hospital care. She is particularly interested in how collaborators define the care situation and how they collectively navigate the multiple definitions that are often simultaneously at play, given differences in professional epistemology, organizational and institutional status, and relationship with patients. She is also interested in the role of the patient or client within the context of collaborative care.
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Kirstie McAllum
Lab co-director

Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

Her research interests focus on deepening our understanding of how organisational members who do not interact regularly construct the meaning of their work, often in different ways.

Kirstie is particularly interested in the experiences and organisational and occupational identities of persons who occupy hybrid public-private spaces, such as volunteers or workers who are employed and managed by an organisation yet work with aged persons in home-based care environments. She aims to show how the multiple meanings given to work and organisational experiences more generally can be mobilised as a resource for individuals who occupy a peripheral organisational position. She also investigates how communicative processes, which create particular types of collective behaviour, can facilitate and constrain organisational participation. In particular, her research examines how discourses about professionalism combine with organisational control and coordination mechanisms to structure relationality in particular ways, often with the aim of increasing collaboration, and frequently minimising or suppressing dissent. To do so, she analyses how organisational members construct communities of practice by negotiating what ways of knowing and doing should be used to resolve organisational problems and what constitutes appropriate forms of interaction.
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Mary Simpson
Professor Member

Associate Professor, School of Management and Marketing, University of Waikato.

Her research focuses on stakeholder participation in organisations and the changing nature of organisational membership, with most of her research concentrating on elders (people over 65 years old).

Her PhD looked at communication issues associated with retirement village organisations and retirement village residents. Currently, she is exploring digital communication and online citizenship in relation to intergenerational communication. Her research interests led her to work with the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust (RKCT) in 2009, and to become a long-term supporter of the Trust. In 2011 and 2015, she collaborated on a presentation for Kingitanga Day at Waikato University. In 2014, Mary was part of the Trust's advisory group to develop a suicide prevention strategy for Kaumātua. Since 2012, her key support role has involved organizing a volunteer student communications team for the Kaumātua Olympics. This event has over 300 competitors and 80 volunteers.
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Pascale Caidor
Professor Member

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

In her research, Pascale is interested in the relationship between public relations and different forms of inequality and their impact on social justice.

Her work highlights the important social role of public relations in developing measures, policies, and action programs to protect marginalized communities' interests. Alongside her interest in public relations, she has researched equity, diversity, and inclusion change initiatives in organizations. In addition to her research experience, she has held several communications and project management positions.
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Marie-Ève Vautrin-Nadeau
Student Member

PhD Candidate (Department of Communication, Université de Montréal) and an aspiring peer helper in mental health.

Interested in the organization of mental health care and services, she dedicates her doctoral research to the study of how the experience of mental disorder and recovery is narrated and to understanding the position of the communicator embodied by people who use services. 

As both an emerging researcher and a user of mental health services, Marie-Ève combines her love of observation, listening, and analysis with a strong commitment to her work.
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Valérie Parent
Student Member

PhD Candidate, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

Her professional and academic experience bears witness to her wholehearted commitment to the welfare of the young people entrusted to the Youth Protection services (DPJ). This commitment is reflected in her choice to become a psychoeducator and her research activities.

Her doctoral research is anchored in her own observations in youth rehabilitation centres and her desire to improve the knowledge and practices in this field. Valérie is fascinated by the way rehabilitation professionals carry out their daily practices. More specifically, in her doctoral project, she reconceptualizes rehabilitation practices through the lens of interaction, to examine their very nature. Through her research activities, she aims to shine light on the work of different stakeholders in this context, and to reveal the complexities of rehabilitation practice, seen from the inside.
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Laura Ginoux
Student Member

PhD Student and Lecturer, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

Her research is situated at the crossroads between health communication, intercultural interactions, and organizational collaboration.

 

Her current research focuses on family caregiver-health physician interactions and knowledge sharing in ethnocultural groups. Laura is also interested in organizational conflict, interprofessional collaboration, and the ways that organizing gets done in non-profit contexts and emotions are managed in health care teams. Her methodological choices align with her research focus: she is committed to developing a decolonial approach to research and integrating collaborative principles of co-design and community-based participation into her study of knowledge sharing.
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Babacar Cissé
Student Member

PhD Student, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal.

