Contacts
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Janice Aurini
Associate Professor | Department Chair
Kieran Bonner
Professor | Primary Association St. Jerome's University
Interests: Radical Interpretive Theory and Methodology (e.g, Ethnomethodology, Hermeneutics, Analysis), Culture, (e.g., Health, City, Urban/Rural, Ancient Athens), Power (e.g., Parent/Child), Socratic Tradition of Inquiry
Philip Boyle
Associate Professor | Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Legal Studies
Interests: Security, Policing, Resilience, Urban Governance, Emergencies & Disasters and Public Safety.
For Legal Studies undergraduate inquiries, please email: ls-associatechair@uwaterloo.ca. Book an academic advising appointment.
For research and teaching inquiries, please email: philip.boyle@uwaterloo.ca.
Honor Brabazon
Associate Professor | Primary Association St. Jerome’s University
Interests: International Law, Global Justice, Political/Social Theory and Law
Susan Brophy
Associate Professor | Primary Association St. Jerome's University
Interests: historical relation between law and capitalism that combines legal theory and political economy.
Sarah Brown
Liaison Librarian, Sociology & Legal Studies
Holly Campeau
Assistant Professor
Allison Chenier
Associate Professor-Teaching Stream
Martin Cooke
Associate Professor
Interests: Population health, social inequality and the life course. Jointly appointed in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies and School of Public Health and Health Systems. Cross appointed to the School of Pharmacy.
Fred Desroches
Professor | Primary Association St. Jerome's University
Interests: Criminology, Legal Studies
Adam Ellis
Assistant Professor
Lai-Tze Fan
Associate Professor
Owen Gallupe
Associate Professor | Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
Interests: Criminological theory testing, social influence dynamics, decision-making processes, politics and crime.
Colin Hastings
Assistant Professor
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology and Anthropology (Concordia University)
PhD, Department of Sociology (York University)
MA, Cultural Studies (Queen’s University)
BA, Peace Studies and Political Science (McMaster University)
Research and Teaching Areas
Institutional ethnography, medical sociology, public health surveillance, medico-legal governance, digital mass media
Courses Taught
LS 330/SOC 304: Media and Crime
SOC 248: Health, Illness, and Society
SOC 440/LS 496: Health, Surveillance, and Law
SOC 725: Graduate Seminar in the Sociology of Health
Current Research
My overall research program examines how forms of public health and criminal legal regulation intersect with one another, and how knowledge of these hybrid health/crime issues circulates on digital mass media platforms. Much of my work has focused on the issue of HIV criminalization in Canada. I employ Dorothy Smith’s approach to studies in the social organization of knowledge to illuminate a broad range of coordinated activities (including those of police, public health officials, corrections officers, legal professionals, medical experts, news reporters, HIV activists, human rights advocates, and others) that produce, reproduce, and also disrupt the social relations of HIV criminalization.
My current research examines the social organization of HIV public health surveillance and attends to how these technologies come to bear on people living with HIV. This work takes the form of collaborative, community-centered research projects.
Research Grants
2022 - Co-applicant, SSHRC Insight Development Grant. “Experiences of the Social Organization of HIV-Related Public Health Risks.” With Emerich Daroya, Martin French, Andrea Krüsi, Alexander McClelland (PI), and Maureen Owino.
2022 - Co-applicant, CIHR Catalyst Grant: HIV/AIDS and STBBI Community-Based Research. “Mapping The Pathway of Blood and Information Collected From HIV-Positive People in a Clinical Setting: Implications for Public Health Surveillance, Consent, and Criminalization.” With Emerich Daroya, Estelle Davis, Martin French, Andrea Krüsi, Alexander McClelland (PI), Ryan Peck, and Amy Wah.
2020 - Collaborator, SSHRC Connection Grant. “Centering Lived and Living Experiences of HIV Surveillance.” With Martin French et al.
Selected Publications
Books
Digital News and HIV Criminalization: The Social Organization of Convergence Journalism. University of Toronto Press (December 2024).
