Faculty Members

Faculty of Social Science




Faculty Members

Program Staff
Director, Jonah Butovsky, Department of Sociology

Administrative Assistant, Elizabeth Wasylowich
(for inquiries call: (905) 688-5550 ext. 4753)

Faculty
Larry Savage, Centre for Labour Studies

Lecturer
Amanda Coles, Centre for Labour Studies

Participating Faculty
Ann Duffy, Department of Sociology

Tami Friedman, Department of History

Dan Glenday, Department of Sociology

Felice Martinello, Department of Economics

Carmela Patrias, Department of History

Daniel Samson, Department of History

Murray Smith, Department of Sociology

Dennis Soron, Department of Sociology

Garth Stevenson, Department of Political Science

Michelle Webber, Department of Sociology

Adjunct Faculty
Joel Harden, Senior Researcher, Canadian Labour Congress

Part-time Instructors
John Barkans
jbarkans@brocku.ca

Daniel Crow
dcrow@brocku.ca
 

Faculty Profiles

Jonah Butovsky
Associate Professor
Office: AS 406
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 4371
E-mail: jbutovsky@brocku.ca
Education
PhD, University of Toronto
MA, University of Toronto
BA, McGill University
Research Interests
My teaching involves quantitative methods and political sociology.  I am currently working on a project that examines the political potential of Canadian popular music and another that studies the effects of left-nationalism on the development of Canadian socialism.
 
Associate Professor
Office: PLZ 329
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 5007
Education
PhD, York University
MA, Brock University
BA, Brock University
Research Interests
My research focuses primarily on the politics of organized labour in Canada. Recent research has revolved around the changing nature of party-union relations, the strategic use of rights discourse and the constitutional politics of labour.
 
Lecturer
Office: PLZ 416
Phone: 905-688-5550 ext. 5349
Education
PhD (ABD), McMaster University
MA, Ryerson University
BA, York University
Research Interests
I specialize in the intersection of work, workers and public policy in the arts and cultural sector. Current research examines the role that film and television unions play in the development of policy and regulatory frameworks for the Canadian English-language independent film and television production sector. Other research interests include gendered experiences of work and unions in the cultural industries.

 
Professor
Office: AS 404
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3517
Education
PhD, McMaster University
MA, McMaster University
BA (Hons.), McMaster University
Research Interests
My research primarily concerns the expansion of non-standard forms of work--notably unpaid work (other than domestic labour) and part-time work. Currently, I am researching the impact of job loss on workers in Welland manufacturing plants.
 
Assistant Professor
Office: GLN 225
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3709
Education
PhD, Columbia University
MA, University of Wisconsin-Madison
BA, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests
My research focuses on the causes and consequences of economic restructuring in the post-World War II United States, with an emphasis on how capital migration and deindustrialization have transformed workers, communities, industrial policy (at the local, state, regional, and federal levels), and national politics.
 
Professor
Office: AS 405
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3456
Education
PhD, Carleton University
MA, McGill University
BA, Concordia University
Research Interests
My research interests include the sociology of work, comparative methods in social analysis, and the Canadian political economy in the modern world-system (The Work of Immanuel Wallerstein).
 
Professor
Office: PLZ 433
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3329
Education
Ph.D., Economics, University of British Columbia, 1984
BA (Honors), Economics, University of Western Ontario, 1978
Research Interests
My most recent work in a traditional area of labour studies examined faculty salaries in Ontario universities and the effects of unionization versus other forms of collective representation.  My current work focuses on post-secondary education, with particular emphasis on the different educational routes that students take while in post-secondary education and the factors related to students' decisions to continue in their programs, change programs or institutions, or withdraw.
 
Associate Professor
Office: GLN 223
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 4037
Research Interests
I am a social historian with a special interest in Canadian immigration, labour and women's history.
 
Associate Professor
Office: GLN 235
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3503
Education
PhD, Queen's University
MA, University of New Brunswick
BScFor, University of New Brunswick
Research Interests
My research focuses on rural politics and culture in colonial Canada.  Two books on rural Nova Scotia - Contested Countryside and The Spirit of Industry and Improvement - examine life, work and politics in the 18th and 19th centuries. My current research extends this focus to rural class relations in the Canadas, ca. 1780-1870.  
 
Professor
Office: AS 408
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 4370
Education
PhD, University of British Columbia
MA, University of Manitoba
BA, University of Manitoba
Research Interests
My research focuses on the political economy and crisis tendencies of modern capitalism, the development of Marxist theory and the strategic and programmatic pre-requisites for transformative social change.
 
Assistant Professor
Office: AS 418
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3458
Education
PhD, York University
MA, York University
BA, Carleton University
Research Interests
My current teaching and research interests include contemporary social theory, cultural studies, the political economy of consumption, environmental sociology, radical ecology, automobility, critical animal studies, and the intersection of labour and environmental politics.
 
Professor
Office: PLZ 336
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3892
Education
PhD, Princeton University
MA, McGill University
BA, McGill University
Research Interests
My current research focuses on immigration and multiculturalism policies in Canada and the USA.
 
Michelle Webber
Associate Professor
Office: STH 420
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 4411
E-mail: mwebber@brocku.ca
Education
PhD, University of Toronto
MA, University of Toronto
BA, Brock University
Research Interests
My research is in the area of the sociology of higher education with a focus on the regulation of academic work. Recent research investigates the regulation of academic work (the production of knowledge, forms of knowledge) in the context of accountability governance.
 
 
Adjunct Professor
Senior Researcher - Social and Economic Policy Department, Canadian Labour Congress
Education
PhD, York University
Research Interests
I work in the labour movement’s central think tank, the Social and Economic Policy Department at the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). My research supports CLC policy on pensions, corporate accountability, and post-secondary education. I am also the Acting Registrar for the Labour College of Canada, the national educational institute affiliated to the CLC.