Term Adjunct
Sociology
Queen's University
Mackintosh-Corry Hall, D410B
Assistant Professor
BA (Gazi/Turkey); MA (Kocaeli/Turkey); DPhil (Kassel/Germany)
Sociology
Queen's University
Digital Justice, Algorithmic Culture, Critical Coding Studies, Intersectional Internet Studies, Post-Colonial and Anti-Colonial Feminist Approaches to Science and Technology Studies, Cybercolonialism, Migration and Mobilities, Mobile/Migrant Feminism, Marginalized knowledge forms and research methodologies.
Myla Devora Held / PhD Candidate
I received my PhD at the Department of Sociology of Diversity at the University of Kassel, Germany. Between 2015-2022, I worked as a postdoc researcher and (co-)initiated and received project grants, and coordinated them. One of these projects was an interdisciplinary project entitled “RE:Coding Algorithmic Culture” and the other major project was entitled “Migrantischer Feminismus (Migrant Feminism).” In the early beginning of my postdoc years, I became one of the project leads of a transnational research group “Digital Feminist Collective” founded at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and had the great opportunity to meet and work with amazing and inspiring feminist scholars. From 2019 to 2020, I held an interim full-professorship position of 6 months at the Department of Sociology, at the Justus-Liebig-University, Germany. In July 2023, I happily joined the ϳԹԴ Department of Sociology as a tenure-track assistant professor with special focus on Digital Justice.
During these years, I also worked together and organized different cultural, social and political gatherings and events with the (local) BI*PoC communities in Germany, which constituted one of the most substantial drives of my scholarly engagements. As a strong believer of the importance of transmission of knowledge, I highly value the wisdom and non-institutionalized knowledge forms which are present and create the foundation of these communities. While I have intellectually benefited from their generous knowledge sharing practices, as a professional learner and a re-searcher, I have always been ready and have tried to share my scholarly knowledge and resources with these communities in accordance with their demands and needs. I aim and hope to continue this practice at ϳԹԴ, as well.
The scope of my current research project primarily emerges from the areas of Algorithmic Culture, Critical Coding Studies, Postcolonial Sociology and Anti-colonial Feminist Epistemologies and Methodologies. Broadly speaking, my work explores the emerging power relations and inequalities as well as the emanating subjectivities and agencies in cyberspace. By following Radhika Gajjala (2012; 2019), Roopika Risam (2019) and Danielle Coleman (2019) works, in my research, for instance, I propose and introduce two concepts: Cybercolonialism and Cybaltern. While the term ‘cybercolonialism’ focuses on the spatial aspects of the new forms of power relations shaped in and by the digital space, the concept of ‘cybaltern’ -- which is a portmanteau term of ‘cyborg’ and ‘subaltern’ -- defines a cursor subjectivity, as I argue, and is one of these emerging subjectivities in cyberspace.
My research, in the long term, aims to bring its theoretical, conceptual and methodological perspectives together in an intersectional digital feminist framework which deals with the questions of agency and access in the context of digital justice.
Congratulations to Martine Rondeau (PhD), Joseph Stieb (MA), and Sixue Lui (BA Hons) who are recipients for the 2023 Canadian Sociological Association's Outstanding Graduating Student Award.
“Ten faculty and staff members who were nominated this year and in previous rounds of the program, are being honoured as recurring, ‘Superstar’ Champions for Mental Health. Superstar Champion sociology teaching assistant Megan Ingram told the Student Mental Health Collective that they “recognize students as people with expansive lives, of which their academic work is just one part.
Dr. Nicole Myers comments on Canada's bail system in an address to the Justice Committee. She also comments on claims that Pierre Poilievre's proposal for bail reform isn't constitutionally sound, in an article by the Canadian Press.
Part of Dr. Saulnier's research focus is how police use of technology affects relationships with the communities they serve. In a chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of Race and Surveillance, she describes how historically interpersonal interactions between police and citizens are changing to take on technologically mediated or automated forms, and how these changes relate to discussions of race and policing.
Alana Saulnier and Victoria A. Sytsma, "," Policing and Society 33, no. 6, 2023.
The Department of Sociology is remembering our dear friend and colleague Elia Zureik, Professor in the Department between 1971 and 2005, and Emeritus Professor from 2005. He was a major international figure, a prolific author and intellectual, as well as a treasured colleague. We share ongoing reflections below.
Vince Sacco (Emeritus Professor, Sociology)
Assistant Professor
BA (York University); MA (University of Toronto); PhD (McGill University)
Sociology
Queen's University
Gender; Sexuality; Race and Ethnicity; Islam; Middle East and North Africa; Social Movements; Political Sociology; Qualitative Methods and Methodologies
Given my academic background in sociology, gender and sexuality studies, and critical race studies, my research interests are fundamentally interdisciplinary. Broadly, I seek to understand the structural inequalities faced by Queer and Trans Black Indigenous and People of Colour (QTBIPOC) populations at the macro, meso, and micro level. Methodologically, I combine feminist and social scientific methods with intersectional frameworks to think about social justice and social change.
My research with Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary (QTN) Muslims examines intracommunity marginalization. Its main insight is that the presumed irreconcilability between Islam and gender/sexual liberation conceals the social and structural barriers that QTN Muslims face. I am also interested in the ways that racism and capitalism contribute to the representation of Middle Eastern/Muslim sexuality and gender and the ways that researchers can impact the circulation and politicization of such representations.
Currently, I am working on three new projects: the first is a co-edited volume on LGBTQ religious activism and its implications for social movements research. The second is a comparative study of identity-centric social movements. The third project takes a systematic look at cancel culture, especially as it relates to structural inequality.
Graduate Program Advising Coordinator
Sociology
Queen's University