Journal articles
Hastings, C., French, M., McClelland, A. et al. (2023). Criminal Code reform of HIV non-disclosure is urgently needed: Social science perspectives on the harms of HIV criminalization in Canada. Can J Public Health. 115: 8–14. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-023-00843-9
Hastings, C. (2022). Writing for Digital News About HIV Criminalization in Canada and the Sociotechnical Assemblage of Online News. The Canadian Review of Sociology. 1: 1-19.
Hastings, C; McClelland, A; Guta, A; Owino, M; Manning, E; Elliot, R; Gagnon, M; Molldrem, S. (2021). Intersections of Treatment, Surveillance, and the Criminal Law Responses to HIV and COVID-19. The American Journal of Public Health. 111(7): e1-e3.
Mykhalovskiy, E; Sanders, C; Hastings, C; Bisaillon, L. (2020). Explicitly Racialized and Extraordinarily Over-Represented: Black Immigrant Men in 25 Years of News Reports on HIV Non-Disclosure Criminal Cases in Canada. Culture, Health, and Sexuality. 23(6): 788-803.
Hastings, C; Mykhalovskiy, E; Sanders, C; Bisaillon, L. (2020). Disrupting a Canadian Prairie Fantasy and Constructing Racial Otherness: An Analysis of News Media Coverage of Trevis Smith's Criminal HIV Non-Disclosure Case. The Canadian Journal of Sociology. 45(1): 1-21.
Mykhalovskiy, E; Kazatchkine, C; Foreman-Mackey, A; McClelland, A; Peck, R; Hastings, C; Elliot, R.(2020). Human Rights, Public Health, and f-19 in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Public Health. 111: 975-979.
Fortier, C; Hastings; C. (2019). A Field of Dreamers on Stolen Land: Practices of Unsettling on the Recreational Softball Diamonds of Tkaronto. The Journal of Sport History. 46(2): 302-317.
Hastings, C.; Comer, L., and Mykhalovskiy, E. (2018). Review: Didier Fassin (Ed.) (2017). If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19 (2), 2-7.
Book chapters
Fortier, C. and Hastings, C. (2023). “Let’s Make Baseball!: Practices of Unsettling on the Recreational Ball Diamonds of Tkaronto/Toronto.” In Forsyth, J., O’Bonsawin, C., Field, R., and Phillips, M.G. (Eds.) Decolonizing Sport. Fernwood Publishing.
Hastings C. and Mykhalovskiy, E. (2023). Reflections on Social Relations and the Single Institution Tendency in Institutional Ethnography. Luken, P. and Vaughn, S. Critical Commentary on Institutional Ethnography: IE Scholars Speak to Its Promise. Springer.
Mykhalovskiy, E., Landry, D., and Hastings, C. (2023). ‘I just feel like Toronto is becoming a massive cement slab:’ Residential nuisance noise as figuration. Fulton-Melanson, J. and James, R. What does the Right to the City Sound Like? The Ambient Dynamics of Urban Futures. University of Indiana Press.
Mykhalovskiy, E; Hastings, C; Comer, L; Gruson-Wood, J; Strang, M. (2021). Teaching Institutional Ethnography as an Alternative Sociology. Luken, P. and Vaughn, S. Handbook of Institutional Ethnography: 47-64. Palgrave McMillan.
Hastings, C. (2019). The Social Relations of Disclosure: Critical Reflection on Biological Citizenship in the Context of HIV Criminalization. Mykhalovskiy, E; Namaste, V. Thinking Differently About HIV/AIDS :261-281.University of British Columbia Press.
Community and Media Publications
Hastings, C.; Massaquoi, N.; Elliott, R.; Mykhalovskiy, E. HIV Criminalization in Canada: Key Trends and Patterns [1998-2020] (2022). HIV Legal Network.
Hastings, C.; McClelland, A.; Nicholson, V. (2021). It’s Time to End Criminal Prosecutions Against People Living with HIV. The Breach.
