Faculty Associates
Greg Albo
Associate Professor, Politics, York University
albo[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Comparative Political Economy; Socialist Economies; Marxist theory
Currently on the editorial boards of Studies in Political Economy, Canadian Dimension, and Historical Materialism (England). Co-editor of the annual Socialist Register, and author and editor of several other books, and author of numerous articles in journals such as Studies in Political Economy, Socialist Register, Canadian Dimension, and Monthly Review. Professor Albo is also on the executive of the Centre for Social Justice in Toronto. Professor Albo’s research interests are the political economy of contemporary capitalism, labour market policies in Canada, and democratization. He teaches courses on the foundations of political economy, Canadian political economy, public finance, and alternatives to capitalism.
Sabah Alnasseri
Associate Professor, Politics, York University
alnaseri[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Marxist political economy; state theory; social movements; regulation theory; democratization
Sabah Alnasseri, born in Basra, Iraq, earned his doctorate at the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Sabah teaches Middle East politics in the Department of Politics, York University. His research and publications cover various topics in Marxist political economy, historical-materialist state theory in the tradition of Ibn-Khaldun, Gramsci, Poulantzas and Althusser, theory of regulation, social movements and democratization, and Middle East politics and economy.
Himani Bannerji
Professor Emeritus, Sociology, York University
himanib[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: ideology; class; patriarchy; decolonization
Himani Bannerji is a Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar in the Department of Sociology at York University. Her research and writing life extends between Canada and India. Her interests encompass anti-racist feminism, marxism, critical cultural theories and historical sociology. Publications include The Ideological Condition: Selected Essays on History, Race and Gender (forthcoming 2020), Demography and Democracy: Essays on Nationalism, Gender and Ideology (2011), Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism (edited and co-authored with S. Mojab and J. Whitehead, 2001), Inventing Subjects: Studies in Hegemony, Patriarchy and Colonialism (2001), The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism and Racism (2000) and Thinking Through: Essays on Feminism, Marxism and Anti-Racism (1995). Her most recent research on Marx has appeared as chapters in Marcello Musto (ed), Marx’s Capital after 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism (2019), A. K. Bagchi and A. Chatterjee (eds), Marxism: With and Beyond Marx (2014), E. Dua and A. B. Bakan (eds), Theorizing Anti-Racism (2014) and S. Mojab (ed), Marxism and Feminism (2015). She has a book forthcoming, Postcolonial Humanism: Essays on Rabindranath Tagore’s Vision of Decolonization (Tulika 2021), on the modernity and radical humanism of Rabindranath Tagore.
Claudia Chaufan
Associate Professor and Health Graduate Program Director, School of Health Policy & Management, Faculty of Health, York University
cchaufan[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Geopolitical economy of global health; Marxist theories of health; Critical policy analysis
My research examines the factors and forces that shape health and other inequities in basic human needs at local, national and global levels. My frame of reference to understand and explain these inequities and their reproduction includes the geopolitics of health/global health policy and governance, the history of capitalist globalization and the role of the medicalization of social problems—significantly, their individualization through “geneticization”—in the reproduction of the social order. My former career in medicine has led me to use diabetes and obesity as case studies to illuminate the power dynamics underlying these factors and forces.
While I don’t think of myself as an “area studies” scholar, I have conducted research on what is generically labelled the “global South”—the Middle East (Palestine), Asia (Taiwan), and Latin America (Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela). Drawing from a Marxist, critical development and anticolonial lens, I have sought to understand how the power dynamics underlying economic (IMF, World Bank), military (NATO) and political/policy (UN/WHO) institutions shape health and other inequities in those regions. Other interests include the sociology, philosophy and history of science, power/discourse, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Raju Das
Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University
rajudas[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Class; capitalism; state; Marxism; Left politics; Fascistic Tendencies; India
Raju Das writes about class, capitalism, the state, uneven (and combined) development, agrarian change, industrialization, labour conditions, social oppression, and the politics of the Right and the Left. He examines these topics from a perspective rooted in ‘MELLT’, i.e. the ideas of Marx and Engels as well as Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky. His main region interest is India, and he is developing an interest in China, where he has been invited to deliver lectures on Marxism. Das is the author of several books, including A contribution to the critique of contemporary capitalism; Marxist class theory for a skeptical world; Critical reflections on economy and politics in India: A class theory perspective. He has also written articles in academic journals such as Capital and Class, World Review of Political Economy, Review of Radical Political Economics, Human Geography: A New Radical Journal, and for the radical press. Das is completing several Marxist book projects. He has been teaching a graduate course at York since the mid-2000s on Marxist political economy. He is associated with various Marxist and radical academic journals, including Science and Society.
