Criminology Archives - LA&PS Newsroom

Social science professor discusses closure of Toronto strip club in the Toronto Star

efulton — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:39:51 +0000

A recent article in the Toronto Star covered the closure of Filmores Hotel and Gentleman’s Club, a strip club located in downtown Toronto. The club had been in business for 45 years and closed its doors on Jan. 31. The article features quotes from several of the club’s longstanding dancers who reflect positively on several aspects of the club and its management, including flexible hours, a sense of control and community, and the diversity of its employees. Also quoted was Tuulia Law, an associate professor in the Department of Social Science, sharing her academic expertise on sex work and sex industry management. Law discusses the repercussions of the club’s closure on the dancers’ lives and the community at large.

Tuulia Law holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Criminology from the University of Ottawa. She works with community partners in the sex industry to research topics like labour relations, working conditions, management and the performance of gender, class and race. Her additional research interests include intersectional gendered violence, sexual assault on campus and criminalized masculinities.

Read the full article in the .

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Researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies secure federal funding to pursue projects in the social sciences and humanities

efulton — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:21:29 +0000

Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has awarded $1.7 million in federal funding to 91��ɫ researchers as part of the Insight Development Grants program. The program will provide funding for projects lasting up to two years, supporting a broad range of topics and disciplines as researchers investigate key societal challenges. A number of applicants from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies received funding for their projects, including:

Gemechu Abeshu, Department of Sociology
Project: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Refugees Resettled in Canada through the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $62,498 

Kelly Bergstrom, Department of Communication & Media Studies
Project: Context Collisions and Critical Events: Investigating the True Crime Convention Circuit 
Funding:  $73,181 

Sheetala Bhat, Department of English
Project: Long-distance Gods: Hindu Nationalism and the South Asian Diasporas in Canada 
Funding: $65,433 

Sarah Blake, Department of Humanities
Project: Technologies of Beauty and Enslaved Practitioners in the Graeco-Roman World 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $67,215

Zeyad El Nabolsy, Department of Philosophy
Project: Theories of Education in Nineteenth-Century African Philosophy 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $46,414 

Denielle Elliott, Department of Anthropology, Department of Social Science
Project: Cinematic Minds: Exploring brain injuries through science fiction horror film 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $74,995

Ida Ferrara, Department of Economics
Project: Advancing Gender Diversity in Leadership Positions: An Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach 
Funding: $60,720

Benjamin Kelly, Department of History
Project: Space and Power in the Flavian Palace: 3D Digital Visualisations as Tools for Historical Research 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $69,030 

Sunwoo Lee, School of Administrative Studies
Project: Retirement Planning for Low-Income Households in Canada 
Funding: $48,547 

Sudeshna Maitra, Department of Economics 
Project: More Skilled Jobs or Subsidized Education? A Micro-to-Macro Approach to Evaluate Anti-Poverty Policy in India 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $71,508 

Margaret O’Brien, Department of Philosophy
Project: Disagreement, Standing, and Politics 
Funding: $43,751

Jacqueline Petropoulos, Department of English 
Project: Reanimating the Moderns: Canadian Adaptations of World Drama 
Funding: $65,820

Leila Pourtavaf, Department of History
Project: From Gulistan to Lalezar: The Urban Life and Afterlife of Slavery in Tehran 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $57,461 &�Բ��;

Nicholas Taylor, Department of Communication & Media Studies 
Project: Building Good Relations 
Funding: $56,215

Natasha Tusikov, Department of Social Science
Project: Governance Challenges of Digital-Contraceptive Apps 
Funding: $74,918

Jun Zhao, Department of Economics 
Project: The Evaluation of Minority Preference Programs in Canada 
Funding: $53,823 

Jelena Zikic, School of Human Resource Management 
Project: How remote workers of an extreme type cope with the ‘connectivity paradox’? From nomadic to lonely work lives 
Funding: $63,253

Congratulations to all LA&PS applicants and their team of researchers.

Read the full story in YFile.

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91��ɫ U students earn awards for achievements in social science

efulton — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 14:27:45 +0000

31 awards were presented to LA&PS students across a number of diverse fields of study, including African Studies, Law & Society, Criminology and more.

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Assistant professor Jessica Braimoh co-produces documentary on homelessness in Ontario

Sanja Begic — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:19:12 +0000

Jessica Braimoh, assistant professor in the Department of Social Science in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has co-produced an important new documentary Bridging Divides: Voices and Visions about Homelessness. The documentary shares the stories of individuals experiencing homelessness in Ontario’s mid-sized cities, dismantling misconceptions while looking at the factors contributing to homelessness including gaps in social services and the affordable housing crisis.

