Harris Ali
Professor
Office: Vari Hall, 2084
Phone: 416 736-2100 Ext: 33913
Email: hali@yorku.ca
Primary website: Infectious Disease Research
Media Requests Welcome
Degrees
PhD (Sociology), McMaster UniversityBEng (Materials), McMaster University
Appointments
Faculty of Environmental StudiesResearch Interests
Ali, S. Harris; Creighton Connolly and Roger Keil. (2023) Pandemic Urbanism: Infectious Diseases on a Planet of Cities. Cambridge: Polity/
Mulvihill, Peter and S. Harris Ali (2017) Environmental Management: Critical Thinking and Emerging Practices. London: Routledge.
Ali, S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (2008) Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
S. Harris Ali (2023) “Borderless Disease” [Revised] In George Ritzer and (Ed) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Keil, Roger; Ali, S. Harris and Treffers, Stefan (2023)“Extending the boundaries of ‘urban society’: The urban political ecologies and pathologies of Ebola virus disease in West Africa” In Maria Kaika, Roger Keil, Tait Mandler, and Yannis Tzaninis (Eds) Turning up the heat: Urban political ecology for a climate emergency. Manchester: Manchester University Press. (pages 207-221)
S. Harris Ali (2022) “Neoliberal governance of environmentalism in the post-9/11 security era: the case of the pipeline debates in Canada” In David Tindall, Mark C.J. Stoddart and Riley E. Dunlap (Eds) Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing. (pages 248-267)
Harris Ali, Patricia Perkins, Roger Keil, Barlu Dumbuya, Michaela Hynie and Pablo Idahosa (2016) “The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease” In W. Leal Filho, UM Azeiteiro and F. Alves (Eds) Climate Change and Health: Improving Resilience and Reducing Risks. Springer
(pages 151- 169).
S. Harris Ali (2015) “Sociology and the Environment” in Robert J. Brym (Ed) New Society, 8th Edition. Toronto: Nelson. Revised and Updated. (pages 402-421)
S. Harris Ali (2014) “Tar Sands Oil Development and the Criminalization of Environmental Groups in Canada” In Fatma Arslan (Ed) Sociology and Critical Perspectives on Social Movements. DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center: Istanbul. Pages 89-99).
S. Harris Ali (2012) “Infectious Disease, Environmental Change and Social Control” (abridged version) Reading Sociology: Canadian Perspectives, 2nd Edition. Edited by Lorne Tepperman and Angela Kalyta. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Pages 295-298.
S. Harris Ali (2012) “Infectious Diseases as New Risks for Human Health” In Sigrun Kabisch, Anna Kunath, Petra-Schweizer-Ries, Annette Steinfuhrer (Eds.) Advances in People-Environment Studies, Volume 3: Vulnerability, Risks, and Complexity: Impacts of Global Change on Human Habitats. Gottingen:Hogrefe. Pp.13-25.
Harris Ali and Roger Keil “Global Cities and Infectious Disease” In Ben Derudde, Michael Hoyler, Peter, J. Taylor, Frank Witlok (Eds) International Handbook of Globalization Camberley Surrey:Edward Elgar. Pages 593-611.
S. Harris Ali (2011) “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)” Green Series, Volume 9: Health Edited by Oladele Ogunseitan. Sage.
Roger Keil and S. Harris Ali (2011) “The urban political pathology of emerging infectious disease in the age of the global city” In Eugene McCann and Kevin Ward (Eds)
Mobile Urbanism: Cities and Policymaking in the Global Age Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pages: 123-145.
S. Harris Ali (2011) “Tuberculosis” Green Series, Volume 9: Health Edited by Oladele Ogunseitan. Sage
Ali, S. Harris (2010) “Globalized Complexity and the Microbial Traffic of New and Emerging Infectious Disease Threats” In Susan Craddock, Tamara Giles-Vernick, and Jennifer Gunn (Eds) Influenza and Public Health: Learning From Past Pandemics. London: Earthscan Press.
S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (2010) “Securitizing Network Flows: Infectious Disease and Airports”. In S. Graham and S. Marvin (Eds) Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails. NY: Routledge. Pages 97-110.
S. Harris Ali (2010) “The Microbial Traffic of New and Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: The case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Influenza A/H1N1 (Swine Flu)” In Susan Craddock, Tamara Giles-Vernick, and Jennifer Gunn (Eds) Influenza and Public Health: Learning From Past Pandemics. London: Earthscan Press. Pages 22-37.