His research aims to better understand community efforts in the organization of health care in certain regions of Senegal, particularly in the Kaffrine region located in the center-west. 

Babacar is particularly interested in the experience of the collective fields in the village of Nguérane Fass. He examines the following questions: How do villagers decide on and implement this form of collaboration? How do community members organize such a large-scale collaboration? What are the key success factors of this organizing? What forms of communication permeate and structure this organization? What communication process es have led to the constitution of this community collaboration? What are the necessary relationships and negotiations that take place between the members for the constitution of such a form of community collaboration? How does communication allow us to understand the construction of this community collaboration? Babacar is also interested in the role of communication in public health institutions, in communication about the patient's therapeutic itinerary and in the doctor-patient relationship.
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Jacinthe Dupuis
Student Member

PhD Student in communication, Université de Montréal.

Léna Meyer
Student Member

PhD Student in Communication, Université de Montréal. 

After starting her academic journey in journalism, Léna found a new interest in organizational communication after writing some pieces for company magazines and internal communication.

She then began a DESS in organizational communication, then a master’s in communication, and she is now pursuing doctoral studies. Her personal experiences with health, social security, and health promotion undoubtedly influenced her interest in health communication. Let’s add a pinch of feminism to the mix, and we get her desire to study and promote women's health, by and for women. Her research focuses on interprofessional collaboration in medical teams, with a particular emphasis on midwives and the sensemaking of their work in the Quebec health system.
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Tanika Ferron-Ritchie
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Her research interests are related to the promotion of mental health, and more particularly to anti-stigma campaigns. She is interested in the link that exists between the stigma of mental illness and the health inequities that persist in Canada.

As part of her dissertation, Tanika will try to answer several questions: How does stigma affect health inequities? What are the effects of anti-stigma campaigns on public preconceptions about mental illness? What messages are used in these campaigns, and how are they disseminated and received? To answer these questions, several communication concepts are central, such as recovery narratives and the communication model of stigma (Smith, 2007).
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Nathalia Wehbe
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Moudrikat Amadi
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Camille Bernier
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Caroline Dubois
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Joanie Morissette
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Her research interests focus on pedagogical communication and the inclusion of people with invisible disabilities such as ADHD and learning disabilities in the university environment.

Her lived experience with disability has led Joanie to want to understand how pedagogical and educational practices are experienced and perceived by students with disabilities at the Université de Montréal. Through her Master's research, she hopes to give them the opportunity to express their realities, so that their stories can contribute to the development of inclusive pedagogical communication practices. Her project is also part of a desire to raise awareness of the diversity of learning styles and profiles within the student community.
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Natoa Arielle Paré
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal. 

Her research focuses on the influence of social media in shaping norms and practices related to feminine intimate hygiene.

In her research, she explores how the social media platforms amplify certain ideas and behaviors, often promoting content that is not always based on reliable medical recommendations. She is also interested in the dynamics between stereotypes, social expectations, and health practices, aiming to understand how these influences shape women's perceptions and behaviors, particularly those living in vulnerable contexts or facing unequal access to information.
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Mohamed Condetto Touré
Student Member

Master's Student in International Studies, Université de Montréal.

He is currently doing an internship at the Centre Communautaire de loisir Celo de la Côte des Neiges.

His research interests revolve around social integration and intercultural rapprochement through organization, communication, animation and evaluation in the context of immigration and cultural diversity.

Mohamed has worked for several years with associations, non-governmental organizations and international institutions on developing organizational strategies and setting up steering, communication and event facilitation mechanisms for projects and programs in Africa.
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Stéphan Soumah
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences at Université de Montréal and Communications Specialist at Institute of Population and Public Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Her research interests focus on narrative medicine, in particular its role as a healing tool for families who have lost a child. She is interested in the role of narrative in the search for meaning and order in the context of care, as well as in the emotional challenges of loss, including the silence and muteness that parents often experience in the face of a medical system perceived as cold.