Carlo Fanelli
Assistant Professor, Social Science; Coordinator, Labour Studies, York University
fanelli[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: inequality; urbanization; living wages
I am interested in work and labour market restructuring, public policy, political economy, and social inequality. My current work revolves around two projects. The first explores how urban austerity has impacted public services and labour-management relations in Canadian cities and how these experiences differ and/or share parallels with international examples. The second investigates the emergence of living wage movements in Canadian and international contexts. I am also conducting research on unpaid internships, ‘gig’ work and labour-community coalitions. Since 2009, I have also been editor-in-chief of Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research published by Athabasca University Press.
Mark Goodman
Assistant Professor, Sociology, York University
mgoodman2[at]gmail.com
Keywords: Political economy; state violence; imperialism; war
My own work is on the role of slavery in US political economy, which I also examine comparatively looking at Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Jamaica. This is set in the context of the evolution of capitalism and imperialism, and the politics of creating a hegemonic state. I am particularly interested in the role of state violence in expelling Indigenous peoples, in the “domestic” slave trade and slave discipline; and in North-South linkages (the “business” of slavery). Among current topics I believe we should discuss are: coercive relations at the point of production; imperialism; war; racism and the use of racist, ethno-nationalist, religious and fascist ideologies in securing state power.
Laam Hae
Associate Professor, Politics, York University
lhae[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Urban social movements and radical politics; urban political economy; feminist and critical race theories; critical geographic thoughts
Laam Hae teaches in the Department of Politics at York University. Her research interests span the subjects of urban political economy and redevelopment, socialist feminist politics, legal geography, and urban social movements in the context of South Korea and North America. She is currently researching childcare co-op movements and feminist uprisings in South Korea, engaging with socialist feminist theories of activist social reproduction and decolonialization, and radical urban theories.
Tamanisha J. John
Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, York University
tjjohn[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Caribbean; international political economy; Marxism-Leninism-Rodneyism
Tamanisha J. John studies Caribbean development, sovereignty and politics as well as Canadian foreign policy, economic imperialism, financial exclusion and corporate power. She has published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Class, Race and Corporate Power, the Review of Radical Political Economy, and Social and Economic Studies. She has also published in public facing outlets, including the Black Agenda Report, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and Hood Communist.
Stefan Kipfer
Associate Professor, Faculty of Environment and Urban Change, York University
kipfer[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Henri Lefebvre; Antonio Gramsci; Frantz Fanon
I am focused on urban social theory as a meeting point between marxist and anti-colonial traditions. Substantive focal points of research include urban politics, urban restructuring, state space, social movements, right-populism and fascism, racism, colonialism and racialization, housing, public transit and mobility, and place-based policy. Geographically, my research has concentrated on Canada (Toronto), Switzerland (Zurich), and various parts of the francophone world (including Paris).
Robert Latham
Professor, Politics, York University
rlatham1[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Political economy; radical political alternatives; borders; sovereignty; politics of new media
Robert Latham teaches in the Department of Politics at York. He works on political economy, radical political and economic alternatives, borders, sovereignty, politics of new media, critical theory, states and global power, and transnational politics. His recent work includes Challenging the Right, Augmenting the Left (Fernwood); “Contemporary Capitalism, Uneven Development, and the Arc of Anti-Capitalism” (Global Discourse); “Residual Silences: Toward a Radical Activist Politics of Association” in Political Silence(s): Investigations at the Nexus of Silence, Power and Agency (Routledge).
Esteve Morera
Associate Professor, Philosophy and Politics, York University
morera[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Gramsci; Marxist philosophy
My interests revolve around the thought of Gramsci, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of History, and African Philosophy. In particularly I’m interested on questions of materialism, human nature and ethics.
Joshua Moufawad-Paul
Contract Faculty, Philosophy, York University
Keywords: Marxism; Leninism; Maoism; anti-colonialism; communism
I am a Marxist philosopher who works out of the Maoist tradition. My doctoral work was a philosophical engagement with anti-colonial theory. Since then I have published numerous books, most of them invested in how to think the meaning of historical materialism and how to comprehend what the living science of Marxism ought to look like based on its core logic.
