The Interdisciplinary Research Network on Discrimination and Inclusion was established in the Spring 2013 on the initiative of Colleen Sheppard, past Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, in the face of a growing interest for interdisciplinary dialogue on critical perspectives on discrimination, diversity and inclusion. The Network gathers researchers, practitioners as well as collaborators from community-based organizations. Its objectives are to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and reflection on discrimination and inclusion, to share research during local and international workshops, and to promote community-university collaborative research initiatives.
Members’ research projects and practices span a wide range of themes, including, for example, systemic and preventive remedies in anti-discrimination litigation, comparative approaches to discrimination, educational initiatives regarding equity and diversity, diversity and leadership in public and private organizations, and the legal profession, ethno-cultural discrimination against immigrant communities, complexities of identity and identity performance, racial and social profiling, and socio-economic inequality and discrimination.
Recent Publication
Colleen Sheppard - Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life (Irwin Law, 2021).
Abstract: Despite growing societal and media attention to problems of discrimination in Canadian society, legal concepts in equality and anti-discrimination law are not widely understood. Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life explores diverse legal cases brought before courts and human rights tribunals to help us understand the development of anti-discrimination law in Canada. The cases take us into — and teach us about — the concrete realities of inequality in everyday life. They portray the struggles of individuals, families, and communities seeking justice and legal remedies for the harms of discrimination. The cases also reveal both the strengths and limits of anti-discrimination law. They show that equality in our human relations cannot be crafted exclusively by courts or tribunals, despite their significance and importance. Drawing on the complexity and power of discrimination stories, this book is designed to expand our collective knowledge of the evolving legal concepts at the heart of equality law.
1. Members of the Interdisciplinary Research Network on Discrimination and Inclusion
McGill University
- Adelle Blackett, Associate professor at the Faculty of Law and William Dawson Scholar
Areas of interest : Labour Law, International Development Law, Law of International Organizations and Critical Race Theory.
Publications - Angela Campbell, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law
Areas of interest: family law, health law, criminal law, successions law and feminist legal studies - Pearl Eliadis, Human rights lawyer and sessional lecturer
Areas of interest : human rights, international law, national human rights institutions and democratic governance.
Publications - Suzanne Gagnon, Co-founding member, Assistant Professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management
Areas of interest: Diversity and inequality in organizations; identity work and identity dynamics; gender and mentoring; multinational firms; inclusion; leadership diversity; alternative leadership theories.
Publications - Patricia Hewlin, Co-founding member, Assistant Professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management
Areas of interest: authenticity management, employee silence, leadership, diversity - Vrinda Narain, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and at the Faculty of Arts
Areas of interest: Constitutional law; Feminist legal theory; Social diversity and law; Postcolonial studies and law; Critical race theory.
Publications - Brian Rubineau, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University.
Areas of interest: Understanding the relational dynamics perpetuating inequalities in organizations, occupations, and labor markets; and informing ameliorative interventions.
Publications - Colleen Sheppard, Full Professor at the Faculty of Law and Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism
Areas of interest: Human Rights (especially equality rights); Systemic discrimination; Intersectionality; Anti-discrimination in the workplace; Mental health and disability in the workplace; Feminist Legal Theory; Economic and Social Rights.
List of publications: Publications - Zoua M. Vang, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology
Areas of interest: Immigration; Race and ethnic relations; Residential segregation; Neighborhood effects; Racial/ethnic health disparities and immigrant health; Mixed methods; Social policy.
Publications - Shauna Van Praagh, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law
Areas of interest: civil wrongs, common law obligations, social diversity and law, and children and the law. - Veronica Amberg, Manager/Responsible at the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office
Areas of interest: Human rights education and community engagement work at McGill.
Université de Montréal
- Marie-Thérèse Chicha, Professeure titulaire à l’École de relations industrielles
Champs d’intérêt: Immigration et intégration en emploi; Déqualification des immigrés et réorientation professionnelle; Jeunes des minorités visibles et marché du travail; Discrimination intersectionnelle; Discrimination systémique; Accès à l'égalité et gestion de la diversité; Équité salariale.
Publications et projets en cours
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM)
- Pierre Bosset, professeur au Département des sciences juridiques de la Faculté de science politique et de droit.
