Natasha Szach

Hi, my name is Natasha Szach and I'm really excited to be embarking in a new direction as a student of the NRI.

I graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2009 with a four year international development and politics degree. Throughout my undergrad, my primary research interest was gender, and to this end I focused on prostitution and sex trafficking, women's roles in environmental protection and the effects of conflict on women in developing nations.

I have had some fantastic opportunities in the past few years to gain firsthand insight into some of my research interests. In 2007, I did a practicum in Lviv, Ukraine at a women's aid organization and learned a great deal about the sex trade and the problem of domestic violence in Eastern Europe. I also spent some time at a Lviv non-profit environmental group, researching environmental legislation in European Union countries and former Soviet states. This past year I was an intern at the Manitoba Legislative Assembly and learned more about the legislative process than I ever could have from years in a classroom.

Now, I look forward to a new area of research: food security. I am hoping to examine the effects of food insecurity on maternal health in First Nations communities and identify ways to overcome challenges.