Chair's Greeting
There is a light at the end of the tunnel of this past year, albeit one that flickers depending on vaccine availability and new variants, and on the unfolding implications of budget cuts at our institution for staffing and restructuring. Somehow people have continued to carry torches throughout the year. Instructors got shout-outs for their flexibility and compassion with students; the Department and the Center for Criminological Research put on fantastic scholarly events; staff helped all kinds of individuals adjust to the new Zoom and remote world; students formed outreach groups; a new working group met throughout the year to work on EDID in the department; and the Calls to Action working group has drafted a guiding document on decolonizing and indigenizing sociology.
I leave my five-year term as Chair full of admiration for all that this department is doing and accomplishing. We are a well-rounded, stimulating, creative, public-facing department with truly remarkable research and teaching strengths.
We will see a number of transitions this summer. Bryan Hogeveen assumes the role of Department Chair in July, with George Pavlich stepping in as Acting Chair for the first six months while Bryan takes a much-deserved leave. We welcome a new faculty colleague, Nehiyaw scholar Paulina Johnson, and a new Assistant Lecturer, Sonja Sapach. Thanks to Marta Urbanik, who will take on the role of Acting Director of the BA Criminology Program (while Jana Grekul is on sabbatical), and to Dominique Clement, who will serve as Acting Associate Chair Graduate in the fall (while Gillian Stevens is on sabbatical). It has been my pleasure to work with all of these folks, alongside Alison Dunwoody (Associate Chair, Undergraduate) and Lihong Yang (Assistant Chair). Thank you to all of you and to our wonderful staff—Cris, Pam, Patti, and Wendy—for working to keep our department a vibrant place.
-Dr Sara Dorow
Gifts that Keep Giving
Zoe Wong, Charlene Marshall Undergraduate Award recipient, 2021
Ros Sydie Graduate Award
Launched in memory of Professor Emeritus and Chair Rosalind A. Sydie, this endowed fund supports an annual scholarship for graduate students in Sociology or Women’s and Gender Studies doing research in gender and culture, feminist theory, and/or gender equity. Congratulations to 2021 recipient Diana Pearson, MA student in Gender Studies and Justice, whose thesis is entitled Cancelled by your Comrades: A Feminist Analysis of Cancel Culture in Leftist Spaces. As the endowment grows, so does our ability to continue to support the kind of research Ros built over decades at the U of A. You are invited to contribute.
Charlene Marshall Undergraduate Award
This award is given annually to undergraduate students in Sociology or Criminology to support educational travel opportunities. The 2021 recipient is Zoe Wong, a sociology major who participated in a study abroad program in South Korea. The endowment was initiated in memory of long-time undergraduate advisor Charlene Marshall, who supported thousands of students in their learning adventures. You can help build this endowment by visiting the Department’s "Make a Gift” page.
Welcome To Congress, 2021
Congress 2021 is virtually hosted at U of A! We welcome the opportunity to interact with colleagues across the country. Two things to note:
Virtual Tour of the Department
The Department is developing a virtual tour of who we are and what we do. You are invited to tour the pilot version of the tour and to complete a short survey about it. (Survey participants’ names will be put into a hat for a prize drawing!)
