Soma Chatterjee
Associate Professor
Office: Ross Building, S868
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 33385
Email: schat@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
My research interests have a few distinct yet overlapping trajectories. Primarily I am interested in migration, mobility justice, nationalism and border studies. Within this overarching interest, I look into the politics of state formed identity categories (e.g., ‘immigrant’, ‘Canadian’, ‘Canadian-born’, ‘non-status’, ‘refugee’ etc.) and their implications for contemporary Western nation building, the institutionalization of the civilizational ideologies of skills and standard in immigration and citizenship policies, and the global race for knowledge (e.g., discourses of internationalization and study migration policies etc.). Given above interests, the ‘entanglement’ of immigration policies/immigrant integration, anti-racist politics and indigenous self-determination in contemporary settler nations, primarily Canada, forms another important pillar of my research interests. Finally, I am a keen follower of social and political issues of relevance to South Asia and South Asians (in diaspora and beyond), including student migratory patterns from South Asia, and diaspora engagement policies of major South Asian emigration states. I am currently working on a book length manuscript titled Skills to Build the Nation, which is a study of Canadian skilled labour policies in relation to post-liberalization Canadian nationalism.
Degrees
PHD, OISE-University of Toronto, CanadaMSW, University of Toronto, Canada
MA, University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
2022- Member. Editorial Board. Academic Matters. Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
Community Contributions
2019 - Chatterjee, S. & Sultana Jahangir (ED, SAWRO). Better jobs, living wages. A forum organized with South Asian Women’s Rights Organization. For York University Community Conversations - Series 4 – Immigrant Experience in Canada.
2018 - Chatterjee, S. & Campbell, M. “First peoples to newcomers: How do we know each other?” Workshop facilitation. Community – Education – Change. KIHKINOOHAMAAKEWIN - Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Tommy Douglas Institute. George Brown College.
2016 - Roundtable Participant. Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Canada. The Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic & the Colour of Poverty–Colour of Change Campaign
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Co-investigator with A ka Tat Tsang (Social Work, University of Toronto), Jill Hanley (Social Work, McGill University), Sean Lauer (Sociology, University of British Columbia), Carla Hilario (Nursing, University of Alberta), Weiguo Zhang (Sociology, University of Toronto).
Funders:
SSHRC
-
Summary:
The main objective of this research project is to shed light on the experiences of international students as migrants to specific communities, beyond their academic affiliation, by using the ways in which racialization affects them on and off-campus, and has repercussions on their migratory experiences and trajectories as a whole.
For more detailed summary, see here: https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/rais/
Description:SSHRC Insight Grant. Co-investigator with Drs. Jean Michel Montsion (Multidisciplinary Studies, York U), Ann Kim (Sociology, York U) & Shirin Shahrokni (Sociology, York U). (CAD 285,882)
Funders:
SSHRC
-
Summary:
This project is part of a larger, multi-sited project on the role of the postsecondary education in facilitating reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, USA and Australia. It builds on my scholarly interest in two apparently disparate but deeply conceptually connected developments in postsecondary education in these countries – international student recruitment, and enhancing Indigenous content in teaching and learning.
Description:The proposed project focuses on Canada. It aims to study how Indigenizing and internationalizing initiatives sit in relation to each other, how they are in tension/conflict, and/or offer a historic opportunity for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, and whether/how the postsecondary sector is facilitating dialogue between Indigenous, diasporic and international students. In the process, the project aims to challenge the mutual disconnect between ‘Indigenizing’ and ‘internationalizing’ initiatives in the public and policy realms.
Funders:
MITACS
-
Summary:
The project aims to engage student voices and perspectives on the deeply entangled political phenomena of migration (e.g., via dominant and subaltern, “outside-of-state” forms), various disparate diasporic formations (e.g., non-status workers, asylum seeker and international students), and xenophobic white nationalism (a reactionary force). A series of conversations on global social movements and transnational solidarity are organized to both enhance student learning about the application of critical social work tools in responding to reactionary forces, and engage student perspectives on critical decolonial solidarity.
Description:A collaborative project with Dr. Nicole Penak, Chair, Aboriginal Advisory Committee, York University.
Funders:
YUFA Teaching/Learning Development Grant
-
Summary:
Review of critical Social Work theories and their practical application in key Social Work fields.
