I am a social science researcher with interdisciplinary training in sociology and anthropology. I hold an MA in Anthropology from the University of Toronto and a BA (Honours) in Anthropology from the University of Calgary, and I am currently completing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Toronto with a Collaborative Specialization in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies.
My research focuses on global migration and mobility, with particular attention to the shifting boundaries of social inclusion and exclusion. I examine migration aspirations and imaginaries, settlement experiences and outcomes, naturalization and citizenship, return migration, and the affective politics of belonging.
My dissertation investigates how aspiring migrants living under restrictive mobility regimes construct imaginaries of the West before migration; how those imaginaries shape migration aspirations; and how they evolve through settlement experiences, sometimes generating return aspirations. My work is supported by SSHRC doctoral funding and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
My methodological approach is qualitative and interpretive, drawing on in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation, and narrative analysis. I am committed to research that centres the voices and experiences of migrants themselves, attending to the structural conditions that shape migration while remaining attentive to individual agency, emotion, and meaning-making.