Check out U of A Sociology Presentations
Here’s a sampling of graduate student presentations:
"I'm Wise to The Game": How inner-city women experience and navigate police raids Presenter: Manzah-Kyentoh Yankey, University of Alberta
Women in Computing and Information Technology - So about that memo Presenter: Angela Wilson, University of Alberta
Growing Up "In Care" and Trust: A Quantitative Analysis - Presenter: Delphine Brown, University of Alberta
Brazilian Necropolitics: the legacy of colonialism and racism in the criminal justice system - Presenter: Joao Victor Antunes Krieger, University of Alberta
The Mental Health Culture in Hockey: A Scoping Review - Presenter: Lauren Dormer, University of Alberta
Necropolitics of Vaccines and Slow Violence in Palestine and Occupied Territories - Presented by Rezvaneh Erfani, PhD Student
Union Communication Practices: Defining Nurses and Unions - presented by Susan Cake, Struggle and Agency at Work
White supremacy, white allyship and intersectional anti-BIPOC institutional racism - Presented by Shirley-Ann Tate, Race and Ethnicity
We'd also like to congratulate PhD student Will Schultz on being awarded a CSA Graduate Student Merit Award! The paper he's presenting is When rules fail: Correctional officers, violence, and alternative control mechanisms in prison in the session Violence and Society III
Welcome Paulina Johnson,
Assistant Professor in Indigenous Peoples and Society
Dr. Paulina Johnson, Sîpihkokîsikowiskwew (Blue Sky Woman), is Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and a citizen of Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, AB. She completed her PhD in Anthropology at Western University in London, ON focused on Nêhiyaw law and governance with an emphasis on implementing Indigenous philosophies and methodologies into western institutions and systems. She is a University of Alberta alumna finishing her BA degree with distinction double majoring in Anthropology and History in 2012.
She comes to the U of A from Concordia University of Edmonton as an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies where she has developed the Indigenous Studies Minor. She is excited for the opportunity to return to the U of A as faculty and share her knowledge.
Welcome Sonja Sapach,
Assistant Lecturer
Dr. Sonja Sapach was born and raised in New Westminster, BC, but lived in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan before settling in Edmonton. She has a PhD in Sociology and Digital Humanities (from the U of A) and specializes in developing innovative research methods, video game studies, digital data analysis, and the interdisciplinary study of trauma, alienation, and identity. She is passionate about teaching and leadership, and is thrilled to bring her enthusiasm for research and data analysis to the department. Having spent most of her life terrified of math and the unknown world of quantitative research before TA'ing both SOC 210 and SOC 315, she understands the challenges associated with learning to teach math and data heavy courses. Sonja is eager to develop a TA training program instilling both confidence and passion for research methods and data analysis in even math-phobic graduate students.
Dr. Temitope Oriola
Special Adviser, Police Act Review,
Government of Alberta
Professor Temitope Oriola has been appointed by the Government of Alberta as a special adviser. He will offers independent expert insight regarding cross-national best practices, policy directions and emerging trajectories from consultations with various stakeholders and analyses from Alberta Justice and Solicitor General. Per the Ministerial Order approved by the cabinet and signed by the Minister of Justice in February 2021, the position entails providing ‘ongoing feedback’ and serving as ‘a sounding board for the Ministry to test ideas throughout stakeholder engagement and policy option development.’ Dr. Oriola will also review and provide feedback on the draft of the Police Act Review stakeholder engagement report. Congratulations, Tope!
#SocSapiens
Watch our Twitter timeline for #SocSapiens, featuring the amazing work of our Sociology faculty and students!
Update From the Sociology Graduate Student Association
In light of COVID-19 and the pandemic, the SGSA committed itself to ensuring a sense of community and safety was fostered within the online, work-from-home, world we are enduring. As our tenure with the SGSA began just before COVID-19, our year centred on advocating for students’ voices, rights, and mental health, especially given the new uneasy and precarious times. We banded with student collectives to voice students’ concerns regarding the UCP budget cuts and subsequent academic restructuring. We hosted an anti-racism workshop with Zahra Murad to learn how to better address racism in the academic institution, how we can support and protect individuals who experience racism, as well as how we can commit to anti-racist curricula, pedagogy, and practice within academia. Lastly, we hosted multiple social opportunities for graduate students, including brown bag lunch events, game and movie nights, and check-ins.
What's New at the CCR
CCR: On Crime and Punishment
This summer, the Centre for Criminological Research is running a podcast series called “On Crime and Punishment.” We have already premiered two episodes. The first featured Dr. Oriola speaking about the Derrick Chauvin trial and the future of the trial by jury system.
The second was with Justin Piché of the University of Ottawa on decarceration and prison abolition. We will be putting out 1-2 episodes a month. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music. You can also watch videos of the interviews on the CCR YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. We will also be adding short interviews with each of our faculty members to our youtube channel to help people get to know them and their research. We have already premiered the profiles of Drs. Bucerius and Haggerty.