In her research, Stéphan sets out to explore how narrative medicine can recognize and validate the pain of bereaved parents, while fostering empathic dialogue between caregiver and cared-for. She aims to answer several questions: How can narrative medicine help to recognize and validate the pain of bereaved parents? What impact does listening to patients' stories have on the care process? How can narrative medicine foster empathic dialogue and understanding between caregivers and cared-for? To answer these questions, she draws on work in narrative medicine, while exploring the concept of restorative justice and its role in recognizing families' pain.
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Vatosoa Malala RAZAFIMANDROSO
Student Member

Master's Student in Communication Sciences at Université de Montréal.

Vatosoa studies the destigmatization of mental disorders among newcomers to Canada, with a particular focus on immigrants, students, and workers from Madagascar.

Vatosoa combines this interest with cross-cultural communication, examining how interactions with a different cultural context influence perceptions of mental disorders and foster a better understanding of mental health. Adopting a qualitative approach, Vatosoa is interested in how social and cultural norms shape attitudes toward mental health, both in the country of origin and the host country.
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Jonathan Haxhe
Graduate Member

Jonathan has always been an advocate of the quote, "a healthy mind in a healthy body". He had the opportunity to experience its accuracy on several occasions, by observing his own diet and his peers’. Based on this observation, he decided to devote his master's thesis to the subject of food in a university context.

When students begin their university careers, they are often responsible for their own meals for the first time in their lives. As a result, they often neglect their diet, especially due to a lack of knowledge about the impact of a healthy diet on their health and well-being. What is the role of communication in promoting the importance of nutrition? How can we effectively communicate information about nutrition to the student community?
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Isadora Lima De Branco
Graduate member
Audrey Duff
Graduate Member

Audrey is currently Communication Advisor at CIUSSS de l'Estrie.

Her research interests focus primarily on communication in the world of health, specifically mental health promotion in the university setting and students' perceptions of the impact of this promotion.

John Patterson
Graduate Member

For more than 25 years, John has run a marketing and social policy research firm.

Over the years, John has witnessed first-hand how research interfaces with organizations in a myriad of complex ways. Recently, he started a pilot project with a very small rural community to explore how formal public opinion research influences the community’s understanding of its needs, priorities, and conflicts and how community consultation changes citizens’ and elected officials’ understanding of their respective roles and responsibilities.
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Félix Bourget Careau
Graduate Member

Félix is currently Communication Agent at Parcs Canada.

Félix has always been interested in practices and ideas that develop harmonious social relationships. Passionate about social innovation, he considers that organizational communication has an essential role to play in helping organizations address issues related to social justice, collaboration, and conflict at work.

These interests have led Félix to pay particular attention to alternative organizations and alternative forms of organizing during his master’s research. These hybrid organizations often operate within dominant systems while at the same time seeking to emancipate themselves from them. This in-between position frequently generates and reinforces tensions caused by conflicting values, needs and ideas. Research shows that such tensions underly how these organizations “perform” their alternative nature. Thus, Félix want to understand how members of alternative organizations experience and deal with tensions. Analyzing the tensions present in interpersonal interactions and organizational discourses will allow him to observe how tensions dynamically come into play and help to tighten or loosen the knot of other groups of interconnected tensions.
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Zoé Lajeunesse
Graduate Member

Zoé is currently Strategic Communications Campaign Coordinator at Ministère du Conseil exécutif du Québec.

Her long-term passion for the arts and culture and her interest in entrepreneurship drew her towards a bi-disciplinary path in communication and management.

This enriching academic experience highlighted the complexity and the fascination of organizational environments and motivated her to make organizational communication one of her fields of specialization. Having always been captivated by humor in the context of entertainment, Zoé developed a desire to deepen her theoretical knowledge to explore how she could link her passion for humor, which she used to associate solely with the stage and the performing arts, with the discipline of organizational communication. Her Master's research interests focus on the effects and role of humor in the organizational social order. Through her research, she wants to gain a better understanding of joking cultures and how they shape and even prevent organizational conflicts.
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Marilou Migneault
Graduate Member

Marilou is currently Communication Advisor at Edgenda.

