Dr. Kendra Coulter

Office: PLZ 316
Phone: 905.688.5550 ext. 5349
Email: kcoulter@brocku.ca

PhD, University of Toronto
BA, The University of Western Ontario

My current research focuses on retail work, retail workers’ political action, and on strategies for improving work in the sector. I also am exploring what I call animal work, or the work done with and by animals. I am particularly interested in class, gender, work, and agency in show jumping and horse racing. I have an ongoing interest in anti-poverty work, paid and unpaid political labour, and how solidarity is conceptualized and practiced.

Visit Revolutionizing Retail

@DrKendraCoulter on Twitter

Treasurer of the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies

Courses: Fall-Winter 2012-2013

LABR 1F99 - Work and Society

LABR 4P31 - Women, Work, and Unions

Course: Spring 2013

LABR/SOCI/PCUL 3P06 - Class and Culture

Publications

Books Authored

(2014) Revolutionizing Retail: Workers, Political Action, and Social Change. Under Contract with Palgrave Macmillan.

Books Edited

(2012) Kendra Coulter and William R. Schumann, eds. Governing Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Labor, Power, and Government. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. 

Book Chapters

(Forthcoming) “Horse Power: Gender, Work, and Wealth in Canadian Show Jumping.” In Gender and Equestrian Sports, Miriam Adelman and Jorge Knijnik, eds.

(2012) Kendra Coulter and William R. Schumann “Government Matters: Intellectual Labor and the Work of Governing.” In Governing Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Labor, Power, and Government, Kendra Coulter and William R. Schumann, eds. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

(2012) “Gendering Government: Political Labor and the Production of Political Culture and Policy.” In Governing Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Labor, Power, and Government, Kendra Coulter and William R. Schumann, eds. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

(2012) “Anti-Poverty Work: Unions, Poor Workers and Collective Action in Canada.” In Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada, Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage, eds. Halifax: Fernwood Press. Pp. 159-170.

Journal Articles

(Forthcoming 2013) "Raising Retail: Organizing Retail Workers in Canada and the United States." Labor Studies Journal.

(Forthcoming 2013) "Feeling Resistance: Gender and Emotions in Retail Organizing." WorkingUSA: Journal of Labor and Society.

(Forthcoming 2013) “Herds and Hierarchies: Class, Nature, and the Social Construction of Horses in Equestrian Culture.” Society and Animals.

(2012) “Solidarity in Deed: Poor People’s Organizations, Unions, and the Politics of Anti-Poverty Work in Ontario.” Anthropology of Work Review 33(2): 101-112.

(2011) “Unionizing Retail: Learning from Young Women’s Grassroots Organizing in the Greater Toronto Area in the 1990s.” Labour/Le Travail, 67 (Spring): 77-93.

(2010) “The Stubbornness of Hope: Listening to Young Female University Teachers in Cuba.” International Journal of Cuban Studies, 2 (1 & 2): 127-137.

(2009) “Engineering Resistance: Energy Professionals and the 2005 Strike in Neoliberal Ontario.” Just Labour, 13: 1-14.

(2009) “Women, Poverty Policy and the Production of Neoliberal Politics in Ontario, Canada.” Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy, 30(1): 23-45.

(2009) “Deep Neoliberal Integration: The Production of Third Way Politics in Ontario.” Studies in Political Economy, 83: 191-208.

(2009) “Patriarchy at the Pink Palace: Gender and Work Inside the Ontario Legislature.” Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal, 34(1): 16-26.

(2007) “Students’ Organisations in Canada and Cuba: A Comparative Study.” Canadian and International Education Journal, 36(1): 62-74.

 Media Publications

Targeting Change: Retail and Canada's Future

Walmart Workers in U.S. the Latest to Demand Better Working Conditions

Of Hope and Horses: Reflections on I'll Have Another, Class, and Society

Let's Afford Greater Dignity and Respect to Horses

Retail Workers Make History

Target Takeover Kills Thousands of Jobs

Retail Matters: Challenges and Opportunities for Retail Organizing