USask College of Arts and Science welcomes new faculty for 2025

A diverse group of new faculty members will add their unique skills and insights to the research and teaching mission of the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Arts and Science.

With appointments in nine departments, 2025’s newly hired faculty members bring research specialties ranging from space weather to Indigenous citizenship laws to sexuality in video games.

The College of Arts and Science is home to nearly 350 full-time equivalent faculty members and more than 10,000 students.

Read short biographies of the incoming faculty members below.

Daniel Billett

Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Engineering Physics

Dr. Daniel Billett (PhD) is a space physicist who studies the behaviour and dynamics of Earth’s ionosphere, home of the aurora. Billett completed his PhD at Lancaster University in the UK, including an early career fellowship in Tokyo, Japan, at the University of Electro-Communications. In 2019, Billett moved to the University of Saskatchewan as a post-doctoral fellow before obtaining a European Space Agency fellowship in 2021. Along with his new position in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, he has been appointed assistant director of the SuperDARN Canada national research facility.

Sébastien Box-Couillard

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics

Dr. Sébastien Box-Couillard (PhD) is an economist who uses big data and econometric methods to study the intersection of climate change, housing markets and inequality. His research explores how racial and economic disparities shape access to safe, affordable housing, particularly in the face of environmental risk. Prior to joining USask, Box-Couillard completed his doctoral studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Jade Da Costa

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Studies / Women’s and Gender Studies Program

Dr. Jade Da Costa (PhD) is a social justice scholar, organizer, and educator who specializes in anti-racist, decolonial, and intersectional theory and praxis. They received their PhD in sociology at York University in 2023 and completed a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Guelph in 2025. Their post-doctoral project, Exacerbated Hunger, explores racialized food insecurity in the era of COVID-19 and was funded by a 2024 SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Da Costa looks forward to deepening this research at USask and collaborating with local communities.

Laurel Forshaw

Assistant Professor, School for the Arts

Dr. Laurel Forshaw (PhD) is a music educator and choral conductor from Robinson-Superior Treaty territory, specializing in elementary music education, choral practice, and Indigenization and reconciliation in music education. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto, where her award-winning dissertation on Indigenous participation in higher music education was supported by a SSHRC–CGS Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship. At USask, her work emphasizes student-centered pedagogy, equity and reconciliation, drawing on her expertise in Kodály and Orff-Schulwerk approaches.

Leanne Grieves

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

Houston Chair in Ornithology

Dr. Leanne Grieves (PhD) is a behavioural ecologist interested in avian mating and social systems, communication and behaviour. Their MSc at McMaster University focused on complex acoustic communication in non-songbirds and their PhD at Western University focused on chemical communication in songbirds. Grieves held a Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where she developed a project on multisensory communication and mate choice. Her research group at USask will combine field and laboratory approaches to determine how olfaction and symbiotic microbiota influence avian social and reproductive behaviour.

Diana Heney

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy

Dr. Diana Heney (PhD) earned her MA in philosophy at USask and went on to complete a PhD at the University of Toronto. Before returning to Saskatchewan, she taught at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Fordham University in New York City. Her research and teaching interests are in the history of philosophy, moral philosophy and bioethics (including ethics and mental health as well as death and dying).

Jean Ketterling

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Studies / Women’s and Gender Studies Program

Dr. Jean Ketterling (PhD) specializes in the interdisciplinary study of sex and sexuality in media and popular culture, especially games. Her SSHRC IDG-funded research explores the factors that shape the production, distribution and consumption of pornographic video games. She obtained her doctorate in legal studies from Carleton University, where she was a Vanier Scholar. Jean is the communications officer of the Sexuality Studies Association (SSA) and vice-president of the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA).

Damien Lee

Department Head and Associate Professor, Department of Indigenous Studies

Dr. Damien Lee (PhD) has returned to USask after seven years in Ontario, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research focuses on the resurgence of Indigenous political and legal orders, Indigenous research methodologies, and what decolonization looks like through Indigenist paradigms. In 2024-25, Lee held the Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He is now the head of the Department of Indigenous Studies at USask.

Miguel Soto

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Dr. Miguel A. Soto (PhD) is a chemist who makes ring-shaped molecules and studies how they interact with each other (and with other molecules). Trained in Mexico, where he earned both his BSc and PhD, he later moved to Vancouver to continue his research at the University of British Columbia. At USask, Miguel and his team will design and synthesize new classes of cyclic molecules, exploring their applications in energy storage, water treatment and health, while building a multidisciplinary team that collaborates across campus and beyond.

Man-Yin Tsang

Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences

Dr. Man-Yin Tsang (PhD) explores how water, rocks and living things interact to shape Earth’s resources and environments. She focuses on understanding how critical minerals form and how this knowledge can guide more sustainable resource use. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto and her postdoctoral research at the University of Washington, USA, and Kobe University, Japan. She looks forward to collaborating across disciplines to address the challenges and opportunities in building a sustainable future.

Roydon Tse 

Assistant Professor, School for the Arts

Dr. Roydon Tse (DMA) taught composition and musicianship at the University of Calgary prior to joining USask. His music for orchestra, chamber ensembles and voices are inspired by the confluence of Eastern and Western cultures, the crisis of climate change, and the subtleties of harmonic and rhythmic tension. Originally from Hong Kong, he began as a pianist and studied composition at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. When not composing or teaching, he delights in the stillness and beauty of nature, wherever that may be found.

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