Faculty in the Department of Sociology often engage in Public Sociology, where they share their expertise and knowledge with other scholars, the media and the general public. These engagements include news articles, podcasts, video interviews and conversations that delve into current issues in Sociology. Below you can learn more about the different engagements that some our faculty have participated in.
Meet the artist etching memorial tattoos for people who lost loved ones to COVID-19
Deborah Davidson
Article Mention
According to a 2015 Harris Poll, almost 30% of Americans have at least one tattoo, a 10% increase from 2011. At least 80% of tattoos are for commemoration, said Deborah Davidson, a professor of sociology at York University in Toronto who has been researching memorial tattoos since 2009.
High cost of living, economic recovery and climate change top Vaughan-Woodbridge residents’ concerns
Robert A Kenedy
Article Mention
Reporter Dina Al-Shibeeb interviewed Brian Shifman, Robert Kenedy, Frank Lupo and Charline Grant to understand people’s top concern.
Postcolonial African feminisms
Sylvia Bawa
Video Conference
Sylvia Bawa and Yolande Bouka: Postcolonial African feminisms. Pre-conference debate for the 4th Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA).
Ugly Anti-Masker Protests Plague Canadian Election
Cary Wu
Article Mention
It’s unsurprising that the anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown protesters are targeting Trudeau’s events, said Cary Wu, a York University sociologist who specialized in political culture.
York University Canada Research Chairs to study Indigenous history and Black studies
Christopher Kyriakides
Article Mention
The initial five-country analysis, including Canada, the United States, Italy, Greece and Jordan, will examine the extent to which policy instruments and media discourses related to the “global refugee crisis” negatively impact racialized communities in each reception context.
Guida Man discusses her timely research into anti-Asian racism in the GTA and the importance of speaking up
Guida Man
As #AsianHeritageMonth comes to a close this week, @YorkULAPS associate professor Guida Man discusses her timely research into anti-Asian racism in the GTA and the importance of speaking up to #StopAsianHate. | #YUResearch
Smart regulations for long-term care would focus on helping the workforce
Pat Armstrong
Author of Article
Long-term care reforms should focus on structural changes such as staffing levels, rather than regulations designed to control the actions of staff.
Long-term care reform: No time to waste
Pat Armstrong
Author of Article
The commission’s report calls for person-centred care, making it clear that staffing and leadership are at the core of this approach. As we have been arguing for well over a decade in our international “Reimagining Long-Term Residential Care” project, the conditions of work are the conditions of care.
Did the pandemic shake Chinese citizens’ trust in their government?
Cary Wu
Op-ed
More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, the vast majority in many Western countries think China handled the outbreak poorly.
As Asian Canadian scholars, we must #StopAsianHate by fighting all forms of racism
Ann H Kim, Cary Wu, Guida Man, Harris Ali, Muyang Li
Article
Anti-Asian racism has been present in Canada for centuries. It is deeply rooted in the historical formation of Canada through the Chinese head tax, Japanese internment camps, the Electoral Franchise Act, which explicitly denied Chinese Canadians the right to vote, and more. It is embedded within the minds of Canadians.
Status for all: Pathways to permanent residency in Canada need to include every migrant
Luin Goldring
Article
Post-pandemic immigration policy is a longer conversation that must consider the global dimensions of migration. We can work toward an equitable recovery by acknowledging the systemic failures of the Canadian immigration system. It begins with reversing the rise of two-track and two-step immigration and prioritizing permanent immigration.
With COVID-19 restrictions lifting, ‘immune-insecure’ people have to navigate added risks in social life
Michael Nijhawan
Author of Article
Current debates over vaccine passports and mandates are troubling — beyond the privacy concerns bioethicists have raised.
Inked in grief: Memorial tattoos are an increasingly popular way to commemorate lost loved ones
Deborah Davidson
Article Mention
I noticed the people that I thought weren’t likely to have tattoos based on my biases and my stigmatizing with people with tattoos did have tattoos, did have tattoos in memory of their loved ones.
Outbreaks like coronavirus start in and spread from the edges of cities
Harris Ali
Author of Article
Emerging infectious disease has much to do with how and where we live. The ongoing coronavirus is an example of the close relationships between urban development and new or re-emerging infectious diseases.
At protests that draw counter-protesters, people on the left more likely to face arrest
Lesley Wood
Article
In analyzing 64 U.S. protests from 2017 and 2018 where counter-protesters were present and arrests were made, York University sociologist Lesley Wood finds right-leaning protesters account for 8% of total arrests while left-leaning protesters account for 81% of arrests.
We plunge deeper into mediocrity when we focus on oppressing others instead of building together
Sylvia Bawa
Interview
Fundamentally, I believe in the inherent equality of all people and in the human rights of every human being. I was raised to value fairness and I saw that fairness in how my parents equitably distributed resources. I also value uniqueness and difference in people.
Should I report my neighbour for breaking COVID rules?
Eric Mykhalovskiy
Article Mention
I really think that people need to be very careful and think twice, three times or four times before they start engaging in this type of reporting of their neighbours or their fellow citizens.
