Our scholars
in the Department of Sociology
Gbenga Adejare
Gbenga Adejare's research interests center on development contexts and a critical analysis of marginalization experiences in postcolonial settings, with a particular focus on intersectionality among minoritized groups. His doctoral thesis explored the living conditions of smallholder farmers in Nigeria's cocoa extractive industry, revealing the dynamics of exploitation and socially constructed inequalities within that sector. Dr. Adejare's teaching philosophy emphasizes inclusion and engagement. Committed to student success, Dr. Adejare mentors participants in the Black Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program and champions various mentorship initiatives within the Sociology Department. He has also developed a course-based peer mentoring scheme that provides students with opportunities to impact lives and enhance their leadership skills for the future.
Michael Adorjan
Michael Adorjan's research and teaching centers on societal responses to youth crime, public perceptions of policing and youth and cyber-risk, including cyberbullying and image based sexual abuse, as well as parental and educator responses. In addition, he is exploring restorative practices in response to online conflict and harm. With his colleague Rosemary Ricciardelli, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dr. Adorjan has published edited collections on research ethics in criminology and is co-investigator on a long-term project examining correctional officers, mental health and the Canadian correctional system.
Pallavi Banerjee
Pallavi Banerjee's research interests are at the intersection of sociology of immigration, refugee resettlement, gender, intersectional feminist theories, and families. In particular, Dr. Banerjee is concerned with how the intersections of gender, race, and class play out in the everyday lives and interactions of immigrants and transnational families as a consequence of Western state policies and other institutional mandates. Dr. Banerjee's first book, The Opportunity Trap, was published in 2024 by New York University Press.
Alex Bierman
Alex Bierman’s research is centered on the study of aging and health, but encompasses a number of additional topics, including social psychology, religion, military sociology, and the family. This research is united by an interest in how social inequality conditions both exposure to stress and the consequences of stress as individuals age. Dr. Bierman frequently utilizes advanced methods of longitudinal data analysis in these studies as a means of facilitating a rigorous understanding of the causes and consequences of stress exposure across the life-course. Currently, Dr. Bierman is co-editor of the journal Society and Mental Health, which is sponsored by the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Mental Health.
Dean Curran
Dean Curran's current research explores some of the interconnections between contemporary risk and inequality. By trying to develop frameworks that can understand the diverse impacts of environmental, financial and digital risk, Dr. Curran seeks to analyze the various ways in which changes in contemporary risk are affecting existing power relations. Dr. Curran also has more general research and teaching interests, including classical and contemporary social theory; the sociology of risk (including the work on Mary Douglas and Luhmann), environmental sociology, economic sociology, social theory and the law, and the sociology of the digital and of finance and have published and presented work on each of these different areas.
Ariel Ducey
Ariel Ducey's research centers on issues of responsibility, ethicality, knowledge, and emotions in the institutions and practices of health care and medicine. Dr. Ducey has studied how frontline care providers in New York City create meaning and opportunity at the intersection of two industries that are increasingly organized according to the logic of markets — health care and education. She has published two book chapters on affect and caregiving labour in early, influential collections, and has led interdisciplinary, qualitative research examining values and practices in pelvic floor surgery and their impact on women’s health. Currently, Ariel co-leads a transdisciplinary, federally-funded project on medical ways of sensing and knowing, with colleagues and graduate students from sociology, family medicine, and learning sciences.
Jenny Godley
With extensive training in demography and social network analysis, Jenny Godley has conducted quantitative research on the social determinants of health for over twenty years. Her work explores the mechanisms through which intersecting axes of social inequality such as social class, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and immigration affect health behaviours, outcomes, and health care utilization. Dr. Godley is also deeply interested in research ethics in the social sciences, having served as the Chair of the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board for the past five years. She provides specialized training in social science research ethics locally, nationally, and internationally through her work with Academics Without Borders in Africa.
Abdie Kazemipur
Professor of sociology and the Chair of Ethnic Studies at the University of Calgary. Previously, he was the Social Science Scholar research chair at the University of Lethbridge. Also, he served as Stephen Jarislowsly Chair in Culture Change and Immigration at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and has been the founding Academic Director of two Research Data Centres at the University of Lethbridge and Memorial University. His research is in two distinct areas: 1) the socio-economic experiences of immigrants in Canada; and 2) the socio-cultural developments in the Middle East. He writes in both English and Persian. Commentaries on his works have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, la Presse, Winnipeg Free Press, Vancouver Sun, Lethbridge Herald, and Metro Star Calgary newspapers.
Janna Klostermann
Janna Klostermann's research and teaching interests include work/labour studies, paid and unpaid care work, feminist theory and narrative/arts-based approaches. Her dissertation was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level. Her first book project, At the Limits of Care (under contract with University of Toronto Press) challenges dominant narratives around gendered care work through sociological memoir writing and life history research with women who reached their limits and stepped back from paid and unpaid care work roles in Ontario’s caring economy. Klostermann is also currently conducting research in Alberta’s long-term care sector, as part of her SSHRC-funded ‘Learning at the Limits’ study. The project aims to rethink dominant gendered and racialized assumptions around care considering public sector shortages.
Qian Liu
Qian Liu's research has examined legal consciousness in Asian and Canadian societies, Asian Canadians in the legal profession, legal consciousness, Chinese family relations, gender and sexualities in the Chinese context, and dispute resolution among Chinese immigrants. Dr. Liu is working on a book manuscript on the legal consciousness of leftover women in China (scheduled to be published in August 2025, University of California Press). Since June 2023, Dr. Liu has been conducting a research project on the legal consciousness of Chinese immigrants in Alberta and British Columbia (funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant) and another project on the experiences of Asian Canadian lawyers and law students (funded by a Faculty of Arts EDIA Grant). She is on the Asian Law and Society Association Board of Trustees and the Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of Law and Society.