Joe Pateman
Assistant Professor, Politics, York University
jpateman[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Marxism-Leninism; North Korea; Black politics
Joe Pateman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics. Joe’s main research interests are Marxism-Leninism, Black politics and North Korean politics. He is the co-author of Public Libraries and Marxism (Routledge, 2021).
John Simoulidis
Associate Professor, Social Science, York University
sims[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Cooperatives; food sovereignty; Kozo Uno
My research interests include Unoist political economy, cooperatives and food.
Hira Singh
Associate Professor, Sociology, York University
hsingh[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Marxism; social movements; class; caste; race
I use a Marxist approach in my research. Substantive areas of my research include feudalism, colonialism and popular resistance, migrant labour and agribusiness, Indian indentured labour, and the abolition of slavery in British Empire, class and caste. I am the author of Recasting Caste: From the Sacred to the Profane (Sage 2014). Manuscripts in preparation include: Annihilation of Caste: Material and Mental; “Class, Caste, and Social Stratification in India: Weberian Legacy in The Oxford Handbook of Weber (edited by E. Hanke et al., OUP); and “Class, Caste, and Social Movements in Colonial India: The Revolt of 1857” in Marxism and Social Movements (edited by C. Barker et al., Brill).
Mark P. Thomas
Associate Professor, Sociology, York University
mpthomas[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Sociology of work; working time; labour market regulation; technology and work
Mark P. Thomas is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. He is former Director of the Global Labour Research Centre at York, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University, and a Visiting Researcher at Institut de Recherches Sociologiques, Université de Genève. Current areas of research include: working time and new technologies; labour, austerity, and populism in urban North America; and the enforcement of employment standards legislation in Canada. Thomas is the author of Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment Standards (McGill-Queens, 2009) and co-author of Work and Labour in Canada: Critical Issues, 3rd Edition (Canadian Scholars Press, 2017) and Closing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap: Improving Protections for People in Precarious Jobs (University of Toronto Press, 2020).
Jeffery R. Webber
Associate Professor, Politics, York University
jrwebber[at]yorku.ca
Keywords: Marxism; social theory; the history of the Left; international development; capitalism and nature; imperialism; the politics of class and social oppression; social movements
Jeffery R. Webber is a political economist with research interests in Latin America, Marxism, social theory, the history of the Left, international development, capitalism and nature, imperialism, the politics of class and social oppression, and social movements. He is author or co-author of five books: Impasse of the Latin America Left, with Franck Gaudichaud and Massimo Modonesi (forthcoming); The Last Day of Oppression, and the First Day of the Same: The Politics and Economics of the New Latin American Left (2017); Blood of Extraction: Canadian Imperialism in Latin America, with Todd Gordon (2016); Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia (2012); and From Rebellion to Reform: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation, and the Politics of Evo Morales (2011).
External Associates
Ilia Farahani
Researcher and Lecturer, Human Geography, Lund University
ilia.farahani[at]keg.lu.se
Keywords: urban economic geography; economics; housing economics; Marxist political economy
I am a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Human Geography, Lund University, Sweden, where I finished my PhD (dissertation: Land Rent, Capital, Rate of Profit: A Critique of Harvey’s Model of Urban Land Rent) in 2021. Born and raised in Iran, I moved to Sweden in 2010 to do my MSc in Human Ecology at Lund University (I hold a doctoral degree in veterinary medicine from Iran). I have been affiliated with the Department of Human Geography, Lund University, in different capacities (research assistant, PhD candidate, researcher, teacher) since 2012. My research concerns urban economic geography, land rent theory, land economics, housing economics, and Marxist political economy. It has so far been empirically focused on Iranian and Swedish contexts.
David Fasenfest
Associate Professor, Sociology, Wayne State University
critical.sociology[at]gmail.com
Keywords: Critical sociology; urban development; inequality
David Fasenfest (PhD Michigan), is an economist and sociologist who has written numerous articles on regional and urban economic development, labour market analysis, work force development, and income inequality. His work has appeared in Economic Development Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and the International Journal of Sociology. His edited publications include Community Economic Development: Policy Formation in the U.S. and U.K. (Macmillan Press, 1993), Critical Perspectives on Local Development Policy Evaluation (Wayne State University Press, 2004), Engaging Social Justice: Critical Studies of 21st Century Social Transformation (Haymarket, 2010), and Social Change, Resistance and Social Practice (Haymarket, 2011). He is currently the editor of the international journal, Critical Sociology, the editor of Studies in Critical Social Science, and co-editor (with Alfredo Saad-Filho) of New Scholarship in Political Economy, both published by Brill Academic Press.