Description:The project explores the dominant Social Work understanding of integration between theory and practice and aims to understand why the divide between theory and practice been a long-standing issue in social work. It asks the following series of questions: How does theory-practice integration look like in Social Work classrooms? How does it look like in various practice sites? What needs to change in the ways we think about theory and practice and their relationship to make integration tangible, especially for upper year Social Work students getting ready for practice? Finally, are there similar debates in other professions? If yes, what are these debates (e.g., medicine, law, Psychiatry)? Is there anything we can draw from in other professional disciplines?
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2018
End Date:
- Month: Aug Year: 2018
Funders:
Dean's Award for Research Assistantship - Liberal Arts and professional Studies
-
Summary:
This was an upper year undergraduate course on migration and refugee protection where I challenged the very idea of immigrant settlement (a historically popular area of social work practice) as an innocent, desirable enterprise for social work. Instead, I placed Canada within a global system of nation states, and actively oriented the discussion toward the global project of imperial dispossession even if ‘the global’ seems vast and distant, and therefore, impossible to comprehend. I introduced content aimed to bridge the purported gap between the local and global modes of displacement; in the process, made both relentlessly visible. This is currently being developed as a graduate course.
Description:See above
Funders:
Indigeneity in Teaching and Learning Fund. Office of the Vice President Academic & Provost, York University
-
Summary:
This is the preliminary phase of a larger project on high skilled labour migration (including postsecondary international student migration), and the shifting nature of national membership in our world dominated by knowledge economic discourses. In this phase a comparative review of various study-migration policies of Canada, Australia, USA, UK and Germany, all introduced in response to the global race for professional talent, will be conducted. This review will build the foundation for the second phase of the study where I plan to explore postsecondary international students’ experience of navigating and making sense of the increasing entanglement between higher education and immigration policies of the aforementioned states, which construct them as 'knowledge diplomats' and 'ideal immigrants' but also maintains a gap between their economic welcome and political disenfranchisement.
Chatterjee, S., Mucina, M. & Tam, L. (2012) . “Telling Multiple Stories of Race in Canadian Higher Education”. In R.J. Gilmour, D. Bhandar, J. Heer & M.C. K. Ma (Eds).“Too Asian?” Racism and Post-Secondary Education. pp. 121-133. Toronto: Between the Lines Press.
Curling, D., Chatterjee, S. & Massaquoi, N. (2009) . “Women’s Transnational Locations as a Determinant of Mental Health: Results from a participatory action research project with new immigrant women of colour in Toronto.” In J. Gulliver & S. Cooper (Eds). Pathways, Bridges and Havens: the psychosocial determinants of women’s health. pp. 81-98. Sydney, N.S., Canada: Cape Breton University Press.
Review of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021.
Chatterjee, S. Review essay. Border and rule: Global migration, capitalism, and the
rise of racist nationalism. By Harsha Walia. Fernwood Publishing. For Antipode: A
Radical Journal of Geography.
Chatterjee S. Review of Borderline Canadianness. Border crossings and everyday nationalism in Niagara by Helleiner, J. (2016. In Journal of American Ethnic History. University of Illinois Press.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . Review of Transnational Migration and Lifelong Learning – Global Issues and Perspectives by Shibao Guo (ed., 2014). In Studies in Continuing Education.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Immigration Dialectic: Imagining community, economy, and Nation & Immigration & Settlement: Challenges, Experiences, & Opportunities by Harald Bauder (2011). Antipode: A radical journal of geography. Available online.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research: Politics, Languages and Responsibilities, by Tara Fenwick and Leslie Farrell (eds. 2011). Canadian Journal of Studies in Adult Education, 24(2), 71-73.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Toward Improving Canada's Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach. By Charles M Beach, Alan G Green and Christopher Worswick (2011). Work, Employment & Society, 27(1), pp. 191-192.
Chatterjee S. Sharokhni, S., Gomez, B & Pujari, M. ‘Another university is
possible’?: A study of anti-racism, Indigenizing and internationalizing initiatives in
two Canadian postsecondary institutions. Special Issue on Asian International Students in Canada's Post-Secondary Institutions: Strategies, Structures and Environments
Chatterjee S. & Das Gupta, T. (Eds.). Editorial. On Migration and Indigenous Sovereignty in a Chronically Mobile World
Chatterjee, S. & Barber, K. (2020). Between “here-now” and “there-then”: The West and Asia’s colonial entanglements in international higher education. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00538-x
Chatterjee S. (2019) . "‘What is to be Done?’: The hegemony of solutions in immigrants’ labour market integration. Canadian Journal of Studies in Adult Education.
Chatterjee, S. (2018) . Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Towards a comprehensive analysis of the contemporary settler colonial. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture.