Awards - Spring 2021
Professor Shirley Anne Tate's collaborative, international CRC research program examines decolonization and intersectional institutional racism in universities in settler colonial states that are struggling with continuing coloniality, Indigenous rights, racism, and the challenges these pose to commitment to social justice in advanced education and research. Comparative data on structures, policies, and practices of exclusion and marginalization will be drawn from national research projects with Indigenous, Black and People of Colour (IBPOC) faculty, students and activists, and will be analyzed from a Black feminist decolonial lens.
Dr Shirley Anne Tate, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair
Dr Sandra Bucerius, Henry Marshall Tory Chair
Professor Sandra Bucerius' research will examine the broad range of factors that might contribute to successful reintegration post prison, focused on identifying how key societal institutions, such as housing, welfare, family, police, half-way houses, religious organizations are (or are not) contributing to reintegration. Her personal and professional motivations are to foster concrete forms of positive system change to benefit some of our society’s most vulnerable members, while simultaneously building scholarly knowledge and developing new ways to conceptualize criminological trends in Canada.
Prof-Collins Ifeonu
"I'm honored to be a recipient of the spirit award for 2021. As the saying goes, however, you cannot give what you don’t have. I too am a beneficiary of a collection of friends, colleagues, faculty members and staff, whose love and support drives me to be the best version of myself. I am especially thankful to my sisters and brothers at the Black Graduate Students' Association. Together, we navigated a turbulent but ultimately rewarding year, relying on each other for succor. I love them very much."
Prof -Collins Ifeonu, Graduate Student Spirit Award recipient
Dr Michelle Maroto, Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award
Associate Professor Michelle Maroto
Dr. Maroto is not only a superb instructor, she is also a leader focused on inclusive education. In the classroom (including the virtual one) she inspires students to critically research and analyze the social world and equips them with the lifelong tools and skills for doing so. Outside of the classroom she is leading the way in the development of undergraduate social science research, most notably through the Certificate in Applied Social Science Research. Dr. Maroto’s success in reaching students is embedded in a remarkable combination of skills and commitments. Students find her deeply fair and approachable, and greatly appreciate her superb curricular planning and organization. They are inspired by the ways Dr. Maroto connects her deep knowledge of subject matter to students’ lives. As a result, students are usually hungry for more.
Assistant Professor Marta Urbanik
Dr. Urbanik excels in every aspect of teaching and mentoring, from the large classes where she excites curiosity among thousands of students across the U of A, to the two dozen undergraduate Arts students she has individually supervised in hands-on research projects. Each term, students rave about how much Dr. Urbanik motivates them to learn, radically changes their perspective, and regularly enlivens and engages them with deep dives into current issues. Dr. Urbanik is also known for the care with which she trains and supports students in learning the intricacies of the research craft, whether through their criminology field placement projects or as RAs on one of her projects. Given these strengths, she will serve as Acting Director of our BA Criminology Program next year, building on her already active contributions to the curriculum and student experience in that program.
Dr Marta Urbanik, Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award - Early Achievement
Dr Nicole Denier, Faculty of Arts Research Excellence (Early Achievement) Award
Assistant Professor Nicole Denier
Dr. Denier’s core focus is on mapping the shifting and profound transformational power of labor markets and understanding the inequalities those markets reflect and produce in people’s lives. She currently plays a leading role in several major research projects. Her sole- and co-authored refereed works—fourteen articles in the last five years alone—have garnered more than 250 citations. In addition, Dr. Denier is a committed and active public scholar who continually aims to connect and translate robust analyses of work and inequality into public and policy worlds. In the five years since she completed her PhD, and most notably in the three years since joining the Faculty of Arts, she has built a profile of cutting-edge social science research, broad public scholarship, and collaborative and extensive research funding.