Joshua Lew McDermott
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Criminal Justice, Southeastern Louisiana University
joshua.mcdermott[at]selu.edu
Keywords: Informality; underdevelopment; labour; ideology
I am an early-career scholar with an interest in the nature of underdevelopment and the forms of labor, exploitation, and accumulation that take place in the Global South, especially Africa. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Sierra Leone. I am originally from Southeast Idaho and received my PhD in 2021 from the University of Pittsburgh. I am also a professionally published poet.
Jarren Richards
Secondary Teacher of History, Humanities, Satit International Bilingual School, Rangsit University
jarren.york[at]gmail.com
Keywords: Political economy; economic geography; industrialization; peace and security
Alfredo Saad-Filho
Professor, Political Economy and International Development, King’s College London
alfredo.saad-filho[at]kcl.ac.uk
Keywords: Political economy of development; industrial policy; neoliberalism; democracy
Alfredo Saad-Filho is Professor of Political Economy and International Development at King’s College London. Previously, he was Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London, and Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Alfredo has degrees in Economics from the Universities of Brasília (Brazil) and London (SOAS), and has taught in universities and research institutions in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, Switzerland and the UK. His interests include the political economy of development, industrial policy, neoliberalism, democracy, alternative economic policies, Latin American political and economic development, inflation and stabilisation, and the labour theory of value and its applications.
Murray Smith
Professor, Sociology, Brock University
msmith[at]brocku.ca
Keywords: Internationalist Marxism; Crisis Theory
Murray E.G. Smith’s principal research and teaching interests are in the areas of theoretical and international political economy, classical sociological theory, Marxist theory, social movements, and the sociology of health and illness. He has published articles in the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Studies in Political Economy, Canadian Journal of Sociology, Science & Society, Review of Radical Political Economics, Labour/Le Travail, Rethinking Marxism, Historical Materialism, and the Brock Review. His most recent books include Global Capitalism in Crisis: Karl Marx and the Decay of the Profit System (Fernwood Publishing, 2010), Marxist Phoenix: Studies in Historical Materialism and Marxist Socialism (Canadian Scholars Press International, 2014), and Invisible Leviathan: Marx’s Law of Value in the Twilight of Capitalism (Brill 2018 and Haymarket 2019, in the Historical Materialism Book Series).
Tony Smith
Professor Emeritus, Philosophy and Political Science, Iowa State University
tonys[at]iastate.edu
Keywords: Dialectics; money; socialism
Tony Smith is Professor of Philosophy and Political Science (emeritus) at Iowa State University. He received his PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook after graduate studies at the universities of Tübingen and Munich. He is the author of The Logic of Marx’s ‘Capital’: Replies to Hegelian Criticisms (1990), Dialectical Social Theory and Its Critics: From Hegel to Analytical Marxism and Postmodernism (1993), Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production (2000), Globalisation: A Systematic Marxian Account (2006), Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism (2017), A Socialism for the Twenty-First Century (forthcoming), and co-editor of Dialectics for a New Century (2007), and The Oxford Handbook on Karl Marx (2019).
Gökbörü Sarp Tanyildiz
Assistant Professor, Sociology, Brock University
gtanyildiz[at]brocku.ca
Keywords: Embodied social relations; classical and contemporary social theory; phenomenological Marxism; Marxist methodologies; emancipation and freedom; communism
Gökbörü Sarp Tanyildiz’s research focuses on the relationship between embodied social relations, formations, and subjectivities within contemporary capitalism through anti-racist, feminist, queer and marxist social theories. His research is a methodological reconsideration of embodied subjective human praxis in contemporary class societies, and how this praxis might actualize ‘a communism made to the measure of the world’ through the philosophy and social theory of Gillian Rose, Michel Henry and Himani Bannerji. Gökbörü has published on social movements; refugees and state formation; feminist urban theory; and public spaces and virtual spaces. He co-edited a special issue of Society and Space on planetary urbanization. His most recent co-edited book volume on social reproduction and feminist urban theory is currently under review.