Chatterjee, S. (2018). Teaching migration for reconciliation: A pedagogical commitment with a difference. Intersectionalities: A global journal of social work analysis, research, polity and practice.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “Skills to Build the Nation: The ideology of ‘Canadian experience and nationalism in global knowledge regime”. Ethnicities. 15(4), 544-567.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “Re-thinking Skill in Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice With Skilled Immigrant Professionals”. British Journal of Social Work, 45, 363-377. Advanced access online, 2013.
Martinez, A., Chatterjee, S., Stille, S., Hassidim, D. Y. (2013) . Countering Normative Discourses of Community. Critical Intersections in Education: An OISE-UT Students’ Journal, 1(2), i-iii.
Chatterjee, S. & Chapra, A. (2009) . “Talking Race, Talking Colour: Racialized women, their home and belongingness in multicultural Canada”. Canadian Woman Studies, 27 (2,3), 14-20.
Chatterjee, S. (2019). Colonial Divides: Social Work's chasm between Black, Caribbean, International, and Indigenous Communities and the Critical Work of Reaching Across.
Chatterjee, S. (2019). Panelist. Thinking through borders. Adult Learning and Education in the Context of Immigration: Perspectives in Canada. A joint pre-conference of the Comparative and International Educational Society of Canada (CIESC) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE). Congress of the Social Science and Humanities, Vancouver, Canada.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Moving beyond dualism in solidarity and social change. Opening Address. 10th Annual Critical Social Work Research Symposium. York University, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Race, labour, knowledge and the nation: Proposing a Canadian research agenda on study migration. Workshop: 'Supporting international students' Labour market Integration. Organized by Ryerson Centre for Settlement and Integration and Royal Roads University. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2016) Bordering the borderless nation: A conditional welcome. London School of Economics & Political Science. London. United Kingdom.
Chatterjee. S. (2016) . Tensions and contradictions between immigrant integration and Indigenous ‘self-determination’, Decolonization Conference. OISE-University of Toronto
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “When those new Canadians succeed, Canada succeeds”: The ideology of Canadian experience and ongoing practices of racially and ethnically exclusionary nationalism in Canada. Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference. York University. Toronto
Chatterjee, S. (2014) .“Borders are no longer at the border”: Professional immigrants’ labour market integration as a discursive site for the enactment of exclusionary nationalism in Canada. Presentation at Roxana Ng memorial speaker series. Centre for Women’s Studies in Education, OISE-UT.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . “This Way to the Nation: Enactments of nationalism in and through labour migration and integration policies in settler nations”. Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement Studies Annual Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2012) . “Canadian Experience Class and Building the Nation” at the Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada.
Chatterjee, S. (2012) . “Living Together 'with' Diversity: Discourses of labour market skill building as practices of nationalism in Canada” at the National Societies in Multicultural Age Conference, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Chatterjee, S., Berlingieri, A., Dossa, S., Mirchandani, K. & Tambe, S.(2011) “Marginalizing through Mobilizing the Discourse of Skill” at the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education & Adult Education Research Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S., Stewart, S. & Cheng, J. (2009) . Workshop organizer/facilitator. “Are you Missing Anything? Creating Positive Spaces for LGBTQ Newcomers”, at Ontario Council for Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Summer Professional Development Conference, Nottawasaga, Ontario.
Chatterjee, S., Bhalru, M. & Chapra, A. (2008) . Workshop organizer/facilitator. “Forced Marriages in the South Asian Community: Definition, context, politics and how a community responds” at Right to Choose: Conference on forced marriages, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2008) . “Family Class Migration: Understanding the discourse & addressing knowledge gap” at the 1st Immigration and Settlement Studies Graduate Students' Conference, Ryerson University.
Chatterjee, S., & Curling, D. (2008) . “Women’s Transnational Locations as a Determinant of Mental Health: Results from a participatory action research project with new immigrant women of colour in Toronto” at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Conference, Halifax.
Chatterjee, S. (2007) . “The Problem Focused Discourse on South Asian Immigrant Women: The role of social science research and settlement services” at the 9th Colloquium for Students and Recent Graduates, University of Montreal, Canada & Roundtable Presentation at the 9th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . This Way to the Nation: Enactments of nationalism in and through labour migration and integration policies in settler nations”. Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement Studies Annual Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee et al. (2011) . Marginalizing through Mobilizing the Discourse of Skill. In Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education (CASAE) and Adult Education Research Conference (AERC). Joint Conference Proceedings.
Chatterjee, S. (2007) . The Problem Focused Discourse on South Asian Immigrant Women: The role of social science research and settlement services. 9th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. International education: An untapped archive of Canadian nation formation. Asia Research Brief. York Centre for Asian Research.
