What is your current position?
Assistant Professor of Global Migration & Inequality, Toronto Metropolitan University
What attracted you to your program of study at the BSIA?
I met Dr. Jenna Hennebry when consulting for UN Women on a global project on women migrant workers’ rights. Her experience combining academic research with UN advocacy on gender and migration inspired me to pursue a PhD at BSIA under her supervision. I was also inspired by other BSIA PhD students, like Masaya Llavaneras Blanco, who were combining their doctoral studies with parenting small humans. It can be done!
What was the most impactful experience you had while completing your graduate degree?
Collaborating with the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC) was impactful in many ways. Over the years, I helped to organize a conference, served as a grad student board member, attended many talks, collaborated on IMRC faculty research projects, and co-delivered high-level trainings with the Gender+Migration Hub. Working with the feminist migration scholars at the IMRC was profoundly formative.
I also got lots of teaching experience with Laurier’s Political Science and Women and Gender Studies programs, and one amazing course with the MIPP program. It helped me to learn and grow alongside my students.
Tell us about your job, what do you do?
My job is divided between teaching, research, and service. Regarding the teaching, I get to be the professor I always dreamed of having when I was a student! I teach classes for the PhD program in Policy Studies, and undergraduate classes such as “Women, Power & Politics” and “Comparative Public Policy.” For the research, I get to pursue my own research agenda which revolves around five keywords: gender, migration, international development, human rights, and statelessness. I am affiliated with TMU’s Bridging Divides research program (Citizenship and Participation theme), and am working on turning my thesis into a book. For service, I will be serving on some committees and contributing to the university’s EDI work.
How does your work help make a difference?
I remain committed to connecting research with policy practice to advance human and labour rights of the world’s most marginalized and to address governance concerns around identity documentation, irregular migration, (non)citizenship, and statelessness. This means that I am not only publishing academic work, but mobilizing knowledge from my doctoral research on “Birth Registration as Bordering Practice” to inform United Nations policy recommendations. Most recently, I contributed to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women’s report on the relationship between gender discrimination and statelessness; and also to a forthcoming study by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on birth registration and the use of digital technologies.
What are the next steps in your career progression… where do you see yourself going?
I am just beginning this phase of my career on the academic tenure track. Over the next five years, I will be building my research and teaching portfolio at TMU, with the goal of getting tenure and having a permanent academic home.
What advice do you have for a potential student looking to complete their degree at the BSIA? Or for someone looking to work in Global Governance and International Policy?
Build your community and networks of likeminded folks! But also take full advantage of the rich interdisciplinarity of the school by attending other research cluster events and learning from your peers. If you are interested in an academic career, be sure to build your CV along the way by co-authoring articles, presenting at conferences, gaining teaching experience as a TA or sole instructor, and serving your school, program, and peers.