Full-time Faculty

Gada Mahrouse, Assistant Professor

Degrees

• Ph.D. Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, O.I.S.E. University of Toronto
• M.A. Education, University of Ottawa
• B.A. Education, University of Ottawa
• B.A. English Literature, Concordia University

Short Biography

Gada Mahrouse completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, University of Toronto. Prior to joining Concordia University she held a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa. She also holds a B.A. in English literature from Concordia University, an M.A. in Education from the University of Ottawa, and has been employed at community anti-violence women’s organizations. Her doctoral research explored anti-racist challenges to transnational solidarity movements. Building on this, she is she currently engaged in two research projects. The first is a 3-year project funded by FQRSC and entitled: La convergence troublante du privilège, du militantisme et du tourisme politique. The second is a SHHRC-funded pilot study of ethical or alternative “reality” tourism through a focus on race, gender, and class. She has also been researching, writing and speaking about the “reasonable accommodation” debates in Quebec. She has published articles in Citizenship Studies, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Pedagogy Culture and Society, and the Canadian Journal of Communication. She teaches and researches in the areas of critical race studies, cultural studies, transnational feminist and postcolonial theories, and social justice pedagogies. Her forthcoming manuscript, tentatively titled “Sidestepping the colonial encounter?: When white/westerners travel to ‘do good’” will explore, through a critical race lens, the promise of perils of various contemporary forms of alternative travel including: political/activist travel, ethical tourism, and state-and NGO-sponsored internships abroad.

Research Interests

• Politically motivated and “ethical” tourism
• Transnational critical race feminism
• Challenges of solidarity across asymmetrical power relations
• Critical whiteness studies
• Convergence of racialized power, ethics and travel

Recent Research Projects/Grants

• Mahrouse, G. (2009-2010, SSHRC). "Reality tours": Virtuous voyeurism or an ethical alternative for tourism to the Global South?
• Mahrouse, G. (2008-2011, FQRSC). Établissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs: La convergence troublante du privilège, du militantisme et du tourisme politique.

Recent Publications

• Mahrouse, G. (in progress). Focusing antiracist feminist attention on efforts that seek to ‘do good’: Some insights from research on transnational solidarity activism and ethical tourism. In The States of Race. Edited by Thobani, S. and forthcoming from Between The Lines Press.
• Mahrouse. G. (in progress). Feel good tourism: The ethical option for socially-conscious Westerners”. Special theme issue: Gender, Power and Transcultural Relations, ACME: A International E-Journal of Critical Geographies.
• Mahrouse, G. (forthcoming). La position subjective des personnes qui s’engagent dans une action militante. Théologiques, Special theme issue: Les Églises et la mouvance altermondialiste.
• Mahrouse, G. (forthcoming). The compelling story of the white/western activist in the war zone: Examining race, neutrality and exceptionalism in citizen journalism. Special theme issue on race and ethnicity in Canadian media of the Canadian Journal of Communications.
• Mahrouse, G. (forthcoming). Challenging the virtues of participatory democracy and dialogue: Race, nation and the ‘reasonable accommodation’ debates in Quebec. Special theme issue of Race and Class Journal.
• Mahrouse, G. (2009). “Transnational activism/humanitarianism as a racialized ‘politics of life’: The Christian Peacemaker Team kidnapping in Iraq.” Citizenship Studies. Vol. 13, No. 4., pp.311-331.
• Mahrouse, G. (2008). Race-ethical transnational activists with cameras: Mediators of compassion. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 11(1): 87-105.
• Mahrouse, G. (2006). Producing peaceful citizens through a lesson on the FTAA Quebec Summit protests. Canadian Journal of Education, Special Theme Issue: Democracy and Education, 29(2): 436-453.
• Mujawamariya, D., & Mahrouse, G. (2006). Apprehension and antagonism: Multicultural and antiracist pedagogic approaches in the training of teachers in Canada. In G. Dei et al. (Eds), The Poetics of Antiracism (pp. 59-72). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
• Mahrouse, G. (2005). The construction of 'minority’ teacher subjects. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 13(1): 27-42.