Williams, C.C., Massaquoi, N., Redmond, M. & Chatterjee, S. (2011) . “A Collaborative Process to Achieve Access to Primary Health Care for Black Women and Women of Colour”. Toronto: Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre.
Chatterjee, S. Immigrant-Indigenous allyship. Canadian Advisory of Women
Immigrants.
Speaker. Care work during Covid. Panel organized by the office of the AVP-Research, York University.
Chatterjee, s. (2016) . Keynote address: A paradox or a productive contradiction? A proposal to historicize discourses and scholarship on skilled immigrants’ labour market integration. 9th Annual Critical Social Work Research Symposium: Interdisciplinary conversations on social transformation and critical practices. York University. Toronto. Canada
Keynote address: Practicing Decolonial Love. 3rd Annual Decolonizing our Minds Conference. New College. University of Toronto. Coverage in The Newspaper: University of Toronto’s Independent Paper, February, 2013.
The Discourse of Skill in Immigrants’ Labour Market Integration and Practices of National B-ordering in Canada. Senior Doctoral Fellow Speaker Series, 2012. New College, University of Toronto.
“Poverty and health of South Asian immigrant women”. Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, Toronto. On behalf of Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Session Organizer & Discussant. Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Reflections on decolonial solidarities. Canadian Sociological Association. Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Toronto.
Chatterjee S. & Das Gupta, T. (Eds.). Indigenous self-determination in a ‘chronically mobile’ world: Critical perspectives from anti-racist scholars of migration and mobility. Special issue in progress for Studies in Social Justice
Interviewed by Juro Kim Feliz (Resident, Canadian Music Centre Library) for Nomadic Sound Worlds, a four-part blog/podcast series that explores Canadian contemporary music through the lens of present-day global migration
Guest speech. Not an easy place to be: Thoughts on Indigenous decolonization from an immigrant scholar of immigration & anti-racism. In Immigrant Scarborough (undergraduate class Dr. Emine Fidan Elcioglu, Sociology. University of Toronto)
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . School of Social Work celebrates 10th research symposium. Available from: http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2017/05/08/school-of-social-work-celebrates-10th-research-symposium/
Teaching immigration and Indigenous self-determination relationally. http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2017/09/21/teaching-immigration-and-indigenous-self-determination-relationally/
Guest speech. Re-orienting discussion on solidarity: Some thoughts on anti-racist and Indigenous struggles. Race and ethnicity in Canada (undergraduate class of Dr. Luisa Swartzman, Sociology. University of Toronto)
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . Intersections of Higher Education and Student Migration to the West. Café Dissensus. Available at: http://cafedissensus.com/2015/06/14/intersections-of-higher-education-and-student-migration-to-the-west/
Chatterjee, S. (2014) . "Inland Labour Migration in India: Patterns of the Phenomenon and Critical Possibilities". Guest editorial in Café Dissensus. Available at: http://cafedissensus.com/2014/08/01/guest-editorial-inland-labour-migration-in-india-patterns-of-the-phenomenon-and-critical-possibilities/
Discussant. Gendering South Asian Studies. York Centre for Asian Research - South Asia Research Group. York University.
Guest teacher. Women and development (undergraduate class of Dr. Himani Bannerji, Sociology. York University)
Chatterjee, S. (3rd April, 2009) . "'Really want me here, welcome me': Engaging racialized young women in a holistic discussion on their health and well being". Ontario Health Promotion e-Bulletin. No. 610.
Chatterjee, S. & Bhuyan, R. (2009) . Toronto Project Report for Redrawing Resistance: South Asian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance.