Champs d’intérêt : Droits et libertés de la personne; Droits économiques, sociaux et culturels; Droit et religions; accommodements raisonnables; Institutions de protection des droits. - Line Chamberland, professeure adjointe au Département de sexologie, UQÀM
Champs d’intérêt : Discrimination des minorités sexuelles en milieu scolaire et en milieu de travail, mouvements sociaux autour de la diversité sexuelle, genre et sexualité. - Rachel Cox, professeure au Département des sciences juridiques de la Faculté de science politique et de droit
Champs d’intérêt : Droit de la santé et de la sécurité du travail; Santé mentale au travail; Droit à l’égalité; Recherche-action; Méthodologies qualitatives et mixtes. - Paul Eid, Professeur, Département de sociologie, UQÀM
Champs d’intérêt: Rapports interethniques et immigration; racisme et discrimination; jeunes issus de l’immigration; gestion politique et juridique du pluralisme religieux et culturel; place de la religion dans l’espace public; sociologie du droit; sociologie de la culture; théorie sociologique; théories postcoloniales; inégalités sociales et pauvreté; sociologie politique. - André Jacob, professeur retraité de l’École de travail social de l’UQÀM
Champs d’intérêt : Racisme, antisémitisme et discrimination. Immigration, réfugiés et relations interethniques. Droits humains, pratiques sociales et coopération internationale.
Publications - Micheline Labelle, Professeure émérite, Département de sociologie, UQÀM
Areas of interests : Immigration et citoyenneté, Politiques d’immigration et de gestion de la diversité, Multiculturalisme et interculturalisme, Racisme et discrimination, Nationalisme et transnationalisme - Maryse Poitvin, professeure, Faculté des sciences de l’éducation, UQÀM
Champs d’intérêt : Rapports ethniques, immigration, équité, accommodements raisonnables; Racisme, discriminations, inégalités sociales; Discours sociaux/médias/représentations réciproques; Jeunes des minorités; Éducation inclusive, aux droits, antiraciste, interculturelle.
Other Universities or Research Centres
- Dia Dabby, Assistant Professor, Department of Child Law, Leiden Law School, and DCL Candidate, Faculty of Law, McGill
Areas of interest: constitutional law, human rights, children’s rights, law and religion, education law - Marie Mercat Brun, Maître de conférences en droit privé à l’Institut des métiers du droit du Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, membre de RÉGINE, Recherche & Études sur le Genre et les Inégalités dans les Normes en Europe.
Champs d’expertise: droit de la non discrimination dans une perspective critique et comparée; discriminations dans l’emploi et en fin de vie, sur la construction du genre et de la parentalité en droit social et les interactions entre les discriminations fondées sur différents critères : le sexe, l’âge, le handicap et la situation de famille. - Diane Roman, Professeure de droit à l’Université François-Rabelais de Tours, chercheuse au CREDOF, Centre de recherches et d'études sur les droits fondamentaux (Université Paris Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense), et co-responsable du projet REGINE (Recherches et Études sur le Genre et les Inégalités dans les Normes en Europe).
Champs d’expertise : Droits économiques et sociaux, lutte contre l’exclusion sociale, analyse genrée du droit, protection internationale et européenne des droits de l’Homme. - Jaime Cabeza Pereiro, Senior professor of Labour and Social Security Law, University of Vigo.
Areas of interest: Equality Law, Labour Law, Discrimination in the workplace. See also: Personal webpage - Olivia Smith, Lecturer in Law, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University
Areas of interest : Discrimination Law, in particular disability and gender discrimination; inequality and social exclusion, caring and the law. - Iyiola Solanke, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Leeds. Areas of interest: EU law; anti-discrimination law and stigma; weight and law; comparative race and law; intersectional discrimination; critical race theory; social movements; judicial diversity, gender and judging.
Practitioners and members of the community
- Tanya de Mello, Equity and Diversity Officer, University of Toronto.
Interests: equity, hiring, community engagement, empowerment, leadership, humanitarian aid, political engagement.
Publications: Female bonding at 50,000 feet - Anne-Claire Gayet, avocate, Chargée de formation pour le projet européen UPRIGHTS sur la demande d'asile des mineurs isolés, Lyon, France.
