On July 1st, the Faculty of Social Sciences welcomed Ali Bhagat, who will join the Department of Political Science and Wilson College as an associate professor.
We caught up with Ali to talk about his academic and professional journey, his main research interests, what excites him about this position and what he does outside of work.
Tell us about your academic and professional journey so far.
My journey in academia has certainly been a rollercoaster of experiences spanning several countries and cities. I started my undergraduate at Queen’s University with an undergraduate degree in Global Development Studies. An internship in Cape Town, South Africa was pivotal in shaping my academic trajectory as I became very interested in issues of race, migration, sexuality, and inequality. I then completed an MA at McGill University in Political Science and conducted my first qualitative research project in South Africa working with Queer and Trans refugees in Cape Town. I then returned to Queen’s University to finish a PhD looking at refugee governance and lived experiences across the vectors of housing, work, and political belonging in France and Kenya.
Since 2019, I have been fortunate to have tenure-track positions at the University of Manchester, Saint Mary’s University, and Simon Fraser University before coming back home to Southern Ontario for this position at Wilson College and the Political Science Department at McMaster.
What drew you to Wilson College?
There are two things that drew me to Wilson College. First, interdisciplinary is the root of Wilson’s mission bridging both the humanities and social sciences. I consider myself a scholar of International Political Economy (IPE) and IPE bridges so many disciplines such as political science, economics, business studies, sociology, and geography to name a few. I am really excited to engage with the Wilson community and students who bring a vast range of expertise and interest in understanding leadership. Second, as I have progressed throughout my academic career, I increasingly believe that academics should be involved in public debates that push for a more progressive future in Canada and the world. I have incorporated this ethos by writing for outlets such as The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, and Policy Options while also appearing in news media in Canada and abroad. I was drawn to Wilson because it offers an opportunity to connect scholarship to public debate.
What role does Wilson College play in training the next generation of leaders?
I think Wilson’s contribution is reframing what leadership even means. Most people think of leadership in a corporate/business sense, but I was excited to learn that Wilson is continually aiming to redefine leadership beyond climbing the corporate ladder or accumulating political/economic authority. Leadership, as I understand it, is relational, ethical, and oriented towards progressive change. I think now more than ever we need students to be involved in the communities around them and understand the ways in which power operates from the ground-up. We live in such tense political times where nearly all debates are polarized especially on the grounds of race, class, gender, and sexuality and I thus see a real opportunity for Wilson to train ethical leaders of tomorrow. In the age of AI, critical social science and humanities education has never been more important.
What are your main research interests?
In the broadest possible sense, I am interested in how the movement of people is governed under capitalism. In exploring this interest, I pay attention to the everyday dynamics of race, class, gender, and sexuality particularly from the perspectives of marginalized and vulnerable people. Concretely, this research has several interconnected strands. For instance, my book Governing the Displaced: Race and Ambivalence in Global Capitalism (Cornell University Press 2024) examined the ways in which institutions, states, and NGOs governed refugee mobility in the global North and South through the cases of Paris and Nairobi. I am currently working on the detention, deportation, and everyday surveillance of trans and queer migrants in the US where I am actively conducting fieldwork in Los Angeles. Upcoming publications include the financing of detention in the European Union, and a co-authored book on Prison Labour with Professor Genevieve LeBaron.
Outside of academia, what do you like to do?
The position at McMaster has coincided with a return home after approximately a decade. I am super excited to reconnect with close friends and family in the GTHA. Living in cities like Vancouver have ignited a desire to be by mountains and sea so I will look forward to finding new spots and visiting my usual haunts in Southern Ontario. My ideal summer day is the ferry and bike ride to Hanlan’s Point/Ward Island in Toronto with a really good book and some friends. I am seriously interested in both food and fitness and always aim to strike a balance between the two!
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