Approach to Teaching
I teach graduate research seminars focusing on methods and epistemologies. I also teach upper year undergraduate courses in integrating social theories in social work practice, and immigration and refugee protection. Following a firm belief in the inadequacies of discipline bound singular answers, my research questions and plans draw from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Similarly, my pedagogy is informed by three key principles – an appreciation of the personal (as teaching, learning, reading subjects) as the door to sites of inquiry, encouraging an ability to sit with discomfort as key to learning/practising social justice work, and generating/fostering tools to work through learning moments, which involves accepting questions as answers.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/SOWK5250 3.0 | A | Graduate Research Seminar | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | GS/SOWK5450 3.0 | M | Practice Research Paper Seminar | SEMR |
My research interests have a few distinct yet overlapping trajectories. Primarily I am interested in migration, mobility justice, nationalism and border studies. Within this overarching interest, I look into the politics of state formed identity categories (e.g., ‘immigrant’, ‘Canadian’, ‘Canadian-born’, ‘non-status’, ‘refugee’ etc.) and their implications for contemporary Western nation building, the institutionalization of the civilizational ideologies of skills and standard in immigration and citizenship policies, and the global race for knowledge (e.g., discourses of internationalization and study migration policies etc.). Given above interests, the ‘entanglement’ of immigration policies/immigrant integration, anti-racist politics and indigenous self-determination in contemporary settler nations, primarily Canada, forms another important pillar of my research interests. Finally, I am a keen follower of social and political issues of relevance to South Asia and South Asians (in diaspora and beyond), including student migratory patterns from South Asia, and diaspora engagement policies of major South Asian emigration states. I am currently working on a book length manuscript titled Skills to Build the Nation, which is a study of Canadian skilled labour policies in relation to post-liberalization Canadian nationalism.
Degrees
PHD, OISE-University of Toronto, CanadaMSW, University of Toronto, Canada
MA, University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
2022- Member. Editorial Board. Academic Matters. Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
Community Contributions
2019 - Chatterjee, S. & Sultana Jahangir (ED, SAWRO). Better jobs, living wages. A forum organized with South Asian Women’s Rights Organization. For York University Community Conversations - Series 4 – Immigrant Experience in Canada.
2018 - Chatterjee, S. & Campbell, M. “First peoples to newcomers: How do we know each other?” Workshop facilitation. Community – Education – Change. KIHKINOOHAMAAKEWIN - Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Tommy Douglas Institute. George Brown College.
2016 - Roundtable Participant. Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Canada. The Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic & the Colour of Poverty–Colour of Change Campaign
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Co-investigator with A ka Tat Tsang (Social Work, University of Toronto), Jill Hanley (Social Work, McGill University), Sean Lauer (Sociology, University of British Columbia), Carla Hilario (Nursing, University of Alberta), Weiguo Zhang (Sociology, University of Toronto).
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-investigator
Funders:
SSHRC
-
Summary:
The main objective of this research project is to shed light on the experiences of international students as migrants to specific communities, beyond their academic affiliation, by using the ways in which racialization affects them on and off-campus, and has repercussions on their migratory experiences and trajectories as a whole.
For more detailed summary, see here: https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/rais/
Description:SSHRC Insight Grant. Co-investigator with Drs. Jean Michel Montsion (Multidisciplinary Studies, York U), Ann Kim (Sociology, York U) & Shirin Shahrokni (Sociology, York U). (CAD 285,882)
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-investigator
Funders:
SSHRC
-
Summary:
This project is part of a larger, multi-sited project on the role of the postsecondary education in facilitating reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, USA and Australia. It builds on my scholarly interest in two apparently disparate but deeply conceptually connected developments in postsecondary education in these countries – international student recruitment, and enhancing Indigenous content in teaching and learning.
Description:The proposed project focuses on Canada. It aims to study how Indigenizing and internationalizing initiatives sit in relation to each other, how they are in tension/conflict, and/or offer a historic opportunity for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, and whether/how the postsecondary sector is facilitating dialogue between Indigenous, diasporic and international students. In the process, the project aims to challenge the mutual disconnect between ‘Indigenizing’ and ‘internationalizing’ initiatives in the public and policy realms.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Funders:
MITACS
-
Summary:
The project aims to engage student voices and perspectives on the deeply entangled political phenomena of migration (e.g., via dominant and subaltern, “outside-of-state” forms), various disparate diasporic formations (e.g., non-status workers, asylum seeker and international students), and xenophobic white nationalism (a reactionary force). A series of conversations on global social movements and transnational solidarity are organized to both enhance student learning about the application of critical social work tools in responding to reactionary forces, and engage student perspectives on critical decolonial solidarity.
Description:A collaborative project with Dr. Nicole Penak, Chair, Aboriginal Advisory Committee, York University.
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-facilitator
Funders:
YUFA Teaching/Learning Development Grant
-
Summary:
Review of critical Social Work theories and their practical application in key Social Work fields.
Description:The project explores the dominant Social Work understanding of integration between theory and practice and aims to understand why the divide between theory and practice been a long-standing issue in social work. It asks the following series of questions: How does theory-practice integration look like in Social Work classrooms? How does it look like in various practice sites? What needs to change in the ways we think about theory and practice and their relationship to make integration tangible, especially for upper year Social Work students getting ready for practice? Finally, are there similar debates in other professions? If yes, what are these debates (e.g., medicine, law, Psychiatry)? Is there anything we can draw from in other professional disciplines?