Hastings, C.; Kazatchkine, C., and Mykhalovskiy, E. (2017). HIV Criminalization in Canada: Key Trends and Patterns. Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Mykhalovskiy, E.; Hastings, C.; Sanders, C.; Hayman, M.; and Bisaillon, L. (2016). “‘Callous, Cold, and Deliberately Duplicitous:’ Racialization, Immigration, and the Representation of Criminalization in Canadian Mainstream Newspapers.” A report funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Centre for Social Research in HIV Prevention.
Selected Professional and Community Networks
Division Chair (2020 – 2023), Institutional Ethnography Division, Society of the Study of Social Problems.
Media Working Group Coordinator and Public Health Working Group, Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization.
Graduate Supervision and Student Opportunities
I am happy to be on supervisory committees for graduate committees and honours student research in the following areas: sociology of health, public health surveillance, medico-legal governance, digital news media, police communications and public relations, institutional ethnography and approaches to qualitative research, sociology of sport.
Goetz Hoeppe
Associate Professor | Cross-Appointed with Anthropology
Suzan Ilcan
Professor
Interests: Migration and mobility studies; Border studies; Political sociology, Critical development and humanitarian aid
Karmvir K. Padda
PhD Candidate
Research Interest:
I am a PhD candidate specializing in radicalization, extremist use of the internet, ideologically motivated violent extremism, hate crime, computational social science, and research methodology. My work integrates both traditional qualitative and quantitative methods with advanced computational techniques, such as topic modeling, sentiment and emotion analysis, and network analysis. My research focuses on analyzing extremist manifestos to understand how perpetrators justify their actions. I examine the language used by extremists and track how these narratives evolve and spread across different online spaces, including mainstream platforms (e.g., Reddit) and alt-tech platforms (e.g., Stormfront, 8kun, Gab).
Beyond my doctoral research, I have over a decade of experience contributing to interdisciplinary projects on disinformation, misinformation, human trafficking, and the broader dynamics of online discourse and digital influence. Additionally, I have more than eight years of teaching experience, designing and delivering courses in sociology, criminology, and research methods with a focus on student-centered learning, applied research skills, and inclusive pedagogy.
Selected Publications:
- Padda, K., (2025). Unveiling Chaos: A Socio-Criminological Exploration into the Capitol Insurrection. In Deflem, M., Vol. 29 of Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance
- Padda, K., (2024). Bridging Theory and Practice: Teaching Qualitative Field Research Methods in Sociology and Criminology. Journal of Security, Intelligence, and Resilience Education. 18 (6), 1-9
- Padda, K. (2023). Critical Criminology. In Boyd, N., Understanding Crime in Canada, 3rd edition. Emond Publishing
- Frank, G., Cartwright, B., Weir, G., Padda, K., & Strange, SM. (2023). Deploying Artificial Intelligence to Combat Covid-19 Misinformation on social media: Technological and Ethical Considerations. Proceedings of the IEEE-sponsored 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences https://hdl.handle.net/10125/102897
- Padda, K., Strange, SM., Cartwright, B., & Frank, R. (2022). COVID-19 Misinformation on social media: Ethical Questions of Research and Regulation in the Canadian Context. In Egal, E., & Patton, C., The COVID-19 Pandemic Collection: Ethical Challenges and Considerations (pp. 49-78). Ethics International Press
- Padda, K. (2020). Fake News on Twitter in 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: A Quantitative Approach. The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 3(2), 1-26.
John McLevey
Associate Professor | Primary Association with Department of Knowledge Integration
Interests:
- How opinions, beliefs, identities, worldviews, and lifestyle preferences form and evolve over the life course
- Public opinion dynamics, lifestyle preferences and politics, and large-scale cultural change (especially when it comes to opinions on collective risks such as environmental change, questions of science and expertise, surveillance and privacy, and authoritarianism and populism)
- The workings and impacts of coordinated information operations (especially disinformation campaigns and censorship) on a population scale
- Methods and models in computational social science and data science, especially network science and social network analysis, probabilistic and generative modelling, computational text analysis, and reproducibility
Adam Molnar
Assistant Professor
Interests: Surveillance, Security, Policing, Technology, Social Control / Regulation, Privacy, Human Rights.