Champs d’intérêt : discrimination, droit à l'égalité, droit criminel, pauvreté et justice - Adriana Gleenblatt, Education Specialist with Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education
Previous work includes: Staff Lawyer at the Ontario Human Rights Legal Support Centre representing victims of discrimination and Human Rights Code-based harassment and providing public legal education; Teaching Women and Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Civil Law; Consultant and facilitator in areas including harassment and discrimination in the workplace
Areas of interest : human rights educational design and facilitation, discrimination/harassment prevention, mental health, accommodation and wellness in the workplace, gender equality, organizational and individual change and development - Tamara Thermitus, AdE, LLM, Justice Canada
Présidente du Comité sur les communautés culturelles du Barreau du Québec de 2004 à 2010, co-initiatrice du projet menant au rapport du Barreau du Québec «Forum-Pour une profession inclusive», La diversité ethnoculturelle dans la profession juridique en 2014 et à l’origine du cours sur le contexte social du droit, aujourd’hui intégré dans le cursus obligatoire de la formation professionnelle. - Béatrice Vizkelety is a human rights lawyer with extensive experience in litigation and as Director of the Legal Department and Secretary of the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec. She is presently a Visiting researcher at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and in 2015 was appointed member of the Quebec Bar’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights.
2. Crosscutting research themes
Crosscutting research themes include four axes at this stage. A list of selective thematic bibliographies as well as some current research projects is accessible under each axis.
2.1 Systemic and Structural Discrimination and Institutionalized Inequality / Discrimination systémique et structurelle et l’inégalité institutionnelle
Research on the systemic barriers, relationships and dynamics of discrimination in various institutional contexts, including public and private sector workplaces, educational institutions, public services (e.g. racial and social profiling); research on discrimination linked to life-cycle and intersectoral inequities (e.g. home, workplace, education) and macro-historical developments (i.e. political economic changes and regulatory approaches)
Download 2.1.2.1 BIBLIOGRAPHY “Systemic and structural discrimination, and institutionalized equality” [.pdf]
2.2 Diversity and Inclusion
Download 2.1.2.2 BIBLIOGRAPHY "Diversity and Inclusion" [.pdf] (Updated February 2016)
2.3 Complex Identities and Intersecting Discrimination
Research on how discrimination theory deals with intersecting discrimination linked to complex and multiple identities, and the performance of identity
Download 2.1.2.3 BIBLIOGRAPHY "Complex Identities and Intersecting Discrimination" [.pdf] (Updated July 2015)
2.4 Unconscious or Implicit Bias
Research on discrimination linked to implicit or unconscious bias.
Download 2.1.2.4 BIBLIOGRAPHY "Implicit Bias" [.pdf] (Updated July 2015)
3. Activities of the Research Network
- Pushkala Prasad, “Diversity, Inclusion and Institutional Change”, June 8, 2016, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
- Zoua Vang, “Minority Aging in Canada: Encounters with Everyday Discrimination and the Relative Importance of Race and Age”, April 5, 2016, Faculty of Law, McGill University.
- Présentation de Marie-Thérèse Chicha sur les programmes d’accès à l’égalité au Québec et leurs limites, 9 février 2016, Faculté de droit, Université McGill. Pour en savoir plus, consultez Le Québec et les programmes d’accès à l’égalité : un rendez-vous manqué?
- Suzanne Gagnon, "Beyond belonging and identification: Towards organizational models of change supporting inclusion and social equality", March 31, 2015, Faculty of Law, McGill University. Download article [.pdf]
- Olivia Smith, "Litigating Discrimination on Grounds of Family Status", March 12, 2015, Faculty of Law, McGill University. Download article [.pdf]
- Iyiola Solanke, "Stigma: A New Approach to Anti-Discrimination Law", September 24, Faculty of Law, McGill University.
Putting Race and Gender Together: A New Approach to Intersectionality - Marie Mercat-Bruns, “Réflexions autour de l’ouvrage Discriminations en droit du travail américain: Dialogue avec la doctrine américaine”, 11 March 2014, Faculty of Law, McGill University. Download presentation [.ppt]
- Béatrice Vizkelety (Visiting fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism), “Litigating Systemic Discrimination / La discrimination systémique devant les tribunaux”, 13 February 2014, Faculty of Law, McGill University. Download presentation [.pptx]
- Patricia Hewlin (Desautels Faculty of Management), “To thine own self be true?: The impact of minority status on creating facades of conformity in the workplace”, 1 November 2013. Download article [.pdf]