Whether it’s for Trump or Biden, Americans who trust others are more likely to vote
Cary Wu
Op-ed
Forecasting election results is hard. Predicting who will turn out to vote in the United States is not.
If not now, when? The throne speech and long term care
Pat Armstrong
Author of Article
COVID-19 has made it clear we need to act now on long term care. The throne speech offers some promise on this front, but we have to continue the pressure to ensure that elders and those who provide their care can be “safe, respected and live in dignity.”
Insight Out: Navigating Multiple Systems While Living on Low Income
Amber Gazso
Article
Professor Amber Gazso from the Department of Sociology is a recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant worth $150,738 this year for her project titled “The Systems of Our Lives: Navigating Multiple Systems While Living on Low Income.”
146 Academics From Across the World Demand Varavara Rao’s Release
Hira Singh
Article Mention
A group of 146 scholars from across the world have come together to ask the Indian government to release 80-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao from prison.
Insight Out: Transnational Migration and Social Reproduction: Eldercare Work of Chinese Immigrant Women Professionals in Canada by Prof. Guida Man
Guida Man
Department of Sociology Professor Guida C. Man was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant valued at $99,980 for her research project “Transnational Migration and Social Reproduction: Eldercare Work of Chinese Immigrant Women Professionals in Canada.”
What does it mean to ‘defund the police’? 4 social justice experts explain
Carmela Murdocca
Article Mention
The police really represent a threat to certain communities. And so a focus on police reform needs to focus on what problems the state is asking police to solve and whether the police are really best suited to solve them.
CCBC Webinar: The Future of Canada as a Top Destination for Chinese Students Post COVID-19
Rhonda L Lenton
Video Conference
Given the complex challenges COVID-19 has placed on post-secondary institutions, how will campus life be impacted and what immediate and long-term steps can universities take to manage this? CCBC, Universities Canada, and York University discussed this important issue in a live webinar.
How police unions present barriers to change in Canada
Mark P Thomas
Article Mention
Police unions, like any union, work to protect the interests of their members. Those interests, however, are exactly what situates police unions outside of the labour movement in Canada.
Christopher Kyriakides on persons of self rescue
Christopher Kyriakides
Video Clip
Christopher is one of our partners from York University in Toronto and a member of LERRN’s Intersectionality and Diversity Working Group. Here, he discusses his perspective on how refugees are more than that label.
Episode 20 | The scandal in our nursing homes with Pat Armstrong
Pat Armstrong
Podcast Interview
A recent military report has highlighted the deplorable state of private nursing homes in Ontario, a scandal that experts and families have drawn attention to for years. It is hard to understand, impossible to accept, and Pat Armstrong has solutions.
#COVID19: Social media both a blessing and a curse during coronavirus pandemic
Fuyuki Kurasawa, Harris Ali
Author of Article
We are facing an unprecedented crisis of public understanding. Western digital corporations and social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit) and their Chinese equivalents (WeChat, Weibo, Tencent and Toutiao) are at the heart of this crisis. These platforms act as facilitators and multipliers of COVID-19-related misinformation.
Unpacking the Everyday
Aryn Martin, Mark P Thomas
Article
Power and Everyday Practices, Second Edition is an innovative text that provides undergraduate students with tools to think sociologically through the lens of everyday life. In this post, the authors explain the book and why they encourage students to turn their social worlds inside out and explore alternatives to the dominant social order.
Future of Education with Dr. Rhonda Lenton, President of York University
Rhonda L Lenton
Podcast
In this episode Alex and Mimi chat with Dr. Rhonda Lenton President and Vice-Chancellor of York University. As the global work environment shifts to new technologies with bigger demands, our education also needs a reboot. Hear Rhonda’s thoughts on the future of formal education.
After shocking survey, Vaughan professor calls for ‘enforcing’ critical thinking skills
Robert A Kenedy
Article Mention
We’ve seen students who don’t have the skills. I put a lot of personal efforts in teaching them, but I am one course, one professor.
Recent Canadian Immigrant Seniors: Literature Review
Nancy J Mandell
Video Clip
Presentation was part of CERIS’s “Settlement Services for Immigrant Women, Youth, and Seniors in Canada: Who is Falling through the Cracks?” Community Panel Discussion.
A generation waiting to be heard: Massive walkout shows reach of engaged student activists
Lesley Wood
Article Mention
Many of us are paying attention to so many things that we can get paralyzed and they don’t seem to be quite as paralyzed as the rest of us.
Social media can be information poison when we need facts most
Fuyuki Kurasawa
Author of Article
While immersed in social media platforms, we cannot stand on the sidelines of informational struggles. Equipped with our apps and a commitment to truth, we must plunge into the social media trenches.
Vaughan resident fired up over ‘extravagant’ city staff trips
Robert A Kenedy
Article Mention
Rob Kenedy doesn’t like the Vaughan P-card system and says city employees shouldn’t be staying in upscale hotels when they travel for business. The Kleinburg Inn behind him is an example of one of the more reasonable options out there.
New washroom policy is ‘positive 1st step,’ but Starbucks needs to do more, York University prof says
Sheila Cavanagh
Article Mention
They’re really in a position to set a good example for the rest of the industry.