Dr. Jessica Braimoh is a critical sociologist whose research and teaching interests include the interrelation between criminalization, racialization, class (among other systems of domination and difference); socio-legal processes and organizing institutions; and the experiences of “at-risk” populations. Guided by principles of social justice, her work seeks to uncover the ways that inequality is perpetuated and maintained.

Read the full story in YFile

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Rethinking surveillance historically: From the medieval eye-of-God to the modern eye-of-power

Sanja Begic — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:11:33 +0000

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Date: March 14, 2024
Time: 3 - 5 p.m.
Location: CLH (Curtis Lecture Halls) B

Speaker: Professor David Lyon (Queen’s University). Professor is the former Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre, and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and of Law at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. A pioneer in the field of Surveillance Studies, he has authored or edited 31 books – translated into 18 languages – and many articles, including The Electronic Eye (1994), and the latest one, Pandemic Surveillance (2022). He has led several large global collaborative research projects on surveillance. His work has been recognized in Canada, Switzerland, the USA and the UK with a number of fellowships, prizes, awards and an honorary doctorate.

Abstract: Surveillance is imagined as a “modern” issue, associated today with globalized digital technologies. The word surveillance first appears in 1802. But activities appropriately described as surveillance have existed since ancient times. By exploring surveillance practices and meanings in medieval and early modern Europe, we find a discernible shift described by Foucault as being from the “eye-of-God” to the modern “eye-of-power.” Crudely put, this secularizing of surveillance exchanged God’s omniscience for ‘all-seeing’ innovations such as the Panopticon, where, Bentham believed, surveillance power could be automated. But what exactly was gained and lost in the process? And what light is shed by such an analysis on contemporary debates over AI-assisted surveillance or surveillance capitalism? 

Sponsors:
Criminology Program
Resource Centre for Public Sociology (RCPS) at the Department of Sociology
Department of Social Science
Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies
Department of Communication and Media Studies

For more information, please contact crimprog@yorku.ca

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Twitter starts testing edit button; Canadian Twitter Blue users among first to access

Sanja Begic — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 19:30:49 +0000

Criminology professor Natasha Tusikov comments on the safety and productivity issues regarding Twitter’s new feature trial.

September 01, 2022

Author: Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press.

“…The rollout of the long-awaited tool comes as Canada is looking to regulate tech companies and pressure is mounting to tamp down on online harassment.

“But if we're looking for a tool that will make Twitter more productive and welcoming and a healthy place, this isn't it,” said Natasha Tusikov, an assistant professor of social science at 91��ɫ.

“If Twitter hopes that an edit tool will improve public discourse and make it a safer, more productive, more engaging public premise, that's absolutely not going to happen. This doesn't touch any of the structural problems that Twitter has.”

Read the full article at .

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Prof. Mohamed Sesay wins Lee Ann Fujii Book Award 2021

Sanja Begic — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:11:37 +0000

Congratulations to , winner of the International Studies Association’s Lee Ann Fujii Book Award for 2021 for his new book Domination Through Law: The Internationalization of Legal Norms in Postcolonial Africa.

From the International Studies Association’s press release:

“This year’s winner, Mohamed Sesay’s book Domination through Law: The Internationalization of Legal Norms in Postcolonial Africa (Rowman & Littlefield 2021), exemplifies Lee Ann’s call for reflexivity and diversity in the discipline. As the committee report notes: Sesay uses a postcolonial analysis to argue that modern rule of law perpetuates forms of domination in post-conflict African states. He calls into question neoliberal characterizations of modern law -- including the idea that it’s contemporary, distinct from a colonial past, and carried out as a neutral project -- to argue that the reconstruction of post conflict societies through rule of law processes and peacebuilding as state-building efforts conducted by Euro-American parties continues the colonization project through three empirical spheres of legal internationalization (local economies, local politics of rule of law reforms, and communal rules and norms). Using data gathered during field work conducted in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Sesay brilliantly supports his argument analyzing how the three spheres of legal internationalization in each country maintains and perpetuates modern law as an instrument of social domination. The highlight of this book is its novel postcolonial critique of a subject, international law, regularly thought to be benign, and as Sesay brilliantly points out, regularly overlooked by postcolonial critique which often turns its attention to international development, intervention, and security.”

This book award is named after the late Lee Ann Fujii and was “established to recognize the best book published in the previous two calendar years that significantly advances issues of diversity in the discipline, whether through topical focus or authorship. In this vein, the award gives preference to scholars from underrepresented communities in IR: scholars from the Global South, LGBTQ scholars, and women. Award recipients should fulfill Lee Ann’s call for diversity and representation in the discipline in meaningful ways.”