Ali, S, Harris (2010) “Tuberculosis, Homelessness and the Politics of Mobility” Canadian Journal of Urban Research 19(2):80-107
Ali, S. Harris & Keil, Roger (2010) "Public Health and the Political Economy of Scale: Implications for Understanding the Response to the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Outbreak in Toronto" In Roger Keil and Rianne Mahon (Eds) Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale. Vancouver: UBC Press. Pages 195-208.
S. Harris Ali (2009) “The Local and Global Outbreak Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto” Disaster and Emergency Management: The Canadian Context. Canadian Risk and Hazards Network. www.crhnet.ca. (electronic textbook)
Ali, S. Harris (2009) “The Political Economy of Environmental Inequality: The social distribution of risk as an environmental injustice” In Julian Agyeman, Peter Cole, Patricia O’Riley, Randolph Haluza-DeLay (Eds) Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada Vancouver: The University of British Columbia Press. Pages 97-110.
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “Analyzing Environmental Disasters” In Samir Das Gupta (Ed) Understanding the Global Environment. New Delhi: Pearson Press. Pages: 245-264.
Harris Ali and Ann Novogradec (2008) "Disasters and Emergency Preparedness" in J. Golson and Yawei Zhang (Eds) Encyclopedia of Global Health. London: Sage. Pages 532-535.
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “Environmental Health and Society” In B. Singh Bolaria and Harley D. Dickinson (Eds) Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada 4th Edition. Toronto: Nelson. Pages 370-387
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “SARS as an Emergent Complex: Toward a Networked Approach to Urban Infectious Disease” in S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (Eds) Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Pages 235-249.
Ali, S. H., Connolly, C., & Keil, R. (2025). Governing infectious disease in the urban periphery: marginality, informality and vulnerability. City, 1–23.
Hrdlickova, Zuzana and Macarthy, Joseph Mustapha and Conteh, Abu; Ali, S. Harris; Blango, Victoria and Sesay, Alpha. “Ebola and Slum Dwellers: Community Engagement and Epidemic Response Strategies in Urban Sierra Leone.” Heliyon 9 (2023) e17425; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17425
Ali, S. Harris; Joseph Mustapha Macarthy, Abu Conteh, Zuzana Hrdličková, Victoria Blango and Alpha Sesay (2023)"Ebola, Informal Settlements and the Role of Place in Infectious Disease Vulnerability: evidence from the 2014-16 outbreak in urban Sierra Leone” Disasters 47(2): 389-411 doi:10.1111/disa.12553
Fallah, M., Lavalah, S., Gbelia, T., Zondo, M., Kromah, M., Tantum, L., Nallo, G., Boakai, J., Sheriff, K., Skrip, L., S. Harris Ali. “Contextualizing Mobility During the Ebola Epidemic in Liberia”. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16(4), 1-17
Ali, S. Harris, Fallah, Mosoka, McCarthy, Joseph, Keil, Roger, and Connolly, Creighton. "Mobilizing the Social Infrastructure of Informal Settlements in Infectious Disease Response - The Case of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa" Landscape and Urban Planning, 217, 1-13
Ali, S. Harris and Jarrett Rose “The post-colonialist condition, suspicion, and social resistance during the West African Ebola epidemic: The importance of Frantz Fanon for global health” Social Science and Medicine 305
Mosoka P. Fallah and S. Harris Ali (2022) “When maximizing profit endangers our humanity: vaccines and the enduring legacy of colonialism during the COVID-19 pandemic” Studies in Political Economy 103 (1):94-102 DOI: 10.1080/07078552.2022.2047475.
Connolly, C.; Keil, R., and S. Harris Ali “Extended urbanisation and the spatialities of infectious disease: Demographic change, infrastructure and governance” Urban Studies 58(2) 245–263
Treffers, Stefan, Ali, S. Harris, Keil, Roger, & Fallah, Mosoka (2021). “Extending the Boundaries of ‘Urban Society’: The Urban Political Ecologies and Pathologies of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Connolly, Creighton, Ali, S. Harris, & Keil, Roger (2020) "On the Relationship between COVID-19 and Extended Urbanization" Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 213-216
Ali, S. Harris (2019) “Theory and the Value of the Disciplined Sociologist” Canadian Review of Sociology 56(1): 134-137.
