PhDs on the Job Market

Our PhD students receive an excellent training in research and pedagogy, preparing them for careers in top research and teaching universities. While many also choose to pursue careers outside of the academy, on this page, we feature those students currently seeking positions in universities or colleges.

Tyler BatemanTyler Bateman

tyler.bateman@mail.utoronto.ca
Website

Dissertation Title: Connecting with and Caring for Nature: Practical Bricolage, Investment, and Identity at an Urban Nature Centre

Dissertation Committee: Josée Johnston, Ellen Berrey, John Hannigan, and Zaheer Baber 

Research and Teaching Areas: Environmental Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Qualitative Methods

Statement on Teaching and Research Interests: Tyler Bateman’s research focuses on the emotional, cultural, social justice, and colonial dimensions of environmental issues. This research has taken place over three major research streams. In the first, he focuses on connection with nature: its development, how it is narrated, and how it leads to environmental stewardship. In the second, he uses computational social science to understand the cultural meanings of environmentally significant phenomena. Third, his work with community organizations involves social justice and decolonial aspects of environmental issues. His teaching is based on helping students understand how the environment is connected to decolonization, social justice, and mental health, through concepts such as just sustainability. His teaching also aims to help students understand the importance of social science knowledge in everyday life and cultivating skills necessary to succeed both in academia and in students’ careers. He is a recipient of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award and is a co-chair of the Environmental Sociological Association’s Environmental Sociology Research Cluster.

Publications:  

  • Bateman, Tyler J. Forthcoming. “The Genesis of Care: Knowledge-Emotion Connections, Extension of the Self, and Care for Nature at an Urban Nature Centre.” Qualitative Sociology. 
  • Hakimzadeh, Gelareh, Kara Catellier, Ivan Popovic-Laine, Daniel Martinez-Ramirez, Angubin Zavqibekova, and Tyler J. Bateman. 2024. “The Role of Community Organizations in Mobilizing Civil Society to Fight Climate Change.” Video (7 minutes). Toronto, ON: Cultural Interface Institute. *This is collaborative work undertaken with undergraduates and partner community organizations. Available at https://www.tylerjamesbateman.com/publications.html.
  • Bateman, Tyler J., Dania Ahmed, Laura Deli-Angeli, Madelaine Kwok, Claudia Meleqi, Anna Romero, Genevieve Wright-Smith, and Brandon Wu. 2023. Mobilizing Older Adults to Fight the Climate Crisis: The Importance of Accessibility, Health, Linking to Younger Generations, Diversity, Connections to Nature, and Cultural Beliefs. Toronto, ON: Cultural Interface Institute. *This is collaborative qualitative research undertaken with undergraduate students and partner community organizations.
  • Bateman, Tyler J., Hema Parhar, Kaela Speigel Biro, Micah Kalisch, Tim Selland, and Dahlia Alfi. 2023. Reconciliation and Decolonization at Canadian Community Organizations. Toronto, ON: Cultural Interface Institute. *This is collaborative qualitative research undertaken with undergraduate students and partner community organizations.
  • Bateman, Tyler J. and Scott E. Nielsen. 2020. “Direct and Indirect Effects of Overstory Canopy and Sex-Biased Density Dependence on Reproduction in the Dioecious Shrub Shepherdia canadensis (Elaeagnaceae).” Diversity 12(1):1–15. 
  • Bateman, Tyler J., Shyon Baumann, and Josée Johnston. 2019. “Meat as Benign, Meat as Risk: Mapping News Discourse of an Ambiguous Issue.” Poetics 76:1–13.

Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson

Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson

ml.drapeau.bisson@mail.utoronto.ca
Website
Academia.edu

Dissertation Title: Reading, Evaluating and Commemorating Feminism : Excluding and reviving dynamics in the reception of L'Euguélionne in Québec

Dissertation Committee: Judith Taylor (Chair), Shyon Baumann, Josée Johnston

Research and Teaching Areas: Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Arts, Qualitative Methods, Social Movements Studies, Commemoration Studies, Feminist Studies, Québec Studies.

Statement on Teaching and Research Interests:  My work is motivated by a desire to understand how activists innovate to escape erasure. While activists often rely on a well-worn repertoire of tactics for continuity, they need to transform their repertoires to address new issues and renew mobilization. This tension is at the heart of research projects I have undertaken over the past 10 years: from the pots and pans protests in Montreal, to reproductive justice activists in Northern Ireland, to Québec feminists practicing commemorative work to defy the invisibilisation of the movement’s cultural production.

My work puts in conversation literatures that, despite important consonances, are not in dialogue due to disciplinary or linguistic boundaries. In my teaching, this bridging work broadens students' horizons and helps them develop critical thinking skills. I also help students to develop concrete job market skills through assignments that borrow from various genres, from peer feedback, to letter writing, to project proposals. You can learn more about my current research and teaching interests by visiting my website.

Publications:

Jordon Foster Jordan Foster

jordann.foster@mail.utoronto.ca
Website

Dissertation Title: The Rich Kids of Instagram: Tracing Symbolic Wealth and Social Visibility in The Digital Era

Dissertation Committee: Josée Johnston, Shyon Baumann, and David Pettinicchio

Research and Teaching Areas: Cultural sociology, media studies, inequality

Statement on Teaching and Research Interests:  Jordan Foster is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research lies at the intersection of culture, new media, and inequality with a critical focus on how everyday and taken-for-granted trends reinforce and reproduce inequality. His dissertation project, “The Rich Kids of Instagram,” follows the rise of social media influencers and the industry personnel who surround them to show what forms of content influencers traffic in, the status characteristics that shape their visibility online, and the rewards that follow. Outside of this work, Jordan engages with critical questions related to social media platforms and their democratic and inclusive potentials. Specifically, he investigates what opportunities and challenges these platforms provide to historically marginalized communities and those who embody markers of difference.