A bachelor’s degree in sociology and a journey into the health care system created a research project about narrative medicine in universities around the world.

Marilou strongly believes in the strength of interdisciplinarity in the humanities and social sciences and she wishes to demonstrate this in her own research. That’s why her Master's research examines communication training for future physicians, particularly students at the Université de Montréal, to understand. Using a qualitative methodology, she looks at the experience of different actors in the Faculty of Medicine to draw a portrait of teaching and learning communication in medical pedagogy.
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Pareena Nogues
Graduate Student

Pareena is currently Communications Coordinator at Technoscience.

Her passion for communication, digital platforms, human sociability, and her empathetic temperament helped her observe the strong intergenerational digital divide that exist within the modes of communication, especially when it comes to using digital media.

Discussions with her grandparents made her aware of difficulties that older adults have in using a new vocabulary and in handling new tasks, especially tactile ones, characteristic of digital technologies. Therefore, Pareena decided to dedicate her master’s research on this topic. Her project aimed to reflect on and implement a strategy aimed at improving the accessibility of digital tools for older adults.
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Manal Belcadi
Graduate Member

Manal is currently Account Coordinator at Kaiser Associates.

Her academic background started with a bachelor’s degree in communication and media production. This experience purred her interest in how different content in media spreads particular messages.

Having started her research during a challenging time with regard to our health at the global scale, Manal decided to focus on the content produced by healthcare professionals on social media. Through her research, she attempted to make sense of the different types of health content on different social media platforms, as well as the messages they are trying to convey.
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Andreia Seganfredo
Graduate Member

Andreia's research interests focused on cross-cultural adaptation and the integration of immigrants into the workplace and the host society. Her research aimed to better understand how immigrants who leave Montreal to settle in rural areas adapt to their first and second destination and the relationship between these two processes.

This phenomenon, known in the literature as secondary migration, is widely studied among refugee groups and, in most cases, from a quantitative approach. To bring a new understanding to this subject, Andreia included other groups of immigrants in her studies and used a communication model to explore this type of movement in Quebec.
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Geneviève Bélanger Villanueva

Geneviève is currently in charge of communications and business development support at Retournzy.

Her research interests focused on questions of identity and culture. In her master’s research, she was interested in artistic practices and more specifically the bachata, a dance of Dominican origin that has undergone multiple cultural hybridizations.

Her focus was on how new practices and new cultural identities emerge together. Hybridization, identity and culture summed up her research interests, which are themselves derived from her own personal experience.
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Brian Velasco-Pena
Graduate Member

Brian is currently Communications Advisor at Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions.

His research interests focused on organizational communication, which is why he placed great importance on the analysis of human interactions. Brian was particularly interested in interactions in the context of non-profit organizations (NPOs). These organizations have dynamic but conflicting organizational structures, in that power issues may exist between employees and volunteer administrators.

On the other hand, Brian was also interested in migration contexts and how, through immigration, notions of culture and identity can be reconfigured. Thus, he studied communicational phenomena related to bicultural and hybrid identities. For example, young people with an immigrant background, who were born in a certain context but have immigrant parents, integrate multiple and often very different cultural references into their selves. These markers result from their own experiences, but also from those of their parents. So how can we understand their identities, given the complexity of their daily lives?
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Solène Doutrelant
Graduate Member

Solène is currently a public health project manager at the Centre régional de coordination des dépistages des cancers d'Ile-de-France.

Nathalie Gesnot-Dimic
Graduate Member

Nathalie is Senior Project Manager at Osmose.

In her master’s thesis, Nathalie investigated the experiences of Canadian diplomats on posting through the conceptual lens of intercultural communication competence (ICC).

Daughter of diplomats, Nathalie grew up following her parents on international assignments, and, at the time, moving to a different country every few years seemed like a fact of life. Only later in life did she really start considering the difficulties associated with living abroad as a diplomat. Her master’s thesis revealed that Canadian diplomats faced challenges at both individual and organizational levels. She suggested that ICC, which had mostly been conceptualized in the scientific literature as an individual-level construct, should be further theorized at the organizational level. She also offered concrete recommendations for how Global Affairs Canada can improve its support of its employees on post.
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