07/2018 - present
Associate Professor, MacEwan University, Anthropology, Economics and Political Science
Since joining MacEwan University in 2018, I have built a teaching and research practice centred on community-engaged, experiential learning. I teach across all levels of the undergraduate anthropology curriculum including courses on the Introduction to Anthropology (1st yr), Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (2nd yr), Ethnographic Research Methods (3rd yr), Anthropology of Space & Place, and Applied Anthropology (4th yr).
In my upper-level courses, I embed original, course-based research projects into her classes on behalf of community partners across downtown Edmonton, including the City of Edmonton's RECOVER Urban Wellbeing Initiative, the John L. Haar Library, kihêw waciston, McDougall House, the Free Store for Ukrainian Newcomers, and Multicultural Health Brokers. These collaborations give students hands-on experience conducting ethnographic research while producing real findings for community organizations. This work that has been featured in MacEwan News, cited by President Trimbee, and nominated for Community-Based Research Canada's national Award for Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership. In 2022, I was recognized as one of MacEwan's Community Builders and in 2026, I won the Teaching Leadership Award.
My scholarship examines race, migration, and Whiteness in Alberta. I was the principal investigator of a City of Edmonton partnership studying racialized Edmontonians' experiences of workforce exclusion (see 2024 & 2026 publications), and my book Abiding Whiteness: An Ethnography about White Racial Identity and Racism in Alberta, Canada (2025, Oxford University Press) traces White racial identity formation in Edmonton. In 2025-2026, I went on research sabbatical to begin a new project: Questions for Tomorrow: The Future of Energy in Alberta (www.questions4tomorrow.ca), an ethnographic study of how residents of the Cold Lake and Lakeland region (including Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers, industry insiders, and children) understand and experience proposed energy projects and Alberta's energy transition. My research consistently involves undergraduate research assistants and is published in open-access venues to remain accessible to community partners.
My service reflects a sustained commitment to equity at MacEwan and beyond: I co-led the university's Anti-Racism Circle with the Office of Human Rights and kihêw waciston, helped develop MacEwan's first Climate Survey, I sit on the Research Ethics Board, and I've served as Anthropology's Disciplinary Coordinator (2022-2025).
Across teaching, scholarship, and service, my work embodies MacEwan's commitment to place, equity, and community. I train students to become, in the university's words, "Trendsetters and Trendbreakers" while strengthening the university's ties to downtown Edmonton.
01/2016 - 07/2018
Assistant Professor, McMaster University, School of Engineering Practice & Technology
As a contract teaching-track Assistant Professor, I focused on pedagogical research on teamwork among undergraduates and mature students learning preferences and competing responsibilities.
I also collaborated with McMaster Community Nursing scholars to investigate refugee youth experiences' of educational provision (and gap) in Hamilton, ON, Canada. We discovered issues with educational provision and support services for youth aged 18-21 who are in effect, becoming a lost generation.
01-2014 - 06/2018
Independent Researcher
During this period, I worked as a consulting ethnographer for market research firms involved in design technologies and strategies. Outputs from this work are proprietary.
I also worked as a qualitative research and program evaluation consultant for community organizations in the area of immigrant settlement and integration services. Copies of these community reports for local immigration partnership councils can be found at:
2018. Chatham-Kent Local Immigration Partnership. Recommendations for Future Practice: Research Overview and Recommendations: Link
2016. Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council. Promising practices for innovation and effective governance of Local Immigration Partnerships: Link
2015. Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council. Supporting immigrants to Hamilton in an evolving immigration environment: Link
01/2012 - 12/2013
Postdoctoral Researcher - Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Western University
Project Title: Investigating Intercultural Skills Development and Needs Assessment of Medium and Large Businesses in Ontario
This eight-month research project was conducted on behalf of the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre and in collaboration with The Achievement Centre. This project investigated factors related to cultural diversity and intercultural skills development training in medium and large sized businesses in London, Kitchener, and Toronto, Ontario. The project involved the examination of current theories and practices of intercultural skills development, industry partners' experiences of such training, as well as employees' and employers' perceptions and experiences of cultural diversity in the workplace. This research used multiple methodologies for investigation including in-depth interviews and focus groups.