Publications:

James LanniganJames Lannigan

james.lannigan@mail.utoronto.ca
News

Dissertation title: “Discourse and structure: An examination of the organizational identities and networks of contemporary specialty coffee retailers”

Dissertation committee: Bonnie Erickson (supervisor), Clayton Childress, Josée Johnston

Research and teaching areas: Social Research Methods, Sociology of Culture, Social Networks, Urban Sociology

James Lannigan is a PhD candidate enrolled in the Sociology department at the University of Toronto. His current research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of the Sociology of Culture, Social Networks, and Urban Sociology. His dissertation work focuses on the networks of specialty coffee retailers paying close attention to the development of distinct identity-making practices and their contemporary adaptation to challenges in the marketplace from chain competition. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, James has been recently focusing on how this population has adapted their organizational practices to deal with uncertainties facing the niche as a whole.

Publications:

Headshot of Martin LukkMartin Lukk

martin.lukk@mail.utoronto.ca
Website

Dissertation title: The Distributional Question in Contemporary Nationalism

Dissertation committee: Erik Schneiderhan, Geoffrey Wodtke (co-chair, U. Chicago), David Pettinicchio, Vanina Leschziner

Research and teaching areas: Political Sociology, Inequality and Stratification, Social Policy, Health and Illness, Race and Ethnicity

Statement on teaching and research interests: I study the political consequences of economic inequality. The dramatic growth in income and wealth inequality in industrialized countries is among the major social and economic developments of the postwar era. My research examines the individual consequences of this and related transformations in three areas: political identity, voting behavior, and social welfare. I am particularly interested in how income inequality shapes conceptions about legitimate membership in the nation; how attitudes about the nation affect support for radical-right parties; and how novel digital solutions to financing individual health care needs reproduce economic inequality. I study these issues primarily using quantitative analyses of survey data and computational approaches to data collection and analysis. My scholarship contributes to research in multiple areas, including political sociology, inequality and stratification, social policy, health and illness, and race and ethnicity. At the core of my work is an effort to understand how long-term structural changes shape individuals’ political lives in today’s democratic societies, including decisions about how to identify, vote, and get help in times of need. I am author of the forthcoming book GoFailMe: Digital Philanthropy and the Politics of Social Welfare (Stanford University Press, 2023), written with Erik Schneiderhan.

Sol W. UnderwoodSol W. Underwood

s.underwood@mail.utoronto.ca

Dissertation title: Daddy and Papa: Canadian Gay Men Becoming Parents, Caring for their Families, and Constructing Fatherhood

Dissertation committee: Rania Salem and Bonnie Fox (co-supervisors), Barry Adam (Windsor)

Research and teaching areas:  Sociology of Gender; Sociology of Families; Sexualities; Qualitative Methods; Political Economy of Race, Class, and Gender

Statement on teaching and research interests: I study 2SLGBTQI+ parenthood, families, and communities in Canada. Specifically, my research examines the social construction and organization of families headed by two fathers. Thanks to the broader 2SLGBTQI+ movements of the last century that won same-gender couples’ rights to marry and parent together, gay fathers are forming families that represent an historically novel social unit. Yet, gay fathers must navigate many barriers to their full participation in the world of parents. They lack easy access to the means of reproduction and become primary caregivers to children in a society that is organized around straight parents and heteronormativity. My research shows that the many paths gay men navigate are often dizzying, complicated bureaucratic paths, over which they may experience little control. Then, once they achieve fatherhood, their intentions as male parents are often called into question. They must contend with suspicions ascribed to male primary caregivers, on the one hand, and stigma ascribed to gay male sexuality, on the other. Despite the many advances that 2SLGBTQI+ people have enjoyed in Canada over the last century, my research highlights the many barriers and inequalities that persist among 2SLGBTQI+ families. At the heart of my research focus, I highlight the profound commitment that Canadian gay men bring to their roles and jobs as fathers as they pave the way for future generations of primary caregiving co-fathers.

Publications:

Man Xu (Angela)

manx.xu@mail.utoronto.ca

Website 

Dissertation Title: : Brokering transnational exchange: examining Chinese Muslim’s identity formation and relational labor in the global trade economy

Dissertation Committee: : Patricia Landolt (co-chair), Ping-Chun Hsiung (co-chair), Laura Doering

Research and Teaching Areas: Globalization, Migration, Race and Ethnicity, Economic Sociology, Qualitative Methodology, China Studies

Statement on Teaching and Research Interests:  I study globalization and migration as forces of change that shape social identity, ethnic relations, economic processes, and state governance. My research interprets recent shifts in the global political economy, such as the rise of Global China and the expanding ties within the Global South. My dissertation delves into the experiences of Hui Muslims who work as brokers facilitating trade between China and the Middle East. This project theorizes how the growing trade economy within Asia produces new segment of relational labor, and how ethnic minority people’s brokerage work contributes to shifts in the structure of the global economy. The dissertation brings into dialogue economic sociology, race, ethnicity, and migration studies, to advance the sociology of brokerage.