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Research Interests

I am a health geographer with research interest situated in health equity. My work spans environment and health, social epidemiology, and healthcare access, and embraces global, community and individual health perspectives. I am particularly interested in the environmental and social production of human health and health inequalities, with a focus on determinants, impacts, and the policy environment of health and healthcare. Working with communities to re(examine) their health and promote health equity forms a central part of my research approach. Most recently, I have undertaken research on the impact of structural inequalities on risk of non-communicable diseases in Ghana, and the health impacts of large-scale land acquisitions in coastal Tanzania. I have also been involved in research on maternal and child health, HIV, Hepatitis, food (in)security and mental health in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda. My current research attention centers on environmental and social change as determinants of health, non-communicable diseases, food security, and mental health in the Global South and Canada.

Theoretically, my research draws on political ecology (of health), social and environmental determinants of health, critical race theory, and other concepts from health geography that help to highlight and discuss the health impacts of human-environment interactions among vulnerable populations. I employ these theoretical concepts in unpacking and deconstructing the role of social structures and processes in health inequalities, while drawing out policy strategies to promote health equity.

Supervision

I welcome students interested in advancing health equity, and with research interest in one or more of the following areas:

• social epidemiology
• environment and health
• food security
• healthcare access and utilization

I am particularly interested in supervising research on:

• human health impacts of climate and environmental change
• prevalence, risks/determinants, prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, HIV and Hepatitis
• food and nutrition security
• maternal and child healthcare
• mental health
• healthcare access and utilization for structurally exposed populations

Google Scholar Profile

Professor, School of Environmental Studies

Cross-appointed to the Departments of Global Development Studies, Gender Studies, and Sociology and the Cultural Studies Graduate Program.

Research Interests

Dr. Goebel is a sociologist whose main research interests include:

• Environmental Justice
• Women, Health and Environment
• Local Food Issues/Movements
• Gender, Environment and Development in Africa - especially Southern Africa, including use or Management of Natural Resources, Social Forestry, Agriculture, Urbanization and Housing, Social Impacts of Climate Change

Research Interests

Transformative social movements, cultures of resistance and dissent in the larger Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region as well as within the Mediterranean region inform my scholarship.

From a conceptual perspective, my interests lie in understanding solidarity-building practices and the politics of alliance among diverse groups and communities including, but not limited to, urban youth, women’s and LGBTQI groups, Muslim cultural identities, anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian community organizers as well as ethnic and religious minorities.

My research involves feminist ethnographic and community-based research methods.

Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University

Cross-appointed to the Department of Global Development Studies and Cultural Studies Graduate Program.

Research Interests

Much of my research has been underpinned by an interest in the political economy of development.  One expression of this is in my comparative work on the politics of development across India’s major states, and in recent writing on the political economy of development in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. But my research has ranged widely, from an early but still continuing interest in agricultural development and agrarian change, and a little later in labour studies, to more recent work on civil society and democratic politics, and on social policy. These came together in a study, carried on with Indian and Scandinavian scholars, on the possibilities of the renewal of social democratic development. Most of my research has been focused on India, though I have also worked in Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico, as well as in the other South Asian countries. Current project: writing a new book on Indian politics and society.

Google Scholar Profile

Appointed to the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.

Cross-appointed to the Department of Global Development Studies.

Research Interests

The Centre for Environmental Health Equity works closely with communities, advocacy groups, policymakers, and citizens to nurture the development of research partnerships to address the conditions that promote healthy environments for all. Within CEHE, I do research on:

• Water insecurity and well being
• Environmental determinants of health
• Role of trust in health promotion
• Collective action in environmental health promotion
• Colonialism and global health research

I am a health geographer whose primary area of research focuses on social and environmental production of health and well being. I draw on social theory and employ mixed-method approaches in my research projects. My published research contributions include studies on collective action for environmental health promotion, environmental stress and psychosocial health, community based participatory research, health systems resilience to climate change, disparities in urban health outcomes, and water insecurity and safe sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. I collaborate with researchers, policy makers, community groups, and development agencies on research projects in Canada, Kenya, Mexico, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.

Supervision

CEHE is an ideal training environment for students who are interested in gaining research skills in the areas of urban justice, water security, human rights, health inequities, food sovereignty, environmental governance, and citizen engagement. I welcome students who are interested in research projects that broadly align with my broad research areas outlined above. Students who are interested in community-engaged research, health inequities and environmental health promotion in Africa sub of the Sahara are encouraged to contact me.

I am currently accepting applications from prospective graduate students. Successful applicants will be encouraged to apply to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and IDRC if eligible. If you are interested in learning more about graduate opportunities, please feel free to contact me.

ResearchGate Profile

Associate Professor, Department of History

Cross-appointed to the Department of Global Development Studies

Research Interests

My intellectual interests span world regions, disciplines, past and present.