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal investigator
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2018
End Date:
- Month: Aug Year: 2018
Funders:
Dean's Award for Research Assistantship - Liberal Arts and professional Studies
-
Summary:
This was an upper year undergraduate course on migration and refugee protection where I challenged the very idea of immigrant settlement (a historically popular area of social work practice) as an innocent, desirable enterprise for social work. Instead, I placed Canada within a global system of nation states, and actively oriented the discussion toward the global project of imperial dispossession even if ‘the global’ seems vast and distant, and therefore, impossible to comprehend. I introduced content aimed to bridge the purported gap between the local and global modes of displacement; in the process, made both relentlessly visible. This is currently being developed as a graduate course.
Description:See above
Project Type: FundedRole: N/A
Funders:
Indigeneity in Teaching and Learning Fund. Office of the Vice President Academic & Provost, York University
-
Summary:
This is the preliminary phase of a larger project on high skilled labour migration (including postsecondary international student migration), and the shifting nature of national membership in our world dominated by knowledge economic discourses. In this phase a comparative review of various study-migration policies of Canada, Australia, USA, UK and Germany, all introduced in response to the global race for professional talent, will be conducted. This review will build the foundation for the second phase of the study where I plan to explore postsecondary international students’ experience of navigating and making sense of the increasing entanglement between higher education and immigration policies of the aforementioned states, which construct them as 'knowledge diplomats' and 'ideal immigrants' but also maintains a gap between their economic welcome and political disenfranchisement.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
All Publications
Chatterjee, S., Mucina, M. & Tam, L. (2012) . “Telling Multiple Stories of Race in Canadian Higher Education”. In R.J. Gilmour, D. Bhandar, J. Heer & M.C. K. Ma (Eds).“Too Asian?” Racism and Post-Secondary Education. pp. 121-133. Toronto: Between the Lines Press.
Curling, D., Chatterjee, S. & Massaquoi, N. (2009) . “Women’s Transnational Locations as a Determinant of Mental Health: Results from a participatory action research project with new immigrant women of colour in Toronto.” In J. Gulliver & S. Cooper (Eds). Pathways, Bridges and Havens: the psychosocial determinants of women’s health. pp. 81-98. Sydney, N.S., Canada: Cape Breton University Press.
Review of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021.
Chatterjee, S. Review essay. Border and rule: Global migration, capitalism, and the
rise of racist nationalism. By Harsha Walia. Fernwood Publishing. For Antipode: A
Radical Journal of Geography.
Chatterjee S. Review of Borderline Canadianness. Border crossings and everyday nationalism in Niagara by Helleiner, J. (2016. In Journal of American Ethnic History. University of Illinois Press.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . Review of Transnational Migration and Lifelong Learning – Global Issues and Perspectives by Shibao Guo (ed., 2014). In Studies in Continuing Education.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Immigration Dialectic: Imagining community, economy, and Nation & Immigration & Settlement: Challenges, Experiences, & Opportunities by Harald Bauder (2011). Antipode: A radical journal of geography. Available online.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research: Politics, Languages and Responsibilities, by Tara Fenwick and Leslie Farrell (eds. 2011). Canadian Journal of Studies in Adult Education, 24(2), 71-73.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . Review of Toward Improving Canada's Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach. By Charles M Beach, Alan G Green and Christopher Worswick (2011). Work, Employment & Society, 27(1), pp. 191-192.
Chatterjee S. Sharokhni, S., Gomez, B & Pujari, M. ‘Another university is
possible’?: A study of anti-racism, Indigenizing and internationalizing initiatives in
two Canadian postsecondary institutions. Special Issue on Asian International Students in Canada's Post-Secondary Institutions: Strategies, Structures and Environments
Chatterjee S. & Das Gupta, T. (Eds.). Editorial. On Migration and Indigenous Sovereignty in a Chronically Mobile World
Chatterjee, S. & Barber, K. (2020). Between “here-now” and “there-then”: The West and Asia’s colonial entanglements in international higher education. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00538-x
Chatterjee S. (2019) . "‘What is to be Done?’: The hegemony of solutions in immigrants’ labour market integration. Canadian Journal of Studies in Adult Education.
Chatterjee, S. (2018) . Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Towards a comprehensive analysis of the contemporary settler colonial. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture.
Chatterjee, S. (2018). Teaching migration for reconciliation: A pedagogical commitment with a difference. Intersectionalities: A global journal of social work analysis, research, polity and practice.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “Skills to Build the Nation: The ideology of ‘Canadian experience and nationalism in global knowledge regime”. Ethnicities. 15(4), 544-567.