Brisbois, Ben W. and S. Harris Ali “Climate Change, Vector-borne Disease and Interdisciplinary Research: Social Science Perspectives on an Environment and Health Controversy” EcoHealth 7:425-438.
Hooker, Claire and S. Harris Ali (2009) “SARS and Security: Health in the New Normal” Studies in Political Economy 84:101-128.
Keil, Roger and S. Harris Ali (2007) “Governing the Sick City: Urban Governance in the Age of Emerging Infectious Disease” Antipode 40(1):846-871.
Ali, S. Harris and Roger Keil. (2006) “Global cities and the spread of infectious disease: The Case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto, Canada.” Urban Studies 43(3):1-19.
Ali, S. Harris; Roger Keil, Claire Major and Estair van Wagner (2006) “Pandemics, place and planning: Learning from SARS”. Plan Canada. 46(3):34-36.
Keil, Roger and S. Harris Ali (2006) “The Avian Flu: The Lessons Learned from the 2003 SARS Outbreak in Toronto” Area 38(1): 107-109.
Salehi, Roxana and S. Harris Ali (2006) “The Social and Political Context of Disease Outbreaks: The case of SARS in Toronto” Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques 32(4):373-385
Sanford, Sarah and S. Harris Ali. (2004) “The New Public Health Hegemony: Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto.” Social Theory and Health 3: 105–125
Ali, S. Harris. (2004) “A Socio-Ecological Autopsy of the E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada.” Social Science and Medicine 58(12): 2601-2612.
Ali, S. Harris. 2003 “Dealing With Toxicity in the Risk Society: The Case of the Hamilton, Ontario Plastics Recycling Fire.” The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. 39(1):29-48.
Ali, S. Harris. 2003 “Disaster and the Political Economy of Recycling: Toxic Fire in an Industrial City.” Social Problems. 49(2):129-149
Sibo Chen and S. Harris Ali “Better digital literacy could help reduce climate and disaster conspiracy theories” The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/better-digital-literacy-could-help-reduce-climate-and-disaster-conspiracy-theories-247554
Cary Wu, Abidin Kusno, Ann Kim, S. Harris Ali, et al. (2021) “As Asian Canadian scholars, we must #StopAsianHate by fighting all forms of racism” The Conversation
Degrees
PhD (Sociology), McMaster UniversityBEng (Materials), McMaster University
Appointments
Faculty of Environmental StudiesResearch Interests
All Publications
S. Harris Ali (2023) “Borderless Disease” [Revised] In George Ritzer and (Ed) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Keil, Roger; Ali, S. Harris and Treffers, Stefan (2023)“Extending the boundaries of ‘urban society’: The urban political ecologies and pathologies of Ebola virus disease in West Africa” In Maria Kaika, Roger Keil, Tait Mandler, and Yannis Tzaninis (Eds) Turning up the heat: Urban political ecology for a climate emergency. Manchester: Manchester University Press. (pages 207-221)
S. Harris Ali (2022) “Neoliberal governance of environmentalism in the post-9/11 security era: the case of the pipeline debates in Canada” In David Tindall, Mark C.J. Stoddart and Riley E. Dunlap (Eds) Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing. (pages 248-267)
Harris Ali, Patricia Perkins, Roger Keil, Barlu Dumbuya, Michaela Hynie and Pablo Idahosa (2016) “The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease” In W. Leal Filho, UM Azeiteiro and F. Alves (Eds) Climate Change and Health: Improving Resilience and Reducing Risks. Springer
(pages 151- 169).
S. Harris Ali (2015) “Sociology and the Environment” in Robert J. Brym (Ed) New Society, 8th Edition. Toronto: Nelson. Revised and Updated. (pages 402-421)
S. Harris Ali (2014) “Tar Sands Oil Development and the Criminalization of Environmental Groups in Canada” In Fatma Arslan (Ed) Sociology and Critical Perspectives on Social Movements. DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center: Istanbul. Pages 89-99).
S. Harris Ali (2012) “Infectious Disease, Environmental Change and Social Control” (abridged version) Reading Sociology: Canadian Perspectives, 2nd Edition. Edited by Lorne Tepperman and Angela Kalyta. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Pages 295-298.