Instilling a Sense of Worth Important When Reaching Out to Refugees
Christopher Kyriakides
Article Mention
Kyriakides also stressed the need for not just resettlement “information” to be shared with refugees before they get here but real “knowledge” such as the steps that must be taken in the host country before they can continue in the profession they practised prior to displacement.
Judge strikes mandatory minimum sentence in drug case involving Indigenous woman
Carmela Murdocca
Interview
Aboriginal Legal Services helped Sharma’s defence launch its Charter challenge, calling York University sociologist Carmela Murdocca as an expert witness to testify about the historical challenges faced by Indigenous people and the vulnerability and financial hardship experienced by many racialized women convicted of drug crimes.
Critics blast Toronto police’s push for more Tasers, stress de-escalation
Lesley Wood
Article Mention
Tasers are weapons and they’re weapons that go away from the idea of zero death, zero harm which is the police’s goal here.
Reinvestment will make Canada a global research leader
Rhonda L Lenton
Op-ed
Top talent at York and at universities across Canada are helping to solve the biggest challenges facing humanity, enhancing quality of life at home and abroad, and developing the next generation of researchers and innovators.
Canada’s ‘Feminist’ Aid Program Creates More Questions Than Answers
Sylvia Bawa
Author of Article
By 2022, 95 percent of Canada’s international assistance programs will target women and girls. But will this policy actually empower those it seeks to help? York University’s Sylvia Bawa questions how the new “feminist” approach will operate on the ground.
#AsiaNow Speaks with Hyun Ok Park
Hyun Ok Park
Interview
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at York University and author of The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea, published by Columbia University Press and recipient of the 2017 AAS James Palais Award Honorable Mention.
Media accused of racism in reporting HIV-related crime
Eric Mykhalovskiy
Article Mention
The most striking revelation of this report was the grand scale of stereotyping and stigmatizing by Canadian media outlets in their sensationalistic coverage of HIV non-disclosure cases.
Abuse of Ghostbusters star a PR ‘nightmare’ that forced Twitter to ban Yiannopoulos, expert says
Fuyuki Kurasawa
Article Mention
The social media platforms that we’re talking about, whether they be Twitter or Facebook, Instagram or others, are all private [sector] companies.
Violent news ‘more intense’ through smartphones and social media, expert says
Fuyuki Kurasawa
Article Mention
It’s not as if bad news and violence are anything new. But the way it affects us has changed with our growing reliance on smartphones, says Fuyuki Kurasawa, an associate professor specializing in global digital citizenship at York University in Toronto.
Room for a new thought: Queering bathrooms against trans erasure
Sheila Cavanagh
Article Mention
Trauma is being thrust into a transitional space where one’s possibilities as a subject collapse. My intention was to highlight the experiences of trans people excommunicated from the public space.
Talking About the Unconscious
Hyun Ok Park
Interview
The exploration of the capitalist unconscious is my way of understanding what has continued to trouble and fascinate me at the same time, namely, the lack of discussion of capitalism in everyday life, let alone its critique.
Return of the long-form census excites the experts
Luin Goldring
Article Mention
Luin Goldring, a sociology professor at York University who conducts research on immigration, said she doesn’t completely trust the voluntary data provided by the NHS.
The Politics of Bathrooms
Sheila Cavanagh
Article Mention
Almost ten years ago, Cavanagh was teaching a graduate seminar on gender and sexuality. She’d assigned Freud’s “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” but her students kept talking about bathrooms.
First-Person – Sheila L. Cavanagh on Queer Bathroom Stories
Sheila Cavanagh
Author of Article
On November 7, 2010 during the launch of Queering Bathrooms at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, I staged the first iteration of the QBS (then titled Queer Bathroom Monologues) to give the audience a flavour of the interviews. To my surprise, 150 people in attendance gave QBS a standing ovation.
Canada’s Vicious HIV Laws
Eric Mykhalovskiy
Article Mention
In order to make a police complaint, people must understand themselves to have experienced a potential criminal wrong.
Migration at the margins: Work, profit, or nation-building?
Luin Goldring
Video Clip
Part of a panel at the Kick-Off event for the Migration Matters program.
York University professor who refused student’s request to be separated from female classmates broke ‘obligation to accommodate’: officials
J Paul Grayson
Article Mention
After refusing to honour a male student’s request to be separated from his female classmates for religious reasons, a York University professor has found himself at odds with administrators who assert he broke their “obligation to accommodate.”
Relying on Inter-generational support
Amber Gazso
Video Clip
The complexities of the reliance on family members for inter-generational support.
Interview with Aryn Martin on Microchimerism
Aryn Martin
Interview
Language in science, as elsewhere, is a deeply complicated and dynamic beast, where we language-users are at best partially aware of the resonances implied by our word choices. In investigating this research domain from a science studies perspective, I noticed a surprisingly robust package of metaphors used by researchers in their technical writing, interviews, and speech.
The shame of honour crimes
Mark J Goodman
Article Mention
Between 2001 and 2004, Haideh Moghissi, Saeed Rahnema and Mark J. Goodman of York University conducted an extensive study of about 2,000 immigrants to Canada from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.