Research at the Department of Criminology

With 10 fields of research and numerous research projects, the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa is at the cutting-edge of critical criminology and social justice scholarship. We encourage Canadian and international PhD candidates and graduates with strong research track records and the potential to make important contributions to knowledge to contact our faculty members to inquire about the potential supervision of their postdoctoral fellowships pending external funding (e.g. SSHRC, Mitacs).

Current postdoctoral fellows:

Anna-Louise Crago is a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow working on a research project titled Complicating Gender in Armed Conflict: Mapping Governance Approaches to Sex Workers by Armed Groups in Eastern DR Congo. Anna-Louise Crago works under the supervision of Chris Bruckert.

Emma McKenna is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow whose research projects include histories of feminism and sex work, anti-violence, and chronic illness. Emma McKenna works under the supervision of Chris Bruckert.

Sava Saheli Singh is the eQuality-Scotiabank Postdoctoral Fellow in AI and Surveillance. With the eQuality Project, Sava Saheli Singh is working with Valerie Steeves on a research project that examines how teachers use learning technologies in their practice and how this has been impacted by COVID-19. As a fellow with the AI + Society Initiative, Sava Saheli Singh is producing a short, near future, fiction film focused on the issues around the use of AI and algorithmic decision-making in the context of educational technology.

Recent postdoctoral fellows include:

Ciara Bracken-Roche was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2019) whose project was titled Drones and Big Data: Governance Techniques and Their Implications for Policing in Contemporary Canadian Society. She worked under the supervision of Valerie Steeves. Ciara Bracken-Roche is now Assistant Professor in Criminology in the Department of Law at Maynooth University, Ireland.

Wahida Chowdhury was an eQuality Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2019) who worked on a research titled Canadian Kids Online: Using Surveys to Map Children’s Experiences on the Internet as part of the eQuality Project, a SSHRC-funded partnership initiative led by Valerie Steeves. Wahida Chowdhury is now a research analysist at Employment and Social Development Canada.

Hayley R. Crooks was an eQuality Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2020) who examined young people’s technology usage through education interventions, including emerging pedagogical uses of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research on technology and education was conducted as part of the eQuality Project, a SSHRC-funded partnership initiative led by Valerie Steeves. Hayley R. Crooks now runs a research consulting practice and is a part-time Professor at the University of Ottawa.

Laura Di Spurio was a Postdoctoral Fellow (2019) working on a project titled “Little Girls are Killed”: Transnational Moral Panic and the Making of At-Risk Girls in the European Belle Époque, under the supervision of Isabelle Perreault. Laura Di Spurio is now a Wiener-Anspach Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford, England.

Alexander McClelland was a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2020) for a project titled Confidentiality, Anonymity & Epistemological Exclusion: Challenges & Strategies for Realizing Ethical & Inclusive Research, under the supervision of Chris Bruckert. The project, which is ongoing, examines the importance of promises of confidentiality within qualitative research projects focused on criminalized and socially sanctioned issues. Alexander McClelland is now Assistant Professor in the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Carleton University.

Midori Ogasawara was a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2020), working on a project supervised by Valerie Steeves and investigating collaborative relationship between security intelligence agencies and big data corporations. The project analyzed how the collaboration has been altering the legal boundary of mass surveillance in Canada, by legalizing previously illegal surveillance. Midori Ogasawara is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria.

Sachil Singh was a postdoctoral fellow (2016-2018), under the supervision of Valerie Steeves for the Big Data Surveillance Project, which is funded by SSHRC. He is now Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University, where he continues his research examining the effect of “big data” on race and health.