Faculty Associate
elenelam[at]yorku.ca
Sessional Assistant Professor (CLA)
School of Health Policy and Management, York University
Research Keywords:
Sex work, migration, racism, labour rights and gender-based violence; state violence; criminalization; harm reduction; public policies: human rights; intersectionality; critical race studies; migration studies; Asian studies; health studies; critical trafficking studies; abolitionist; institutional ethnography; community-based and participatory methodologies; social work; community organizing and social movements
Research Diaspora(s):
Asian Diaspora
She is an activist-scholar who has been actively involved in various social justice movements, such as rights for sex workers, labour advocacy, and issues related to migrant, gender and racial justice (particular Anti-Asian Racism) for over 20 years. She founded Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) and co-founded the Migrant Sex Workers Project. She is dedicated to advancing social justice through her work in community organizing, education, research and activism.
She holds a Master of Laws and a Master of Social Work. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at McMaster University's School of Social Work where she studies the harms of the anti-trafficking movement. She is also a recipient of the Constance E. Hamilton Award for Women’s Equality from the City of Toronto.