About

As a researcher, educator and advocate, I focus on the confluence of decent work, dignified migration, and ecological sustainability. This includes projects on agrarian livelihoods, health equity, and struggles for migrant justice and bargaining power across the food chain. I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, which is on the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples.

Through the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, I got my feet wet in the world of ecological farming. I am an active member of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group, and I serve as a director with both the BC Employment Standards Coalition and the Worker Solidarity Network. In 2023, I received the UVic Social Sciences Community Engaged and Knowledge Mobilization Excellence Award.

My current projects include:

• Climate and Labour Organizing Canada (CLOC)

  • Labour movement responses to climate change in Western Canada (Principal Investigator for a SSHRC Insight Development Grant)

• Climate Impacts on Farmworkers (CLIF)

  • Legislative protections for farmworkers from climate-related extreme heat (with Susanna Klassen, Bethany Hastie, and Ethan Raker)

• Gig Food Delivery Workers (GIGFOOD)

  • How gig food delivery workers navigate tipping and urban infrastructure (with Simon Pek and Jen Kostuchuk)

• Ag-Gag

  • The role of industry in the adoption of “ag-gag” legislation in Canada (with Tayler Zavitz)

• Migrants' Intersectional Experiences with Housing in Agriculture (MIHA)

  • Housing and health equity for migrant agricultural workers in Canada (with Susana Caxaj)

• Growing Justice

  • South Asian farmworker women’s experiences with piece rate wages in B.C. (with David Fairey of the BC Employment Standards Coalition, Anushay Malik, and Archway Community Services)