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “Re-thinking Skill in Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice With Skilled Immigrant Professionals”. British Journal of Social Work, 45, 363-377. Advanced access online, 2013.
Martinez, A., Chatterjee, S., Stille, S., Hassidim, D. Y. (2013) . Countering Normative Discourses of Community. Critical Intersections in Education: An OISE-UT Students’ Journal, 1(2), i-iii.
Chatterjee, S. & Chapra, A. (2009) . “Talking Race, Talking Colour: Racialized women, their home and belongingness in multicultural Canada”. Canadian Woman Studies, 27 (2,3), 14-20.
Chatterjee, S. (2019). Colonial Divides: Social Work's chasm between Black, Caribbean, International, and Indigenous Communities and the Critical Work of Reaching Across.
Chatterjee, S. (2019). Panelist. Thinking through borders. Adult Learning and Education in the Context of Immigration: Perspectives in Canada. A joint pre-conference of the Comparative and International Educational Society of Canada (CIESC) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE). Congress of the Social Science and Humanities, Vancouver, Canada.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Moving beyond dualism in solidarity and social change. Opening Address. 10th Annual Critical Social Work Research Symposium. York University, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Race, labour, knowledge and the nation: Proposing a Canadian research agenda on study migration. Workshop: 'Supporting international students' Labour market Integration. Organized by Ryerson Centre for Settlement and Integration and Royal Roads University. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2016) Bordering the borderless nation: A conditional welcome. London School of Economics & Political Science. London. United Kingdom.
Chatterjee. S. (2016) . Tensions and contradictions between immigrant integration and Indigenous ‘self-determination’, Decolonization Conference. OISE-University of Toronto
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . “When those new Canadians succeed, Canada succeeds”: The ideology of Canadian experience and ongoing practices of racially and ethnically exclusionary nationalism in Canada. Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference. York University. Toronto
Chatterjee, S. (2014) .“Borders are no longer at the border”: Professional immigrants’ labour market integration as a discursive site for the enactment of exclusionary nationalism in Canada. Presentation at Roxana Ng memorial speaker series. Centre for Women’s Studies in Education, OISE-UT.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . “This Way to the Nation: Enactments of nationalism in and through labour migration and integration policies in settler nations”. Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement Studies Annual Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2012) . “Canadian Experience Class and Building the Nation” at the Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada.
Chatterjee, S. (2012) . “Living Together 'with' Diversity: Discourses of labour market skill building as practices of nationalism in Canada” at the National Societies in Multicultural Age Conference, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Chatterjee, S., Berlingieri, A., Dossa, S., Mirchandani, K. & Tambe, S.(2011) “Marginalizing through Mobilizing the Discourse of Skill” at the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education & Adult Education Research Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee, S., Stewart, S. & Cheng, J. (2009) . Workshop organizer/facilitator. “Are you Missing Anything? Creating Positive Spaces for LGBTQ Newcomers”, at Ontario Council for Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Summer Professional Development Conference, Nottawasaga, Ontario.
Chatterjee, S., Bhalru, M. & Chapra, A. (2008) . Workshop organizer/facilitator. “Forced Marriages in the South Asian Community: Definition, context, politics and how a community responds” at Right to Choose: Conference on forced marriages, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2008) . “Family Class Migration: Understanding the discourse & addressing knowledge gap” at the 1st Immigration and Settlement Studies Graduate Students' Conference, Ryerson University.
Chatterjee, S., & Curling, D. (2008) . “Women’s Transnational Locations as a Determinant of Mental Health: Results from a participatory action research project with new immigrant women of colour in Toronto” at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Conference, Halifax.
Chatterjee, S. (2007) . “The Problem Focused Discourse on South Asian Immigrant Women: The role of social science research and settlement services” at the 9th Colloquium for Students and Recent Graduates, University of Montreal, Canada & Roundtable Presentation at the 9th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2013) . This Way to the Nation: Enactments of nationalism in and through labour migration and integration policies in settler nations”. Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement Studies Annual Conference. Toronto.
Chatterjee et al. (2011) . Marginalizing through Mobilizing the Discourse of Skill. In Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education (CASAE) and Adult Education Research Conference (AERC). Joint Conference Proceedings.
Chatterjee, S. (2007) . The Problem Focused Discourse on South Asian Immigrant Women: The role of social science research and settlement services. 9th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. International education: An untapped archive of Canadian nation formation. Asia Research Brief. York Centre for Asian Research.
