Research Themes

Manal Choudhry published an article entitled “Transnational Diplomacy and the Korean Wave” in the third volume of the Undergraduate Sociology Journal (USJ). Her work explores the Korean Wave (the global popularity of Korean culture and cultural products) and its use by the South Korean government as a tool on both international and domestic levels. Manal explains … Read More

Vinuja Sritharan authored an article titled “The basketball diaries: A case study of the national basketball association and political repression by China” that was published in the third volume of the Undergraduate Sociology Journal (USJ). The article dissects interactions between representatives of the National Basketball Association and China’s governmental authorities during the 2019 Hong Kong … Read More

  Victoria Barclay recently published an article in the third volume of the Undergraduate Sociology Journal (USJ) during her 4th year titled “Race, class, and gender: The #MeToo movement & stigma.” In her article, Victoria outlines the ways that race, class, and gender can all intersect to affect stigma associated with the victimization of sexual … Read More

Agha Saadaf published an article entitled “Dawn of the Black Hearts: Contextualising Fascism in Second Wave Norwegian Black Metal” in the third volume of the Undergraduate Sociology Journal (USJ). His work explores the historical context of Norwegian cultural power dynamics, the use of music to reflect political ideas, and the “lifestyle” perpetuated by prominent figures … Read More

Ariel Kenny authored two articles in the third volume of the Undergraduate Sociology Journal (USJ) published earlier this year. Their article “The family unfriendly city: The impact of public funding cuts against growing demand for child care in Toronto” reviews the child care market in Toronto in the wake of the 2019-2020 provincial budget cuts … Read More

Professor Tahseen Shams recently published a blog post titled “We need a more globalized response to pandemics for immigrant integration” on oecd-development-matters.org. This blog is part of a series observing COVID-19 in developing countries and analyses the roles of immigrants and their descendants in the U.S. society during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this blog post, … Read More

Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah recently appeared on an episode of The Agenda with Steve Paikin alongside former RCMP officer Chad Haggerty, London police chief Stephen Williams and staff lawyer at Black Legal Action Centre Fareeda Adam. They discussed the role of police in society, given recent events in the U.S. and Canada. In this conversation, Professor Akwasi … Read More

Professor Scott Schieman recently wrote an article The hidden ways working from home is affecting our health in the Toronto Star. In the article, Professor Schieman looks at how COVID-19 is changing the way workers view flexible time arrangements at work. While his research with PhD student  Philip Badawy in September 2019 showed both workers … Read More

MA student Abtin Parnia recently co-authored a paper entitled, “Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in premature and avoidable mortality in Canada, 1991–2016” in the CMAJ. The authors find that mortality inequalities between the rich and poor is widening in Canada.  One of the reasons for this increasing inequality is likely the retrenchment of the welfare state, … Read More

Ph.D. student Rebecca Lennox recently co-authored an article entitled, “‘You Gotta Be Able to Pay Your Own Way: Canadian News Media Discourse and Young Adults’ Subjectivities of Successful Adulting” in the Canadian Journal of Sociology. In the article, the authors use Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to identify dominant ideals of successful adulthood as they circulate in … Read More

Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah was recently featured in an opinion piece in The Toronto Star by columnist Shree Paradkar. The story discusses a new report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) detailing how Toronto Police are more likely to criminalize and use violence during encounters with Black people. The article Are we OK living in … Read More

Professor Scott Schieman wrote an article in The Toronto Star, with University of Toronto undergraduate student Ryu Won Kang. The article The distracted worker is the greatest perceived threat to employers despite all the benefits of working from home looks at employers’ concerns of increased distractions experienced by employees while working from home.  To some employers, … Read More

Professor Scott Schieman recently spoke with Piya Chattopadhyay on her new show The Sunday Magazine on CBC Radio about how the covid-19 pandemic has impacted our lives and society as a whole. Professor Schieman outlines an array of challenges Canadians face with regards to parenthood, gender disparities, the socio-economic divide, and the effects of loneliness on … Read More

Jordan Foster’s new blog looks at how the pandemic has affected fashion influencers and the fashion industry more broadly. At present, influencers and the brands they work with face a number of challenges related to the pandemic  including obstacles related to travel and limitations surrounding advertising budgets. But influencers are responding to these challenges with significant … Read More

Brewing Resistance: Indian Coffee House and the Emergency in Postcolonial India (Cambridge University Press, 2020) uncovers the little known story of the movement against the Emergency as seen through New Delhi’s Indian Coffee House based on new archival evidence and oral histories with the men who led the movement against the Emergency. Created by British plantation owners to … Read More

Dr.Cynthia Cranford is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Professor Cynthia Cranford studies inequalities of gender, work and migration, and collective efforts to resist them.. Dr. Cranford includes a brief description of the book in the biography listed on her contact page:   Dr. Cranford’s book, Home Care Fault Lines: Understanding Tensions … Read More

Congratulations to Phd student Eduardo Gutierrez Cornelius, who recently learned that he was awarded one of the 2020 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships! Vanier Canada Scholarships are among the most prestigious scholarships available to graduate students studying in Canadian institutions. Vanier scholars are chosen based on their academic excellence, research potential and leadership potential and demonstrated … Read More

Professor Emine Fidan Elcioglu’s newly published book, Divided by the Wall: Progressive and Conservative Immigration Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border (University of California Press) tells the story of why ordinary Americans join volunteer organizations to either help undocumented immigrants or aid immigration enforcement. Based on twenty months of immersive ethnography, Divided by the Wall mines … Read More

Professor Tahseen Shams’ newly published book, “Here, There, and Elsewhere: The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World,” looks at how immigrants’ lives are both influenced and influence the societies of their origin, their destination, as well as societies elsewhere in an interconnected global community.  The book draws from the South Asian Muslim American … Read More

Congratulations to Professor Tahseen Shams who recently received a 2020-2021 Bissell-Heyd Research Fellowship for the Centre for the Study of the United States at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The goal of her research is to examine and elaborate on the impacts of racial and social injustice, drawing from immigrants’ experiences … Read More