Congratulations to Madelaine Coelho, who was recently announced as a 2022 Vanier Scholar. Vanier Canada Scholarships are among the most prestigious available to graduate students studying in Canadian institutions. Vanier scholars are chosen based on their academic excellence, research and leadership potential, and demonstrated ability. The program seeks and recognizes students who “demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health".
Madelaine is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Toronto and a graduate fellow with the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI). Although her research focuses broadly on the intersections between gender, violence, and technology, her dissertation examines more specifically the efficacy of technology enhanced gender-based violence (GBV) prevention efforts within different cultural settings. With a background in both computer science and sociology, Madelaine is passionate about finding interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems and leveraging technology to address ongoing social problems at the global level. Outside of formal research settings, Madelaine works with community and non-governmental organizations to implement techonology based GBV prevention.
As part of her dissertation, Madelaine will be developing different prevention solutions that apply various digital strategies. Further, she aims to personally create a multilingual, culturally competent, and research-informed sexual education app to address social drivers of GBV in different regions.