Dr. Cynthia Spring

I am an Assistant Professor of Labour Relations. I joined Athabasca University in 2025, and completed my PhD in Political Science at York University in 2024. My current research interests include temporary labour migration, educational migration, precarious employment, and debt.

I am currently working on a book manuscript, The Costs of Inclusion: Debt, Migration, and the Privatization of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, which expands upon my doctoral thesis. In a rapidly changing immigration and higher education policy context, this research heightens understanding around how the terms of access to public post-secondary education impact international and domestic students’ educational, employment, and migration experiences. Identifying continuities across different eras of policy design that serve to reinforce long-standing orientations and priorities in post-secondary education and labour market renewal, this contribution highlights how contemporary education and immigration policy serve to reproduce a highly educated, yet exploitable labour market segmented by gender, race, and citizenship status.

I am also a co-investigator on a multi-year research project titled, Liberating Migrant Labour? International Mobility Programs in Settler-Colonial Contexts, which explores continuities and changes in the evolution of programs fostering international migration for employment on a temporary basis across Canada, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the US. Through this project, I am investigating conditions and outcomes of “new” international mobility programs alongside evolving traditional temporary labour migration programs in the context of settler states whose immigration regimes have been shaped historically by various axes of social difference (gender, age, nationality, etc.) between migrants and settlers.

A commitment to social justice and human rights informs my approach to teaching and prioritization of accessibility, equity, and inclusion in the classroom. I endeavour to work alongside students to co-create a critical learning environment grounded in feminist, decolonial, and social justice orientations.

Discover my research

---

Research interests

• Labour migration
• Debt
• Social policy
• Citizenship
• Feminist political economy
• Research methods

---

Educational credentials

• Bachelor of Arts, Honors in English Literature, University of King's College
• Master of Arts, English and Film Studies, University of Alberta
• Master of Arts, Political Science, York University
• PhD, Political Science, York University

---