I hold an Honours B.A. in Anthropology (2003) from McMaster University and an M.A. in Development and Social Transformation (2005) from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. I completed my Ph.D. in Anthropology at Western University (2011), under the supervision of Drs. Randa Farah and Adriana Premat (Western) and Dr. Irene Stengs (Meertens Institute, Amsterdam). My dissertation examined shifting notions of citizenship in the Netherlands, using ethnographic research in Rotterdam to explore how everyday Dutch citizens reproduced exclusionary discourses rooted in Islamophobia and anti-immigration sentiments.
In 2012, I began a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations at Western University with Dr. Vicki Esses. My first project, funded through a Mitacs Accelerate Internship, examined immigrant service delivery models—universal, targeted, and mixed—through ethnographic research in London, Ontario. Working with local non-profits, we used interviews, focus groups, spatial analysis, and surveys to develop a report offering recommendations for optimizing immigrant integration in London and Middlesex.
I continued as a postdoc with Dr. Esses on Investigating Intercultural Skills Development and Needs Assessment of Medium and Large Businesses in Ontario. This project examined intercultural training practices and perceptions of cultural diversity in the workplace through interviews, focus groups, social media analysis, and surveys in London, Toronto, and Kitchener. I collaborated with Melissa Fellin and Secil Erdogan, again through Mitacs. I later joined the facilitation team of our community partner to pilot these programs.
In late 2013, I launched J.P. Long Consulting, offering facilitation and qualitative research services. I’ve worked as an ethnographer for market research firms, developed and led diversity and inclusion training, and conducted contract research for Local Immigration Partnerships across southwestern Ontario. I’ve facilitated sessions for groups ranging from 12 to 100 participants, across all organizational levels.
From 2016–2019, I was a Teaching-Track Assistant Professor at McMaster University’s School of Engineering Practice & Technology, where I taught Technical Communications and developed “escape rooms in a box” to teach teamwork to first- and third-year students. In 2019, I attended a week-long educator workshop at Stanford’s d.school, which sparked my continued interest in design.
I started at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2018 where I teach courses on sociocultural anthropology, ethnographic research methods, race and racism, and applied anthropology.
I began researching Whiteness and White racial identity in 2019. I conducted ethnographic research from 2019-2022. I published my findings in Abiding Whiteness: An Ethnography of White racial identity and racism in Alberta, Canada (Oxford University Press, 2025).
In this research, the oil and gas field was identified as a "White industry". As such, my next project (09/2024 - present) will look at The Future of Energy in Alberta.