Overall, it was found that immigrants, Aboriginals, LGBT, non-White participants and certain religious believers (predominantly Muslim) were more likely to encounter prejudice and racism in the workplace than White, Canadian-born, heterosexual participants. This finding supports other research in the area of workplace diversity and prejudice. Notable findings included the importance employees placed on prejudice during the hiring process, and the general lack of information and awareness concerning racism and bias in the workplace, on behalf of employers.
This research succeeded in its primary function to provide our partners with Intercultural Competency Training materials. Our output included a core module and three supplementary modules, all of which included up-to-date background information, case studies, and activities that addressed the major concerns found in the literature concerning contemporary diversity and cultural competency training.
Project Title: Optimizing the Delivery of Programming for Newcomers in London, Ontario
This research explores what type of programming for immigrants is best suited to be delivered through universal, targeted, or mixed services, so that these programs are most effective and well-utilized. In particular, this research will address three questions. First, why do immigrants choose to use universal, targeted, or mixed services? This may include information sources and perceptions of access, availability, barriers, and comfort level surrounding programs that are being offered. Second, what personal characteristics of immigrants and specific characteristics of programs influence immigrants’ preferences for use of universal, targeted, or mixed services? Personal characteristics of immigrants may include source country, language proficiency, age, gender, and length of time in Canada. Program characteristics may include the focus of the service (e.g., settlement versus recreation), the duration of the program, characteristics of staff who run the program, and the general demographics of those who frequently use the program. Third, how do immigrants see the costs and benefits of utilizing universal, targeted, or mixed services? Costs and benefits may include integration with the host society, contact with other immigrants, and overall perceived effectiveness of the program.
09/2007 – 12/2011 Doctoral Research Department of Anthropology, Western University, London, Ontario
Project focus: Belonging in everyday life through an exploration of discourses on citizenship, participation and integration in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
I conducted ethnographic research in three different neighbourhoods in Rotterdam (Bergpolder, Liskwartier, and Nieuwe Western), the Netherlands in order to explore how local and national discourses of belonging are expressed in everyday practices. Although other scholars have explored immigrants’ integration and the politics of belonging in the Netherlands, this project takes a unique approach by exploring ideas of belonging using space as an entry point for analysis, paying particular attention to how individuals’ use, access and understand neighbourhood public places. Using Ryan Centner’s concept of ‘spatial capital’, I argue that “autochthonous” individuals are more spatially privileged in their ability to define and design public places in the neighbourhood than individuals who would be perceived as “allochthonous”. Contrary to the declared objectives of official citizenship “tests” and integration programs, the process itself reproduces boundaries and differences between “autochthons” and “allochthons”.
I found that official and populist discourses concerning non-western Muslim immigrants in Dutch society today work to inscribe difference onto “foreign” (“allochthonous”) residents of the Netherlands while upholding an idealized notion of “Dutch identity”. My research revealed that it was not just government-sponsored integration programs that reproduced dominant understandings of belonging or difference through integration activities, but also, the everyday discursive practices of Dutch “natives” (called “autochthons”) who, at times inadvertently, reproduce exclusionary notions of national identity and belonging.
Collaborators
Dr. Stefan Millar, University of Helsinki, Finland
City of Edmonton RECOVER Urban Wellbeing Initiative
Dr. Christopher Stuart Taylor, University of Waterloo, Canada
Dr. Doriane Intungane, MacEwan University, Canada
Dr. Hellen Gateri, MacEwan University, Canada
Dr. Rita Dhungel, MacEwan University, Canada
Irfan Chaudhry, MacEwan University, Canada
Kim Peacock, Norquest College, Canada
Dr. Olive Wahoush, McMaster University, Canada
Dr. Amin Reza Rajabzadeh, McMaster University, Canada
Silvie Tanu Halim, McMaster University, Canada
Allan MacKenzie, McMaster University, Canada
Dr. Vicki Esses, Western University, Canada
Dr. Secil Ertorer, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY
Dr. Melissa Stachel, Western University, Canada
Dr. Randa Farah, Western University, Canada
Dr. Adriana Premat, Western University, Canada
Dr. Irene Stengs, Meertens Institute, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Dr. Carmen Becker, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, the Netherlands