Leah Vosko | |
---|---|
Academic background | |
Education | B.A., Political science, Trent University M.A., Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University PhD., York University |
Thesis | No jobs, lots of work: the gendered rise of the temporary employment relationship in Canada, 1897-1997 (1999) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Political science |
Institutions | York University |
Main interests | Political Economy,Labour Rights,Gender Studies,Migration,Citizenship |
Leah F. Vosko FRSC (born 1971) is a professor of political science and Canada Research Chair at York University. Her research interests are focused on political economy,labour rights,gender studies,migration,and citizenship. In 2015,she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Vosko earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science from Trent University before attending Simon Fraser University. [1] She published her thesis under the title "Shrink,cut...dye? :NAFTA and women's work in the Canadian clothing industry" in 1994 and earned her Master of Arts in gender studies. [2] From there,Vosko earned her PhD at York University. [1] Her dissertation from York University was titled "No jobs,lots of work:the gendered rise of the temporary employment relationship in Canada,1897-1997." [3]
In 2000,following her PhD from York University,Vosko published "Temporary Work:The Gendered Rise of a Precarious Employment Relationship" through the University of Toronto Press. Three years later,while working at York University in the Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies,she co-edited "Changing Canada:Political Economy as Transformation" through the McGill-Queen's University Press. [4] As a Canada Research Chair in Feminist Political Economy,Vosko conducted research through the Community University Research Alliance on Contingent Employment and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council with Cynthia Cranford and Nancy Zukewich. [5] Her research results showed that the Canadian labour market was becoming unstable due to "the growth of temporary and part-time wage work,self-employment and other forms of work not fully protected by labour laws and policies." [5] In March 2004,her research on precarious employment regarding foreign labour was featured on CBC Radio. [6]
In 2005,Vosko received funding from the Ontario government under the Early Researcher Award. [7] Vosko's funding went towards her research project regarding precarious employment in first world countries such as the United States and Australia. [8] That year she published "Self-Employed Workers Organize:Law,Policy,and Unions" through the McGill-Queen's University Press with Cynthia Cranford,Judy Fudge,and Eric Tucker. The book created a multi-disciplinary discourse around how legal,political,and social positions affected labour rights. [9] The following year she edited "Precarious Employment:Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada," an interdisciplinary book with academic contributors from across Canada that focused on precarious employment and how laws,policies,and labour market institutions affected it. [10]
In 2009,Vosko,Martha MacDonald,and Iain Campbell published "Gender and the Contours of Precarious Employment," which focused on precarious employment in Canada,Germany,the United States,Australia and in the European Union. In the book,the authors argue that precarious employment was the result of social,economic,and political inequality at the national and regional level. [11] This was followed by "Managing the Margins:Gender,Citizenship and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment" which focused on capitalistic labour markets and the rise in precarious employment such as part‐time,temporary paid employment,and self‐employment. [12] Four years later,Vosko collaborated with Valerie Preston and Robert Latham to create "Liberating Temporariness:Imagining Alternatives to Permanence as a Pathway to Social Inclusion." The book focused on the ways in which temporariness,such as unstable work,was being institutionalized as a condition of life. [13]
In 2015,she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada's Division of Social Sciences for her work on the political economy of work,gender,citizenship,migration and labour markets. [14] That year she also helped lead a panel discussion at York's Global Labour Research Centre about the Canadian political economy. [15] Vosko focused her research on employment standards and labour rights,specifically regarding migrant workers. As a result,she became the Principal Investigator of an employment standards research partnership titled “Closing the Enforcement Gap:Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs”with the Ontario Ministry of Labour. [16] Simultaneously,she worked as the director of the Employment Standards Database which would work in conjuncture with this partnership to provide researchers with research on employment standards across national contexts. As a result,she was the recipient of York's inaugural Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research by Broadbent Institute in 2016. [17]
The following year,Vosko received $131,793 from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation for her research project "Canada Labour Code Data Analysis Infrastructure." Her project's goal was to create a research tool that would allow for researchers to sift through the large databases the Government of Canada's Labour Program collected efficiently. [18] In July 2016,the Government of Ontario published a study titled "The Changing Workplaces Review" which Vosko helped prepare. Due to her research in precarious work,Vosko had been approached by two government advisors to help create their study on the Ontario Employment Standards Act. [19] She was also renewed as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender and Work [20] and recognized by York University as a research leader in the Faculty of Liberal Arts &Professional Studies. [21]
In 2018,her research and recommendations from “Closing the Enforcement Gap:Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs”with the Ontario Ministry of Labour was used to shape the Canadian Labour Code Bill C-86. [22] That year,Vosko was renewed again as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Department of Political Science. [23] In 2019,Vosko began collaborating with Mark P. Thomas,Carlo Fanelli,and Olena Lyubchenko to analyze the social change of the Canadian political-economic regarding work and social inequality. [24] On September 10,2019,Vosko became the first York faculty member to be the recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Impact Award. [25]
The following is a list of publications: [26]
York University,also known as YorkU or simply YU,is a public research university in Toronto,Ontario,Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university,and it has approximately 55,700 students,7,000 faculty and staff,and over 370,000 alumni worldwide. It has 11 faculties,including the Lassonde School of Engineering,Schulich School of Business,Osgoode Hall Law School,Glendon College,and 28 research centres.