This is the second year of this award. Professor Fujii was associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto (Mississauga) and a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She passed away in 2018 and is dearly missed.

Read more about this book on our Faculty Publications page.

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News Catchup with CRIM professor Natasha Tusikov

Sanja Begic — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 21:09:16 +0000

Criminology professor and Foundations Co-ordinator Dr. ’s research and commentary is in high demand. Her prodigious output of late includes an appearance on The National news program, in an article with Global News, and authoring and co-authoring a series of articles with CIGI – The Centre for International Governance Innovation – an international think tank on global governance.

In case you missed her appearance on The National on February 01, 2022, you can view the segment on . The story begins at 8:35 and Natasha’s comments on the crowdfunding of the protestors in Ottawa start at 10:43.

Recent articles

Will War Propel or Delay the Global Push to Reform Social Media?
Globally, Russian disinformation and propaganda now confront facts and evidence of war crimes gathered by journalists and non-governmental organizations. The lasting impact on internet regulation and speech online remains to be seen.

Ten years ago this month, the world witnessed the largest online protest in history.
CIGI, 25 January 2022. Authored by Natasha Tusikov.

Does the government have a responsibility to protect children from the dark side of social media? Some parents and experts think so.
Global News, 12 January 2022. Authored by Rachel Gilmore.

Had it become law, the bill would have expanded the Broadcasting Act, which already covers the radio and television industries, to apply to companies transmitting programs over the internet.
CIGI, 17 January 2022. Co-authored with Blayne Haggart.

And, in case you missed her three-part series, also at CIGI…

The dissolution of Parliament pulled the plug on an ambitious and controversial series of proposals to regulate the actions of digital media companies and their users. But this reset also offers an opportunity to consider how the next government should regulate these platforms.
CIGI, 08 September 2021. Co-authored with Blayne Haggart.

In the digital world, few ideas have been as enduring as that of the free and open internet. But in a liberal-democratic society, there's little room for debate once you've pulled the censorship pin on the free-speech grenade.
CIGI, 10 September 2021. Co-authored with Blayne Haggart.

Canada's next federal government should regulate social media companies in the context of a more general focus on the broader digital economy and digital society, as part and parcel of the wider economy and society
CIGI, 13 September 2021. Co-authored with Blayne Haggart.

Follow Natasha Tusikov on .

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91��ɫ Criminology Professor James Sheptycki is the recipient of the 2021 Allen Austin Bartholomew Award for best-published paper of the year by the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology for his essay titled “The Politics of Policing a Pandemic Panic.”

Sanja Begic — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:38:24 +0000

The essay was completed in early April 2020 and published during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Sheptycki’s paper argues the politics of policing the pandemic panic reveal tectonic shifts in the world system. He explains how the COVID-19 virus “precipitated the first global police event presenting an occasion for researchers and scholars to apply existing theory and empirical understanding to extra-ordinary circumstances.” The essay also shares how the “transnational and comparative study of police and policing reveals the contours of the emerging system of world power all the more clearly in a moment of crisis.” 

The post 91��ɫ Criminology Professor James Sheptycki is the recipient of the 2021 Allen Austin Bartholomew Award for best-published paper of the year by the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology for his essay titled “The Politics of Policing a Pandemic Panic.” appeared first on LA&PS Newsroom.

CRIM prof Tuulia Law discusses the question: "Is violence against teachers being normalized?"

Sanja Begic — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:29:02 +0000

91��ɫ Assistant Professor Tuulia Law

TORONTO, Sept. 2, 2021 – Workplace violence against female elementary school teachers by some of their students is often dismissed or diminished despite serious injury and emotional harm, says the lead author of a new paper out of 91��ɫ.

That’s because the issue is often invisible, complex, intertwined, messy and insidious, say co-authors 91��ɫ Assistant Professor Tuulia Law of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Professor Chris Bruckert of the University Ottawa.

They are quick to point out that the students are also victims here, as so many cuts to school resources mean supports for students are seldom available. Without them, some students lash out at teachers, often causing serious injury such as concussions. They say there is mounting evidence that student violence against Canadian educators is a pervasive problem, yet it’s not being taken seriously.

“It’s frightening, the kinds of things elementary school teachers in Ontario are experiencing and many of the teachers felt blamed for the violence by the school’s administrators for a lack of skills or competencies, or even caring,” says Law. “They often reported facing questions that asked things like — ‘what did you do to create the problem’?” The response to the violence is gendered.

(02 September 2021).

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