S. Harris Ali (2012) “Infectious Diseases as New Risks for Human Health” In Sigrun Kabisch, Anna Kunath, Petra-Schweizer-Ries, Annette Steinfuhrer (Eds.) Advances in People-Environment Studies, Volume 3: Vulnerability, Risks, and Complexity: Impacts of Global Change on Human Habitats. Gottingen:Hogrefe. Pp.13-25.
Harris Ali and Roger Keil “Global Cities and Infectious Disease” In Ben Derudde, Michael Hoyler, Peter, J. Taylor, Frank Witlok (Eds) International Handbook of Globalization Camberley Surrey:Edward Elgar. Pages 593-611.
S. Harris Ali (2011) “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)” Green Series, Volume 9: Health Edited by Oladele Ogunseitan. Sage.
Roger Keil and S. Harris Ali (2011) “The urban political pathology of emerging infectious disease in the age of the global city” In Eugene McCann and Kevin Ward (Eds)
Mobile Urbanism: Cities and Policymaking in the Global Age Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pages: 123-145.
S. Harris Ali (2011) “Tuberculosis” Green Series, Volume 9: Health Edited by Oladele Ogunseitan. Sage
Ali, S. Harris (2010) “Globalized Complexity and the Microbial Traffic of New and Emerging Infectious Disease Threats” In Susan Craddock, Tamara Giles-Vernick, and Jennifer Gunn (Eds) Influenza and Public Health: Learning From Past Pandemics. London: Earthscan Press.
S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (2010) “Securitizing Network Flows: Infectious Disease and Airports”. In S. Graham and S. Marvin (Eds) Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails. NY: Routledge. Pages 97-110.
S. Harris Ali (2010) “The Microbial Traffic of New and Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: The case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Influenza A/H1N1 (Swine Flu)” In Susan Craddock, Tamara Giles-Vernick, and Jennifer Gunn (Eds) Influenza and Public Health: Learning From Past Pandemics. London: Earthscan Press. Pages 22-37.
Ali, S, Harris (2010) “Tuberculosis, Homelessness and the Politics of Mobility” Canadian Journal of Urban Research 19(2):80-107
Ali, S. Harris & Keil, Roger (2010) "Public Health and the Political Economy of Scale: Implications for Understanding the Response to the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Outbreak in Toronto" In Roger Keil and Rianne Mahon (Eds) Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale. Vancouver: UBC Press. Pages 195-208.
S. Harris Ali (2009) “The Local and Global Outbreak Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto” Disaster and Emergency Management: The Canadian Context. Canadian Risk and Hazards Network. www.crhnet.ca. (electronic textbook)
Ali, S. Harris (2009) “The Political Economy of Environmental Inequality: The social distribution of risk as an environmental injustice” In Julian Agyeman, Peter Cole, Patricia O’Riley, Randolph Haluza-DeLay (Eds) Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada Vancouver: The University of British Columbia Press. Pages 97-110.
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “Analyzing Environmental Disasters” In Samir Das Gupta (Ed) Understanding the Global Environment. New Delhi: Pearson Press. Pages: 245-264.
Harris Ali and Ann Novogradec (2008) "Disasters and Emergency Preparedness" in J. Golson and Yawei Zhang (Eds) Encyclopedia of Global Health. London: Sage. Pages 532-535.
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “Environmental Health and Society” In B. Singh Bolaria and Harley D. Dickinson (Eds) Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada 4th Edition. Toronto: Nelson. Pages 370-387
Ali, S. Harris (2008) “SARS as an Emergent Complex: Toward a Networked Approach to Urban Infectious Disease” in S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (Eds) Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Pages 235-249.
Ali, S. Harris; Creighton Connolly and Roger Keil. (2023) Pandemic Urbanism: Infectious Diseases on a Planet of Cities. Cambridge: Polity/
Mulvihill, Peter and S. Harris Ali (2017) Environmental Management: Critical Thinking and Emerging Practices. London: Routledge.
Ali, S. Harris Ali and Roger Keil (2008) Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ali, S. H., Connolly, C., & Keil, R. (2025). Governing infectious disease in the urban periphery: marginality, informality and vulnerability. City, 1–23.
