Research Themes

PhD student Ferdouse Asefi recently wrote an op-ed, Empty words and promises are not a serious attempt at reconciliation, in the Hamilton Spectator. The article outlines the numerous failures by the federal Liberal government to keep their promises to achieve reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, as well as insufficient gestures towards reconciliation by Conservative party members. From … Read More

Professor Tahseen Shams was recently featured in the first episode of Migrations: A World on the Move Podcast, titled Pandemics. In this episode, Professor Shams spoke with host Eleanor Paynter and guests Dr. Gunisha Kaur and Dr. Katie Fiorella on the topic of how the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped our understanding of borders and migration. Professor Shams … Read More

UTM’s student newspaper, The Medium, recently published a feature article profiling Jordan Foster’s research on social media. Entitled, “The Promises and Perils of Social Media,” the article discusses Jordan’s work examining the roles of influencers in perpetuating or combating patterns of social inequality. Jordan is a third year PhD student. His research focuses on culture, … Read More

Professor Jerry Flores was recently featured in the University of Toronto Magazine. The article recounts Flores’ personal experiences in education as a young marginalized person, what redirected his path towards higher education, and some of the projects he has worked on to “participate in social justice” as an academic. Professor Flores is an Assistant Professor … Read More

Professor David Pettinicchio was recently featured in an article posted on the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences website. This article provides an overview of various Canadian researchers and highlights Pettinicchio for his collaborative efforts with Professor Michelle Maroto of the University of Alberta in their research to understand the effects of COVID-19 among people … Read More

Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah was recently featured in a New York Times article, following up on the consequences in Canada’s legal system after two years of legalizing cannabis. This article reviewed the changes that marijuana legalization promised to make for Canadian society, and whether or not these changes were effective. Owusu-Bempah argues that the legalization did help reduce … Read More

Professors Josée Johnston and Shyon Baumann recently published an article with recent PhD graduate Merin Oleschuk (currently Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) in the American Sociological Association’s member newsletter Footnotes. Titled “Foodie Tensions in Tough Times”, the authors review social pressures and inequalities heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their effects … Read More

PhD student Man Xu’s new article The Sky-High Dreams of Yiwu’s Grassroots Cosmopolitans is featured in Sixth Tone, an online publication that provides content on contemporary China.  Man’s blog examines how Yiwu is redefining cosmopolitanism, moving away from an exclusive lifestyle meant only for the societal elite to a culture created in a thriving global city … Read More

Professor Anna Korteweg appeared on the University of Toronto Mississauga research podcast View to the U to speak about her current work, research stories, and what inspires her. In the podcast she reviewed some of the general research questions found throughout her work. Some of these question include how the labelling of immigrants by national … Read More

Professor Blair Wheaton and Professor Marisa Young’s newly published book, Generalizing the Regression Model: Techniques for Longitudinal and Contextual Analysis (2020, Sage Publishing) occupies a unique niche in the  huge literature on quantitative methods. It is written as a second course overview of the most prevalent techniques used in sociology and related disciplines. The intention … Read More

Congratulations to Professor Neda Maghbouleh who was recently awarded a Wall Scholars Research Award from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (PWIAS) at the University of British Columbia. The award is a one year residency appointment at the Institute where awarded scholars have the opportunity to develop their research centered on a particular theme … Read More

Professor Scott Schieman spoke with Ontario Morning’s Julianne Hazelwood on CBC Radio January 13th about his ongoing research on the impact of COVID-19 on how Canadians balance their work lives with their family and social lives. Professor Schieman began researching how workers and employers alike thought about and experienced flexible, remote work arrangements in 2019 … Read More

Professor Jennifer Adese at U of T Mississauga was recently named a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Métis Women, Politics, and Community, as featured in an article published in University of Toronto Mississauga news. In this article, Adese expresses her excitement for this opportunity to develop more research of Métis women’s experiences in Métis activism. … Read More

Professor David Pettinicchio recently co-authored the article “What a distanced holiday season means for people with disabilities and chronic health conditions” with Professor of Sociology Michelle Maroto (University of Alberta) in The Conversation. The article outlines how many Canadians and Americans opted to spend time with friends and family over the Thanksgiving holidays against public … Read More

Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah’s comments appeared in an article in the National Post titled “Police shootings in 2020: The effect on officers and those they are sworn to protect.” The article reviews the statistics of police shootings in Canada in 2020, comparing patterns among the 55 cases of this year and across some year-to-year trends. Professor … Read More

Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah recently featured in a Forbes article by Amanda Siebert titled “How Canada’s (very white) cannabis industry could learn from social equity programs in the US.” In the article, Professor Owusu-Bempah discussed how the disproportionate harm Black and Indigenous communities faced under prohibition contrasts sharply with his research revealing white men to be … Read More

Professor David Pettinicchio recently wrote an article featured in the Toronto Star “Do Canadians trust where they get their news about the COVID-19 pandemic?” In the article, Professor Pettinicchio reported on where Canadians get their information on the current conditions of the pandemic and how they feel about these sources. While Canadians generally trust what … Read More

Professor Jerry Flores recently published an article titled “ICE detainees’ alleged hysterectomies recall a long history of forced sterilizations” on theconversation.com. Flores recounts the longstanding history of forced sterilizations in U.S. institutions to expose the ongoing harm on Latina, migrant, refugee, Black, Indigenous and at-risk women in the medical sphere. Professor Flores traces stories of … Read More

Ph.D. student Dana Wray was recently in an article for The Toronto Star shedding light on the existing inequalities in the federal parental benefit and the EI system that has been further exposed by the pandemic.  You can read the article ‘The pandemic exposed huge gaps in EI — turns out the parental leave system … Read More

PhD student Anson Au was nominated and elected as a Full Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Founded in 1823, the Royal Asiatic Society recognizes distinguished scholars in the fields of history, languages, cultures and religions of Asia. Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society gain access to the society’s resources … Read More