Scott McLean
Scott McLean's teaching at the University of Calgary focuses on social research methods, the sociology of identity, and the sociology of education. His research has contributed to three primary domains of scholarship: postcolonial studies of relationships between Inuit and the Canadian state; the historical sociology of Canadian universities; and the cultural reception of self-help books. His scholarly and applied research projects have attracted over $4 million in external funding and resulted in the publication of four books and over fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to teaching and research, Scott has extensive experience in academic leadership and international work. From 2017 through 2021, Scott served as the University of Calgary Representative in Mexico. He worked from an office in Mexico City, developing and supporting opportunities for members of the University of Calgary community to learn and work in collaboration with peers from Mexican institutions of higher education.
Ayesha Mian Akram
Ayesha Mian Akram's scholarship is located at the intersection of political sociology, transnational feminism, critical Muslim studies, and community-engaged research. Dr. Mian Akram completed her doctorate in Sociology (Social Justice) in 2023 from the University of Windsor, where her SSHRC-funded dissertation research explored Muslim women’s community-building and the politics of resistance through wellness. Dr. Mian Akram is a Co-Investigator on a SSHRC-funded project in partnership with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (PI: Dr. Nadiya Ali, TrentU; CI: Dr. Nour Hammami, TrentU) to create digital storytelling labs for Muslim youth as spaces of affirmation and care. Dr. Mian Akram has been involved with the Canadian Sociological Association since 2015 in multiple capacities, most recently as the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Anti-Islamophobia Subcommittee. Dr. Mian Akram is also an Editorial Board Member for the journal Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice.
Matt Patterson
Matt Patterson is an urban sociologist whose research examines the relationship between cities and culture. In particular, Dr. Patterson is interested in uncovering the ways that place characteristics such as density, demographics, and urban design influence the emergence of distinct cultural practices, products, and institutions. Dr. Patterson has pursued this research through studies of museum development, the emergence of arts districts, and the economic and social impacts of iconic architectural projects or "starchitecture". Currently Dr. Patterson's main focus is on the role of cultural planning and placemaking projects within North American Chinatowns.
Nazario Robles Bastida
Nazario Robles Bastida's academic interests focus on Sociological Theory, Cultural Studies, Media and Popular Culture. In his practice as an Assistant Professor in the Teaching stream, Dr. Robles Bastida has explored different aspects of the scholarship of teaching and learning, such as gamification and experiential learning. Dr. Robles Bastida's most recent publication is a book chapter on the book Entering the Multiverse: Perspectives on Alternate Universes and Parallel Worlds, titled TURTLEVERSE! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Multiverse in Media as a Tool to Explore Diverse Genres. In collaboration with Dr. Michael Adorjan, Dr. Robles Bastida produces the podcast The Sociological Imagination @ UCalgary.
Nestar Russell
Nestar Russell is originally from New Zealand and came to Canada in 2011 as a Commonwealth/Canadian Government postdoctoral scholar. Dr. Russell's research interests include Stanley Milgram's Obedience Studies, perpetrator behaviour during the Holocaust, state crime, organizational malevolence, responsibility avoidance and climate change, business graffiti, and the social construction of crime. Dr. Russell's PhD thesis (2009) was published as a two-volume book titled Understanding Willing Participants: Milgram's Obedience Experiments and the Holocaust (Springer Nature). All of Dr. Russell's publications have been heavily influenced by the sociology of Norbert Elias.
Annette Tézli
Since joining the Department of Sociology as a full-time faculty member in 2016, Annette Tézli's primary focus has been on teaching. Dr. Tézli teaches both large, introductory courses such as Introduction to Sociology and Sociology of Gender, and more advanced core and elective courses, such as Introductory Social Research Methods and Family Homelessness. Dr. Tézli uses sociology as pedagogy and provides a range of experiential learning opportunities in all her courses. Dr. Tézli is continuously refining her approach to teaching through my engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, which has been recognized with numerous teaching awards. Dr. Tézli's substantive area of specialization is class-based inequalities, specifically poverty and homelessness, and their intersection with other dimensions of inequality. Dr. Tézli is regularly supervising undergraduate honours students and accepts students who want to conduct research in the areas of poverty, homelessness, gender, and families
Cora Voyageur
Dr. Cora Voyageur is an Indigenous social scientist who has made many contributions to academic sociology and to the communities with whom she has worked. A member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and a residential school survivor, she is a full Professor of Sociology at University of Calgary where she has taught since 1998. Her research focuses on Indigenous women’s leadership, health, entrepreneurship, and community development, and the ways in which Indigenous peoples have shaped Canadian society. Dr. Voyageur has published dozens of academic articles, book chapters, and community reports, and presented her research at more than 100 academic conferences and international fora such as the Oxford Round Tables in Britain and the United Nations in New York.
Laura Montes de Oca Barrera
In 2025, I became an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Calgary. Between 2013 and 2024, I worked as a full-time research professor with the Institute of Social Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. As a teacher and researcher, I am committed to constructing and sharing knowledge with students, colleagues, and the broader community. My research has focused on three main topics: non-profit organizations and participatory governance in Mexico, collective action and social change in contemporary societies, and Latin American women in Canada. I have written, edited, and published books, book chapters, and articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. During an academic sojourn in Calgary from 2022 to 2024, I developed the research project "Voices and Images of Migration: Latin American Women in Canada." This project represents a turning point in my academic life since it made me understand firsthand the importance of community-based research.
Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot
Ted McCoy