Williams, C.C., Massaquoi, N., Redmond, M. & Chatterjee, S. (2011) . “A Collaborative Process to Achieve Access to Primary Health Care for Black Women and Women of Colour”. Toronto: Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre.
Chatterjee, S. Immigrant-Indigenous allyship. Canadian Advisory of Women
Immigrants.
Speaker. Care work during Covid. Panel organized by the office of the AVP-Research, York University.
Chatterjee, s. (2016) . Keynote address: A paradox or a productive contradiction? A proposal to historicize discourses and scholarship on skilled immigrants’ labour market integration. 9th Annual Critical Social Work Research Symposium: Interdisciplinary conversations on social transformation and critical practices. York University. Toronto. Canada
Keynote address: Practicing Decolonial Love. 3rd Annual Decolonizing our Minds Conference. New College. University of Toronto. Coverage in The Newspaper: University of Toronto’s Independent Paper, February, 2013.
The Discourse of Skill in Immigrants’ Labour Market Integration and Practices of National B-ordering in Canada. Senior Doctoral Fellow Speaker Series, 2012. New College, University of Toronto.
“Poverty and health of South Asian immigrant women”. Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, Toronto. On behalf of Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre, Toronto.
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . Session Organizer & Discussant. Immigration, anti-racism and Indigenous self-determination: Reflections on decolonial solidarities. Canadian Sociological Association. Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Toronto.
Chatterjee S. & Das Gupta, T. (Eds.). Indigenous self-determination in a ‘chronically mobile’ world: Critical perspectives from anti-racist scholars of migration and mobility. Special issue in progress for Studies in Social Justice
Interviewed by Juro Kim Feliz (Resident, Canadian Music Centre Library) for Nomadic Sound Worlds, a four-part blog/podcast series that explores Canadian contemporary music through the lens of present-day global migration
Guest speech. Not an easy place to be: Thoughts on Indigenous decolonization from an immigrant scholar of immigration & anti-racism. In Immigrant Scarborough (undergraduate class Dr. Emine Fidan Elcioglu, Sociology. University of Toronto)
Chatterjee, S. (2017) . School of Social Work celebrates 10th research symposium. Available from: http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2017/05/08/school-of-social-work-celebrates-10th-research-symposium/
Teaching immigration and Indigenous self-determination relationally. http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2017/09/21/teaching-immigration-and-indigenous-self-determination-relationally/
Guest speech. Re-orienting discussion on solidarity: Some thoughts on anti-racist and Indigenous struggles. Race and ethnicity in Canada (undergraduate class of Dr. Luisa Swartzman, Sociology. University of Toronto)
Chatterjee, S. (2015) . Intersections of Higher Education and Student Migration to the West. Café Dissensus. Available at: http://cafedissensus.com/2015/06/14/intersections-of-higher-education-and-student-migration-to-the-west/
Chatterjee, S. (2014) . "Inland Labour Migration in India: Patterns of the Phenomenon and Critical Possibilities". Guest editorial in Café Dissensus. Available at: http://cafedissensus.com/2014/08/01/guest-editorial-inland-labour-migration-in-india-patterns-of-the-phenomenon-and-critical-possibilities/
Discussant. Gendering South Asian Studies. York Centre for Asian Research - South Asia Research Group. York University.
Guest teacher. Women and development (undergraduate class of Dr. Himani Bannerji, Sociology. York University)
Chatterjee, S. (3rd April, 2009) . "'Really want me here, welcome me': Engaging racialized young women in a holistic discussion on their health and well being". Ontario Health Promotion e-Bulletin. No. 610.
Chatterjee, S. & Bhuyan, R. (2009) . Toronto Project Report for Redrawing Resistance: South Asian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance.
Approach to Teaching
I teach graduate research seminars focusing on methods and epistemologies. I also teach upper year undergraduate courses in integrating social theories in social work practice, and immigration and refugee protection. Following a firm belief in the inadequacies of discipline bound singular answers, my research questions and plans draw from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Similarly, my pedagogy is informed by three key principles – an appreciation of the personal (as teaching, learning, reading subjects) as the door to sites of inquiry, encouraging an ability to sit with discomfort as key to learning/practising social justice work, and generating/fostering tools to work through learning moments, which involves accepting questions as answers.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/SOWK5250 3.0 | A | Graduate Research Seminar | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | GS/SOWK5450 3.0 | M | Practice Research Paper Seminar | SEMR |
Keele, Glendon and Markham Campus
Contact
(416) 736-2100
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