Dr. Nisha Nath

Dr. Nisha Nath

Associate Professor, Equity Studies, MAIS

Contact information

Email: nnath@athabascau.ca

Phone:

I’m an Associate Professor of Equity Studies (she/they) in the MAIS program and am based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). Trained as a political scientist (Canadian Politics and Gender & Politics), my research and collaborations are intentionally interdisciplinary. I take a critical approach to citizenship, as I focus on the politics of race and racism, security and relational securitization in and across custodial/carceral spaces, and the implications for decolonial and antiracist politics in white settler colonial states.

I teach three core courses within the MAIS program (MAIS 602, MAIS 663, MAIS 635) and engage in coordination work and collaborative course writing in Political Science at AU.

In addition to my ongoing work on relational securitization in Canada, I continue to engage in several research projects and collaborations, including but not limited to:

  • A 5-year (2025-2030) SSHRC-Insight Grant funded project, “The Puzzle of Discretion: Interrogating change with public sector workers in white settler colonial institutions” with Willow-Samara Allen (Royal Roads University). In this project we investigate discretionary power to understand how public sector workers in three provinces (AB, BC, and ON) are learning to witness, conceptualize, and use discretion in their work in the ‘helping sectors’ of education, children and family services, and health. We name discretionary power as a political question that is distinctly meaningful within contexts of systemic racism and white settler colonial violence. Find out more about our project at: www.puzzleofdiscretion.com.
  • A collaboration with Alex da Costa (University of Alberta) and Beth Capper (University of Alberta) that interrogates police presence and carceral logics in schools, in particular through School Resource Officer programs.
  • Collaborator with Dr. Anita Girvan, Dr. Davina Bhandar and Dr. Rita Dhamoon on the Insurgent Resurgent Knowledges Lab (IRK Lab). Find out more about this project at: www.irklab.ca.
  • Producer of the podcast Academic Aunties with host and producer Dr. Ethel Tungohan, and producer Wayne Chu.

If you are a student interested in critical race theory; insurgent and resurgent knowledges; white settler colonial studies; intersectional feminist theory and methods; critical orientations to state, citizenship, and security; critical university studies; and, international solidarity movements, feel free to reach out!

Discover my research

Educational credentials

  • PhD - University of Alberta (Political Science)
  • MA - Carleton University (Political Science)
  • BA - University of Alberta

Professional affiliations

  • Section Editor, Studies in Social Justice
  • Associate Editor, Canadian Journal of Political Science
  • Editorial Committee, AU Press
  • Publications Committee, Scholarly Book Awards (ASPP)
  • Canadian Political Science Association Reconciliation Committee Member