Where Are They Now:
MA Grads in Research Positions
Ethan Davidge
Ethan Davidge completed his MA in Criminal Justice in 2019, and now works for Alberta’s Justice and Solicitor General in the Public Security division. In addition to authoring violence risk assessments regarding Alberta’s most prolific domestic violence offenders, he contributes to various research projects. One such project recently culminated in an article regarding the ethical and practical implications of Artificial Intelligence being utilized within risk assessment.
Amanda Evans
Soon after completing her MA in 2018, Amanda Evans was hired as the Administrator for the Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research, housed in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Her goal after graduation was to find a position doing something research related that could also be a path to doing a PhD. She needed time to decide on what direction she wanted to take, and working with RCMR provided that opportunity. Amanda has been able to see the inner workings of the University and do work that benefits her community, both of which satisfy her sociological curiosity. Amanda launches a PhD in Native Studies in fall 2021.
Janine Muster
In her MA thesis, completed in 2017 with Steve Kent, Janine Muster conducted an in-depth ethnography of the space and identity production of a local church community.
Now Janine works as a professional grant and proposal writer for the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, helping to ensure that patients there can receive the best care and treatment possible. Much of her work focuses on turning the technical language of medical professionals into engaging pieces so that potential grantors, donors, and/or funders can relate to the cause. Janine draws on her sociological training to unravel the story behind the data - a unique skill set that helps her to craft compelling and persuasive grant applications and proposals.
Sociology Speaker Series 2021
The theme of the Department of Sociology’s Speaker Series in 2020/21 was “Nature and the Social”, with invited speakers encompassing the many ways that social sciences and humanities explore, understand, challenge and practice the complex notion of ‘nature’. In our previous newsletter we highlighted the November visit by Dr. Walden Bello from the New York University at Binghamton.
On January 21st Dr. Leila Harris (UBC) presented on “Human Right to Water and Ongoing Challenges: Equity, Uneven Implementation, and Shifting State-society Relations”. Drawing on her mixed methods research in Ghana and South Africa, Dr. Harris argued that the right to water should not be limited solely to access to and provision of local water, but should also address people’s lived experiences of inequity and possibilities for engagement in community water governance.
Dr Leila Harris, UBC
Dr Kari Norgaard, UOregon
On February 17th, as part of the Department’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee planning and Black History Month, Dr. Afua Cooper (Dalhousie) spoke on “A Triptych of Slavery: Enslavement and the Black Body on the Canadian Colonial Frontier”. Dr. Cooper critically examined the founding narratives of Canada by telling the life stories of three women in the 1700s through a conceptual frame of ‘thingification’: exploring the connections between colonization, dehumanization, and enslavement.
Dr Afua Cooper, Dalhousie
On March 4th Dr. Kari Norgaard of the University of Oregon presented findings from her recent book “Salmon and Acorns Feed our People: Nature, Colonialism and Social Action” (Rutgers University Press, 2019). Drawing on select chapters from her close work with the Karuk Tribe in northern California, Dr. Norgaard illustrated how forest fire suppression and prevention of Karuk indigenous burning practices is connected to colonial violence, explored the social consequences of denied access to traditional foods, and examined the relationship between environmental decline and changing gender practices in Karuk lands.
Sociology Without Borders
Dr. Olga Plakhotnik (she/ they) holds the Bayduza Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Starting September 2021, she will be co-hosted by the Department of Sociology.
Olga is a qualitative researcher working at the intersection between queer feminist frameworks and decolonial perspectives in Eastern Europe. Her areas of research interests include social science epistemologies, feminist and queer pedagogies, critical citizenship studies, and contemporary feminist, LGBT+ and queer activisms. Also, Olga is joint editor-in-chief of Feminist Critique: East European Journal of Feminist and Queer Studies. Olga’s recent talk (together with Maria Mayerchyk) about Ukrainian Feminisms and The Issue of Coloniality is available online. She looks forward to participating in the department’s academic life as well as teaching students.