Precarious work is a term that critics use to describe non-standard or temporary employment that may be poorly paid,insecure,unprotected,and unable to support a household. From this perspective,globalization,the shift from the manufacturing sector to the service sector,and the spread of information technology have created a new economy which demands flexibility in the workplace,resulting in the decline of the standard employment relationship,particularly for women. The characterization of temporary work as "precarious" is disputed by some scholars and entrepreneurs who see these changes as positive for individual workers. Precarious is work is ultimately a result of a profit driven capitalist organization of work in which employment is largely understood as a cost that needs to be reduced. The social and political consequences vary greatly in terms gender,age,race and class and result in varying degrees of inequality and freedom.
Deborah P. Britzman is a professor and a practicing psychoanalyst at York University. Britzman's research connects psychoanalysis with contemporary pedagogy,teacher education,social inequality,problems of intolerance and historical crisis.
Lorraine Code is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at York University in Toronto,Ontario,Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her principal area of research is feminist epistemology and the politics of knowledge.
Martha Lorraine MacDonald is the professor of economics in the department of economics,St Mary's University,Halifax,Nova Scotia,Canada,and was the president of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) from 2007 to 2008.
Isabella C. Bakker is a Canadian political scientist,currently a Distinguished Research Professor and York Research Chair at York University. In 2009,Bakker became the first York University professor to earn a Trudeau Fellowship and was later elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Pat Armstrong is a Canadian sociologist and Distinguished Research Professor at York University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Armstrong has served as a Chair for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in Health Services and Nursing Research and the Department of Sociology at York University.
Dawn R. Bazely is a full professor in biology in the Faculty of Science,and the former Director of the Institute for Research Innovation in Sustainability,at York University in Canada. In 2015 she was awarded the title of University Professor for services to research,teaching,and the institution. Bazely has been a field biologist for forty years and her research specializes in plant-animal interactions in ecology. She has also been recognized for her science communication.
Bettina Bradbury is a professor emerita in the Department of History and Gender Studies at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is also the author of numerous history books.
Wenona Mary Giles is a professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology at York University. In 2018,she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Through the university,Giles helped launch the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) project which allowed people in refugee camps to earn degrees,diplomas and certificates from Moi and Kenyatta Universities in Kenya,and from York University and UBC in Canada.
Joan Judge is a Professor in the Department of History at York University. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018. Her academic focus is on Chinese history.
Rebecca Rita Elizabeth Riddell (née Pillai) is a Canadian clinical psychologist and a basic-behavioural scientist. She is a full professor at York University and Tier 2 York Research Chair in Pain and Mental Health.
Jonathan Charles Edmondson is a British-born historian. He holds Full Professor and Distinguished Research Professorship status at York University and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Ester Reiter is an American-Canadian historian and sociologist. She is a Professor Emerita in the School of Gender,Sexuality and Women's Studies at York University. In 2017,her book A Future Without Hate or Need was shortlisted for the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.
Marcia Hampton Rioux was a Canadian legal scholar. She was a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University.
Susan Lee McGrath is a Professor Emerita in the School of Social Work at York University and former director of York's Centre for Refugee Studies.
Jane Marie Heffernan is a Canadian mathematician. Her research focuses on understanding the spread and persistence of infectious diseases. She is a full professor at York University and a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Multi-Scale Quantitative Methods for Evidence-Based Health Policy. She is the director of the Centre for Disease Modelling,and is on the board of directors of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society.
Kristin Alexandra Andrews is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University and she holds the York Research Chair in Animal Minds.
Molly Madeleine Ladd-Taylor is a Canadian historian. Having moved to Canada during the 1990s,she is a professor of history at York University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her research focuses on the histories of women's health,maternal and child welfare policy,and eugenics in the United States.