We provide an inspiring environment for research students and researchers.
Research projects undertaken by faculty and graduate students address a wide variety of sociological and socio-legal issues that fall into four broad thematic areas:
- crime, law, and security
- knowledge, education, and digital culture
- migration, borders, and transnationalism
- social inequality and public policy
Research Projects
Dr. Janice Aurini
Dr. Phil Boyle
A SSHRC-funded project examining critical infrastructure security in Canada.
Dr. Martin Cooke
Research funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada with Statistics Canada, examining immigrant women’s work and family trajectories.
Dr. Owen Gallupe
A research project examining adolescent substance use, offending, social status, and peer group dynamics.
Dr. Suzan Ilcan
Current research projects examine migration and bordering practices in the context of migrant experiences of displacement, precarity, resettlement, and community-building. This work focuses on areas within MENA and Europe.
Dr. John McLevey
A SSHRC-funded project on disinformation, democracy, and online political deliberation.
Dr. Adam Molar
Member of the Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at the University of Waterloo. Interdisciplinary research projects that examine technologies of surveillance, policing/security, civil liberties, and the politics of regulatory governance.
Dr. E. Adie Nelson
A current project examining violent offenders' construction of 'good Samaritans'; another project focused on racialization and gendering of disability within award-winning children's literature.
Dr. Daniel O'Connor
A new research project examining the regulation and transformation of border security in North America and Europe.
Dr. Andrea Quinlan
A SSHRC-funded project on forensics in medicolegal responses to sexual violence; a SSHRC-funded project on rural sexual assault care.
Dr. Jennifer Schulenberg
Current research includes: (1) a SSHRC-funded project on police decision-making with at-risk youth and vulnerable populations; (2) sex trafficking of youth; and (3) the relationship between technology and police deployment strategies.
Dr. Rashmee Singh
A research project examining the civil society-state relations established to govern gender violence in Toronto, with a specific focus on the city's immigrant-serving community organizations.
Dr. Sarah Turnbull
Current research includes (1) a SSHRC-funded study of immigration detention reform in Canada, (2) a project on COVID-19 and imprisonment in Canada and Scotland funded by a Strathclyde and Waterloo Joint Transatlantic Partnership Award, and (3) the Prison Transparency Project, a collaboration between researchers from Argentina, Spain, and Canada focused on transparency and accountability in carceral systems.
Dr. Jennifer R. Whitson
Current research projects include qualitative work on labour and sustainability in the game industry, as well as more general work around surveillance in games and other online spaces.
Dr. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Research projects examining the effects of religiousity and religion on voting behaviour in Canada; as well as exploring the dynamics of religious "nones" in comparative Western contexts.