PhD Supervisor: Graziella Moraes Dias da Silva and Valerio Simoni
Expected completion date: 2024
My doctoral research explores gendered subjectivities and the everyday negotiation of competing desires, aspirations, and values among Cuban women living in Spain. In my role as Research Assistant for the ERC-funded project 'Returning to a Better Place: The (Re)assessment of the "Good Life" in Times of Crisis' led by Dr. Valerio Simoni, I also consider the geographic mooring of aspirations and ask what, exactly, those who move pursue in their journeys toward a 'better' life. Prior to undertaking my PhD, I co-founded migrant justice group Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (RAMA Okanagan) and taught Latin American Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua. Both my scholarship and activism are situated at the intersection of gender, migration, and Latin American studies.
2022. Sentenced for the Season: Jamaican Migrant Farmworkers on Okanagan Orchards. Race & Class, 63(4): 81-100.
2022. Review of The Diasporic Condition: Ethnographic Explorations of the Lebanese in the World, by Ghassan Hage, Ethnic and Racial Studies, online.
2021. Review of Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants, by Nandita Sharma, Interface 13(1): 393-395.
2021. Review of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
2020. 'Canada’s Emergency Response Benefit Does Nothing for Migrant Workers'. The Conversation.
2020. 'Ethnography at an Impasse? Fieldwork Reflections During a Pandemic' , Allegra Laboratory. (Elise Hjalmarson, Nina Teresa Kiderlin, and Sonja Ruud)
2020. ‘Settler Colonialism, Empire, Borders.’ In Levi Gahman’s Land, God and Guns: Settler Colonialism and Masculinity in the American Heartland. Levi Gahman. London: Led Books. (Levi Gahman and Elise Hjalmarson)
2019. 'Border Imperialism, Racial Capitalism, and Geographies of Deracination'. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(1): 107-129. (Levi Gahman and Elise Hjalmarson)
2018. 'Quiet Struggles: Migrant Farmworkers, Informal Labor, and Everyday Resistance in Canada'. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 61(2-3): 141-158. (Amy Cohen and Elise Hjalmarson).
2017. 'Temporary Migrant Farmworkers in BC'. British Columbia Organic Grower: Journal for the Certified Organic Associations of BC. (Robyn Bunn, Elise Hjalmarson, and Christine Mettler)
2015. 'Race, Food, and Borders: Situating Migrant Struggle in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 5(4): 77-82. (Elise Hjalmarson, Robyn Bunn, Amy Cohen, Edna Terbasket, and Levi Gahman)
2014. 'International Migrants Day: Canada’s Exclusionary Immigration Practices Have Got to Go!' Rabble.ca. (Amy Cohen and Elise Hjalmarson
2014. 'Fresh Fruit, Forgotten Labour: What About Migrant Farmworkers?' Rabble.ca.
2014. B.C. Apology to Chinese Community Highlights Ongoing Racism Towards Migrant Workers. Rabble.ca (Amy Cohen and Elise Hjalmarson)
Teaching Experience
2018. Lecturer, 'Multicultural Pedagogy', Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) and Kulturstudien, León, Nicaragua.
2017-2018. Lecturer, 'Latin American Studies I', Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN) and Kulturstudien, León, Nicaragua.
2016-2018. Seminar Leader, 'Estudios Latinoamericános II', Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicarauga (UNAN) and Kulturstudien, León, Nicaragua.
2013-2015. Teaching Assistant, 'Global Politics', 'International Politics', and 'Currents of Political Thought', The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada.
2013. Course Co-Instructor, 'Cultural Images of Latin America', The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada.
Research Experience
Research Assistant for the ERC-funded project 'Returning to a Better Place: The (Re)assessment of the "Good Life" in Times of Crisis' led by Dr Valerio Simoni
2018-2022. Research Assistantship, ERC and the Graduate Institute.
2014. University Graduate Fellowship, The University of British Columbia.
2013. University Graduate Fellowship, The University of British Columbia.
2013. Canadian Federation of University Women Scholarship—Kelowna Chapter.
2013-2016. Numerous grants won for migrant justice group RAMA.