I am the daughter of an Irish immigrant and the granddaughter of Volga German immigrants. For most of my life, I was unaware that my early years were spent as a visitor on the respective traditional territories of the Lkwungen, WSÁNEĆ, and Wyomilth Peoples. Later, I lived on the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, namely the shared traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Tsleil-Waututh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Kwikwetlem First Nations; and then on the traditional unceded territories of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik Peoples covered by Treaties of Peace and Friendship. Today, I live and work on the territories of many Indigenous Nations at Tkaronto: the Wendat, the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, and the Métis. This territory is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.*

Focusing on Canada in comparative perspective, my work evaluates and theorizes changing norms and forms of modernity and the political and governmental implications of these transformations, both as they pertain to cities, as well as to the governance of families and children, including with respect to the residential school system. One of the central foci of my research is to render visible and subvert hierarchical power relations produced through intersecting governmental processes of classifying and acting upon certain populations and places as problematic. In recent years, I have begun to evaluate these dynamics through the lens of the colonial present.

I am presently working on three separate lines of inquiry. The first is a transnational study of post-industrial urban governance in Boston, Dublin and Vancouver. The second is an examination of politics and epigenetics in relation to the category of "vulnerable populations" in the colonial present, including with respect to questions of territorial jurisdiction. The third concerns teaching and learning in political science, including a focus on experiential education and decolonizing pedagogies and practices. Selected publications addressing major themes in my work can be found in BC Studies, Canadian Historical Review, Urban Geography, Canadian Journal of Political Science, and the Canadian Journal of Sociology.

My work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as Fulbright Canada (2013), the Killam Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies (Bridgewater State University, spring 2016), and the McGill University Eakin Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Studies (fall 2016).

Research Interests

• Killam Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies, Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts - 2016
• Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Canadian Studies at Kennesaw State University, Greater Atlanta - 2013
• Eakin Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Studies, McGill University - 2016 (Fall Term)
• Visiting Scholar, Centre for Criminology, University of Toronto - 2009
• York University Research Leader - 2015 and 2018

Approach to Teaching

My approach to teaching is inspired by a variety of thinkers and ideas, such as these words by Manulani Aluli Meyer: "An epistemology of spirit encourages us all to be of service, to not get drawn into the ego nurtured in academia, and to keep diving into the wellspring of our own awe. In that way our research is bound in meaning and inspired by service to others or to our natural environment." And I love this too: "Perhaps if we were kinder to our students when they were at university, were kinder and clearer in what we wrote and taught, more of them would use what they have learnt for good, rather than seeing their degrees as stepping-stones to their allotted place in the social hierarchy." - Danny Dorling. And Fred Moten inspires - speaking about their work with Stefano Harney in an interview with Stephen Shukaitis in their book Undercommons : "...study is what you do with other people. It’s talking and walking around with other people, working, dancing, suffering, some irreducible convergence of all three, held under the name of speculative practice. The notion of a rehearsal—being in a kind of workshop, playing in a band, in a jam session, or old men sitting on a porch, or people working together in a factory—there are these various modes of activity. The point of calling it 'study' is to mark that the incessant and irreversible intellectuality of these activities is already present."

I am the daughter of an Irish immigrant and the granddaughter of Volga German immigrants. For most of my life, I was unaware that my early years were spent as a visitor on the respective traditional territories of the Lkwungen, WSÁNEĆ, and Wyomilth Peoples. Later, I lived on the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, namely the shared traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Tsleil-Waututh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Kwikwetlem First Nations; and then on the traditional unceded territories of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik Peoples covered by Treaties of Peace and Friendship. Today, I live and work on the territories of many Indigenous Nations at Tkaronto: the Wendat, the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, and the Métis. This territory is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.*

Focusing on Canada in comparative perspective, my work evaluates and theorizes changing norms and forms of modernity and the political and governmental implications of these transformations, both as they pertain to cities, as well as to the governance of families and children, including with respect to the residential school system. One of the central foci of my research is to render visible and subvert hierarchical power relations produced through intersecting governmental processes of classifying and acting upon certain populations and places as problematic. In recent years, I have begun to evaluate these dynamics through the lens of the colonial present.

I am presently working on three separate lines of inquiry. The first is a transnational study of post-industrial urban governance in Boston, Dublin and Vancouver. The second is an examination of politics and epigenetics in relation to the category of "vulnerable populations" in the colonial present, including with respect to questions of territorial jurisdiction. The third concerns teaching and learning in political science, including a focus on experiential education and decolonizing pedagogies and practices. Selected publications addressing major themes in my work can be found in BC Studies, Canadian Historical Review, Urban Geography, Canadian Journal of Political Science, and the Canadian Journal of Sociology.

My work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as Fulbright Canada (2013), the Killam Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies (Bridgewater State University, spring 2016), and the McGill University Eakin Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Studies (fall 2016).

Degrees

Appointments

Professional Leadership

Chair, Department of Politics, 2020-2023
Undergraduate Program Director, Department of Politics, 2019-2020
Democratic Administration Diploma Coordinator, 2016-2019

Research Interests

Awards

• Killam Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies, Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts - 2016
• Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Canadian Studies at Kennesaw State University, Greater Atlanta - 2013
• Eakin Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Studies, McGill University - 2016 (Fall Term)
• Visiting Scholar, Centre for Criminology, University of Toronto - 2009
• York University Research Leader - 2015 and 2018

Approach to Teaching

My approach to teaching is inspired by a variety of thinkers and ideas, such as these words by Manulani Aluli Meyer: "An epistemology of spirit encourages us all to be of service, to not get drawn into the ego nurtured in academia, and to keep diving into the wellspring of our own awe. In that way our research is bound in meaning and inspired by service to others or to our natural environment." And I love this too: "Perhaps if we were kinder to our students when they were at university, were kinder and clearer in what we wrote and taught, more of them would use what they have learnt for good, rather than seeing their degrees as stepping-stones to their allotted place in the social hierarchy." - Danny Dorling. And Fred Moten inspires - speaking about their work with Stefano Harney in an interview with Stephen Shukaitis in their book Undercommons : "...study is what you do with other people. It’s talking and walking around with other people, working, dancing, suffering, some irreducible convergence of all three, held under the name of speculative practice. The notion of a rehearsal—being in a kind of workshop, playing in a band, in a jam session, or old men sitting on a porch, or people working together in a factory—there are these various modes of activity. The point of calling it 'study' is to mark that the incessant and irreversible intellectuality of these activities is already present."