After a year of study in Iran and Afghanistan, I pursued graduate course work in literature, sociology and history, completing a Ph.D. on the history of the Middle East. An article that traces the roots of neoliberalism, "An Ancien Régime Revisted: Privatization and Political Economy in the 18th Century Ottoman Empire," (Politics and Society 1993) won the Turkish Studies Association’s Ömer Lutfi Barkan Article Prize and remains one of the most widely cited articles in the field.

Theories of state formation, histories of Mediterranean communities and Muslim societies, the transformation of market systems and the making of global capitalism are topics addressed by my research. A new book-length project, a historical sociology of ethno-religious exclusion before the nation-state, is under contract. These projects have been supported by international and national grants (the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the American Council of Learned Societies, Queen's University's S.A.R.C., the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey).

I currently teach seminars and lectures on the following subjects: consumerism (HIST 241), the historiography of the Ottoman Empire (HIST 337), and the origins of modern capitalism (HIST 808).

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Jointly appointed with the School of Environmental Studies.

Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Economy and Environment (Tier 2)

Research Interests

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist who studies the intersection between environmental governance and the global economy. One area of my work has examined investor-state disputes concerning environmental regulation that are brought to international arbitration under bilateral and regional investment agreements. Another area of my research focuses on green stimulus/green recovery programs and efforts around the world to launch a Green New Deal. For further information see my personal research page.

Supervision

When I have a funded position available for my CRC project, I post it on my personal research page. Students are welcome to contact me to discuss other opportunities in relevant topic areas, such as:

• Green new deals at the local, national, or global level
• Critical examinations of green economy/green growth policies and projects
• Explorations of alternative economic and development paradigms such as Buen Vivir and degrowth
• Understanding employment in the green economy, including initiatives that would be needed to maintain full employment without growth (e.g., shorter working week, job sharing)
• Just transitions
• Fossil fuel subsidies and divestment
• The role of global economic institutions (e.g., G20, OECD) in environmental governance
• Trade and foreign investment agreements and the environment
• Corporate power in global environmental politics

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Cross-appointed to the Department of Political Studies and the Department of Sociology.

On leave January 1, 2027-December 30, 2027.

Research Interests

• Global Political Economy
• Urbanization and Displacements
• Infrastructure
• Global Finance and Debt
• Global Governance
• Business & Development

My research and teaching emphasis is on global political economy (GPE). As GPE is an interdisciplinary approach, I draw on Geography (Urban Studies), Politics (Comparative and International Relations), Sociology (Global Inequality), Gender Studies, and History to make sense of contemporary issues. In so doing, I have tried to debunk a commonly held belief that the economy is a technical issue best left to those with expert knowledge, i.e., economists. One way I achieve this objective is by exploring - both theoretically and empirically - the role of, and intersections between, states (regulation, laws, policies), people (workers, including precarious labour), and money (especially in the form of debt and financial markets). This allows me to interrogate questions of power (e.g., who the power, why the power, and with which consequences the power) as I investigate a range of topics such as: development finance, poverty, neoliberalism, debt (both consumer and sovereign), corporate governance, and global governance across a variety of geographies spanning North America, Western Europe, Latin America and South East Asia.

My previous book, Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry: Money, Discipline and the Surplus Population (2014), interrogates the social power of money and new forms of neoliberal (market-led) governance such as debtfarism. The latter involves rhetorical and regulatory (bankruptcy laws, usury laws, and consumer protection laws) interventions by states to facilitate the growing dependence of the poor on expensive credit to meet basic survival needs. In many ways, debtfarism has become a significant component of neoliberal (market-led) forms of governance in contemporary capitalism. I demonstrate this position by exploring several case studies ranging from credit cards to payday lending and the student loan industry in the United States to micro-lending techniques and low-income mortgages in Mexico.

My latest book, Urban Displacements: Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism (2021), provides an empirically grounded analysis of rental housing insecurity in three urban geographies – Berlin, Dublin and Vienna. Debtfare and Displacement sharpen our understanding of the links between low-income rental tenure, neoliberal governance and financial capitalism. Homelessness has reached a crisis point in many European cities and is widely precipitated by the eviction of poor households from rental homes, due to insufficient or irregular income. This book argues that these trends are underpinned by the withdrawal of the state from social housing provisioning alongside the continued expansion of financial capitalism. Building from three signature case studies, the book demonstrates how cycles of overindebtedness, evictions and homelessness transform rental housing insecurity into entrenched urban poverty along class, gendered and racialized lines. In so doing, it provides a new analysis of how monetized power relations draw together landlords, creditors and the state to embed the urban poor more deeply within the financial logics of capitalism. As the book argues, both analytically and empirically, the outcome is the everyday facilitation and normalization of urban poverty and social marginalization.

Supervision

I particularly welcome applications from graduate students who are interested in conducting research in political economy approaches to various aspects of low-income housing and finance in either the global North or global South. More generally, I am happy to supervise graduate students who are interested in conducting research on various topics listed above. Since I hold two cross appointments, I am able to supervise PhD and MA students in the Department of Political Studies and the Department of Sociology.