Faculty Research Spotlight
(SSHRC Award Projects)
Karen D. Hughes (PI) - Although women’s entrepreneurship has increased dramatically in Canada and other high-income countries in recent years, a growing body of research finds persistent gender gaps in entrepreneurial outcomes across all sizes and scales of business.
Professor Karen D. Hughes’ SSHRC Insight Grant project studies how specific barriers and supports in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems shape outcomes for diverse groups of women entrepreneurs.
Dr. Karen Hughes
Building Gender-Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Canada project will generate academic and policy knowledge to practically address entrepreneurial gender gaps and contribute to ongoing discussions on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8: Decent Work and [Inclusive] Economic Growth.
The Technology Stewardship Project team
Professor Gordon Gow (PI) has been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Development grant to expand an existing international and multidisciplinary collaboration between academic and community stakeholders in Canada, Sri Lanka, and the Caribbean.
The broad goal of The Technology Stewardship Project is to partner with agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) organizations to study inclusive digital agriculture innovation with smallholders in the Global South. The project integrates a competency-based training program with collaborative inquiry and case studies created through action research, focusing on empowering EAS practitioners with competency-based training in digital skills and leadership and building capacity for inclusive digital innovation in different communities.
Harvey Krahn Seminar Room
Thank you to all who contributed to this fund! We raised nearly $9000 to honor Harvey Krahn’s many fruitful years of service before he retired in July 2020. This summer, work will begin on re-equipping the newly named Harvey Krahn Seminar Room on the first floor of Tory (the old “PRL Boardroom”) for flexible use as a seminar and workshop space.
New Books for 2021
Celebrating publications by our alumni and professors emeriti.
Seasonal Sociology (U of T Press 2020), a textbook co-edited by U of A Sociology alumnae Tonya Davidson and Ondine Park, has just won an Association of American Publishers’ 2021 Prose Award as the best social sciences textbook. Tonya is now Sociology Instructor at Carleton, and Ondine is a professor at MacEwan University. This is their second book together; they also co-edited, with Rob Shields, 2011’s Ecologies of Affect: Placing Nostalgia, Desire, and Hope. Read the full story.
Drug Wars and Covert Netherworlds: An in-depth look at Mexico’s drug cartels
Professor Emeritus James Creechan's new book explores the popular history of narco-Mexico, which has long been narrowly framed by the U.S. "War on Drugs." Stereotypes overemphasize the criminal agency of celebrity drug lords. Common understanding of the narco world is rooted in mythology and misunderstanding, and the public narrative has consistently downplayed links to respected individuals and legitimate society.
In Memoriam:
Parameswara Krishnan (1936 – 2021)
Parameswara Krishnan (Krishnan for short) was born in Kerala, India on November 20, 1936, the fourth son of Parameswara Iyer and Narayani Ammal. He passed away after a lengthy illness at his brother’s residence in Trivandrum, Kerala on 17 February 2021 at the age of 84.
From 1972 to 1975, Krishnan served as the Director of the Population Research Laboratory (PRL) at the University of Alberta, a research centre started by the late Professor Warren Kalbach in the early 1960s. Under his leadership, the PRL became an environment conducive to vigorous academic growth and development. The PRL’s activities expanded to encompass population studies as well
as survey research. In 1974, Krishnan founded the Canadian Studies Population, for a number of years serving as its first editor. In the same year, with funding from National Health and Welfare Canada, he and Professor Karol Krotki conducted a large-scale fertility survey, the Growth of Alberta Families Study (GAF). The data from this survey provided faculty and students a significant source for research reports, articles, theses and dissertations.
Parameswara Krishnan was a dedicated and productive scholar who made important contributions to demography, statistics, and sociology. We have lost an excellent demographer, erudite scholar, teacher par excellence and above all a fine human being. All his former colleagues and students are especially proud to have had the opportunity to learn and study with him and most of all to know Krishnan as a person.
Parameswara Krishnan (1936 – 2021)
Send us Your Updates!
We would love to share quick updates from department alumni, professors emeriti, and former staff in the newsletter.
Send updates to Cristeen Whalen any time!