Daniel O'Connor
Associate Professor
Interests: Security and Policing, Borders and Governance, Regulation and Law, Social Theory
Andrea Quinlan
Assistant Professor
website: www.andreaquinlan.net
Sharon Roberts
Associate Professor | Primary Association Renison University College
Interests: Transition to adulthood, identity resolution, anthropomorphic identities/furry fandom/furries, youth, furscience.com co-founder
Rina Salazar
Administrative Manager
Jennifer Schulenberg
Associate Professor
Interests: Policing, Criminology, Youth justice, Quantitative and qualitative research methods
Rashmee Singh
Associate Professor
Interests: Post-Colonial Feminist Thought, Gender Violence, Civil Society-State Relations, Governance and Regulation, Sociology of Law, Criminology
Quinn Smith
Coordinator & Advisor, Graduate Studies
Anastasia Tataryn
Assistant Professor | Primary Association St. Jerome’s University
Interests: Jurisprudence and Critical Legal Theory; Labour Migration Law; Employment and Labour Law; Transformative Law and Economics; The Idea of Nation, Citizenship and Home; De-coloniality and Post-structuralism; Eco-philosophy, Ecology and Law
Sarah Turnbull
Assistant Professor
Interests: Border criminology; immigration detention; deportation; punishment; parole and re-entry; postcolonial, antiracist, and feminist thought; critical border and migration studies; qualitative research methods
Jennifer R. Whitson
Associate Professor
Interests: Sociology of Digital Media, Governance of Online Spaces; Game and Software Studies, Surveillance Studies, Qualitative Methods
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Associate Professor | Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Sociology
Interests: sociology of religion; quantitative methods; Canadian studies; immigration and ethnicity; social change; political sociology
Rhea Ashley Hoskin
Postdoctoral Researcher, AMTD Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellow, Ontario Women’s Health Scholar
Interests: Sociology of gender, Critical Femininities, Femme Theory, intersectional analyses, sexual and gender diversity, gender and power, violence, prejudice and discrimination, feminist theory, queer theory, transgender studies, social inequality, femininities, femme, femmephobia, anti-femininity, fashion and aesthetics.
Catalina Garcia
Undergraduate Coordinator
Danielle Thompson
PhD Candidate
Research Interests
My research interests are in the areas of surveillance and technology, privacy, policing, and gendered studies. My PhD dissertation research explores the adoption and use of employee monitoring applications (EMAs) in remote/hybrid working environments. I am investigating the impacts of these technologies on employee privacy and well-being and whether the regulation of this technology can be strengthened to improve employee protections in the workplace. My previous MA thesis research examined the gendered experiences of police fathers both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which they navigated their roles as fathers and police officers.
Select Publications
- Thompson, D. E., & Molnar, A. (2023). Workplace Surveillance in Canada: A survey on the adoption and use of employee monitoring applications. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie. 60(4), 801-819.
- Thompson, D.E., & Molnar, A. (2023). Slouching Toward Regulation: Assessing Bill 88 as a solution for workplace surveillance harms. Canadian Journal of Law and Technology. 21(1), 23-46.
- Langan, D., Sanders, C.B., & Thompson, D.E. (2023). Examining the experiences of women police during COVID-19: A liminal space for cultural change. Handbook on Gender and Public Sector Employment, Edward Edgar Publishing, ed. Hazel Conley and Paula Koskinen Sandberg.
- Thompson, D.E., Langan, D., & Sanders, C.B. (2022). Policemen, COVID-19, and police culture: Navigating the pandemic with colleagues, the public, and family. Policing & Society, 33(1): 1-14.