Hrdlickova, Zuzana and Macarthy, Joseph Mustapha and Conteh, Abu; Ali, S. Harris; Blango, Victoria and Sesay, Alpha. “Ebola and Slum Dwellers: Community Engagement and Epidemic Response Strategies in Urban Sierra Leone.” Heliyon 9 (2023) e17425; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17425
Ali, S. Harris; Joseph Mustapha Macarthy, Abu Conteh, Zuzana Hrdličková, Victoria Blango and Alpha Sesay (2023)"Ebola, Informal Settlements and the Role of Place in Infectious Disease Vulnerability: evidence from the 2014-16 outbreak in urban Sierra Leone” Disasters 47(2): 389-411 doi:10.1111/disa.12553
Fallah, M., Lavalah, S., Gbelia, T., Zondo, M., Kromah, M., Tantum, L., Nallo, G., Boakai, J., Sheriff, K., Skrip, L., S. Harris Ali. “Contextualizing Mobility During the Ebola Epidemic in Liberia”. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16(4), 1-17
Ali, S. Harris, Fallah, Mosoka, McCarthy, Joseph, Keil, Roger, and Connolly, Creighton. "Mobilizing the Social Infrastructure of Informal Settlements in Infectious Disease Response - The Case of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa" Landscape and Urban Planning, 217, 1-13
Ali, S. Harris and Jarrett Rose “The post-colonialist condition, suspicion, and social resistance during the West African Ebola epidemic: The importance of Frantz Fanon for global health” Social Science and Medicine 305
Mosoka P. Fallah and S. Harris Ali (2022) “When maximizing profit endangers our humanity: vaccines and the enduring legacy of colonialism during the COVID-19 pandemic” Studies in Political Economy 103 (1):94-102 DOI: 10.1080/07078552.2022.2047475.
Connolly, C.; Keil, R., and S. Harris Ali “Extended urbanisation and the spatialities of infectious disease: Demographic change, infrastructure and governance” Urban Studies 58(2) 245–263
Treffers, Stefan, Ali, S. Harris, Keil, Roger, & Fallah, Mosoka (2021). “Extending the Boundaries of ‘Urban Society’: The Urban Political Ecologies and Pathologies of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Connolly, Creighton, Ali, S. Harris, & Keil, Roger (2020) "On the Relationship between COVID-19 and Extended Urbanization" Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 213-216
Ali, S. Harris (2019) “Theory and the Value of the Disciplined Sociologist” Canadian Review of Sociology 56(1): 134-137.
Brisbois, Ben W. and S. Harris Ali “Climate Change, Vector-borne Disease and Interdisciplinary Research: Social Science Perspectives on an Environment and Health Controversy” EcoHealth 7:425-438.
Hooker, Claire and S. Harris Ali (2009) “SARS and Security: Health in the New Normal” Studies in Political Economy 84:101-128.
Keil, Roger and S. Harris Ali (2007) “Governing the Sick City: Urban Governance in the Age of Emerging Infectious Disease” Antipode 40(1):846-871.
Ali, S. Harris and Roger Keil. (2006) “Global cities and the spread of infectious disease: The Case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto, Canada.” Urban Studies 43(3):1-19.
Ali, S. Harris; Roger Keil, Claire Major and Estair van Wagner (2006) “Pandemics, place and planning: Learning from SARS”. Plan Canada. 46(3):34-36.
Keil, Roger and S. Harris Ali (2006) “The Avian Flu: The Lessons Learned from the 2003 SARS Outbreak in Toronto” Area 38(1): 107-109.
Salehi, Roxana and S. Harris Ali (2006) “The Social and Political Context of Disease Outbreaks: The case of SARS in Toronto” Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques 32(4):373-385
Sanford, Sarah and S. Harris Ali. (2004) “The New Public Health Hegemony: Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto.” Social Theory and Health 3: 105–125
Ali, S. Harris. (2004) “A Socio-Ecological Autopsy of the E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada.” Social Science and Medicine 58(12): 2601-2612.
Ali, S. Harris. 2003 “Dealing With Toxicity in the Risk Society: The Case of the Hamilton, Ontario Plastics Recycling Fire.” The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. 39(1):29-48.
Ali, S. Harris. 2003 “Disaster and the Political Economy of Recycling: Toxic Fire in an Industrial City.” Social Problems. 49(2):129-149
Sibo Chen and S. Harris Ali “Better digital literacy could help reduce climate and disaster conspiracy theories” The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/better-digital-literacy-could-help-reduce-climate-and-disaster-conspiracy-theories-247554
Cary Wu, Abidin Kusno, Ann Kim, S. Harris Ali, et al. (2021) “As Asian Canadian scholars, we must #StopAsianHate by fighting all forms of racism” The Conversation
