• Brooks, Carolyn (PhD Saskatchewan 2009). Criminology; Intimate Partner Violence; Penology; Social Control; Youth Crime and Resilience.
  • Cheng, Hongming (PhD Simon Fraser 2004). Aboriginal Rights; Chinese Law and Society; Corporations; International Criminology; Policing; White Collar Crime.
  • Dell, Colleen (PhD Carleton 2001). Addictions; Animal Assisted Interventions; Criminalization; Healing; Health; Indigenous Wellbeing; Knowledge Mobilization; Mental Health; Women and Girls.
  • Dickinson, Harley (PhD Lancaster 1984). Globalization and Knowledge Systems; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Health Policy; Social Theory; Research Processes. 
  • Gertler, Michael (PhD Cornell 1993). Co-operatives and Commons Studies; Communities and Community Development; Development Sociology; Environmental Sociology; Rural Sociology; Sociology of Agriculture; Sociology of Knowledge.
  • Hansen, John G. (PhD Regina 2011). Addictions Recovery and Healing; Crime and Society; Indigenous Justice; Indigenous Knowledge; Restorative Justice.
  • Hwang, Monica (PhD British Columbia 2013). Education; Immigration and Diversity; Political Sociology; Racial and Ethnic Stratification; Social Capital; Social Inequality.
  • Kang, Timothy (PhD Toronto 2020), Assistant Professor. Crime and Delinquency; Life Course; Youth and Adolescence; Transition to Adulthood; Narrative Criminology; Research Methodology
  • Kaye, Julie (PhD Saskatchewan 2013). Colonial Gendered Violence; Community Research and Organizing; Critical Criminology; Feminist and Indigenous Feminist Thought; Harm Reduction; Human Trafficking;  Post-, Anti-, and Settler-Colonialisms; Sex Work; Systemic Inequalities; Women and Law.
  • Knudson, Sarah (PhD Toronto 2012). Families; Gender; Qualitative Research Methods; Sexuality; Young Adults.
  • Poudrier, Jennifer (PhD Queens 2004). Community Based Participatory Research; Indigenous Knowledge; Sociology of Medicine; Sociology of Science and Knowledge.
  • Quinlan, Elizabeth (PhD Saskatchewan 2004). Arts Based Methods; Caring Labour; Labour History; Participatory Research; Work; Work Organization.
  • Somerville, Kara (PhD Toronto 2006). Immigrant Families; Indo-Canadians; International Migration; Race/Ethnicity; Second Generation; Transnationalism.
  • Thompson, Scott (PhD University of Alberta 2012) Classification; Colonialism; Gender; Governance; Identity; Law; Race; Social Control; Surveillance; Technology.
  • Wotherspoon, Terry (PhD Simon Fraser 1989). Aboriginal; Immigration; Inclusion; Indigenous; Inequality; Social Policy; Sociology of Education; Work and Labour Markets.
  • Wright, Laura (PhD Western 2016). Families; Life Course and Aging; Partnership Trajectories; Quantitative Methods; Social Demography; Transitions to Adulthood.
  • Zong, Li (PhD Saskatchewan 1993). China Studies; Immigration; Race and Ethnic Relations; Social Stratification.

Crime & Justice Studies

While criminology focuses on understanding the origins of crime, both at the individual and social level, justice studies go beyond and focus on how the law comes to be applied to individuals and groups on the bases of social characteristics. The general field of justice studies, then, tries to understand how some people gain advantage through the justice system and how some suffer substantial disadvantage, not necessarily on the basis of their criminality but on the basis of social categories and social definitions. 


Researchers in this area are:

Health & Illness

Health research is fundamental to many recent local, national and international initiatives, and our department focus will continue to place our faculty at the forefront of Health and Health Care Research. Many research areas combine to form different streams of Health, for example Health and Illness, Qualitative Research, Primary Health Care, Health and Health Care, Theory, Policy Analysis/Public Policy. Colleen Dell is the Research Chair in Substance Abuse. 


Researchers in this area include:

Migration Studies

Citizenship, Immigration, Race & Ethnicity, Transnationalism

Internationally recognized for research in the areas of Globalization, Immigration, Transnationalism, Integration and Race/Ethnic Relations, the department boasts a critical mass of faculty actively engaged in teaching and research in the area of Migration Studies. The Department has academic agreements with Xi'an Jiaotong University in China for graduate and undergraduate joint degree programs, and professional ties with key scholars in many regions of the world, particularly Africa, India, and China. Faculty in the department have received numerous awards and grants for their research and engagement studies. Most recently, Dr. Patience Elabor-Idemudia received a commendation and plaque from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria, Africa.


Researchers in this area include: