About Me
As a scholar and activist focusing on socio-environmental citizenship and Green political theories, I am in a unique position both academically and professionally to conduct my research. Now in the second year of my doctoral studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, I focus on the intersections of environmental sustainability, participatory democracy, and social justice.
Within the Green Party of Canada, I serve as the Critic for Intergovernmental Affairs, Women and Gender on the Shadow Cabinet as well as Co-Chair of the International Secretariat. I have issued statements for the party advocating the decriminalization of sex work and collective action on International Women's Day. I also created party policy calling for the rescinding of the Natural Resources Transfer Acts. Moreover, I took the initiative of relaunching the Women's Caucus, with programs to promote gender equity and support women, such as mentorship and peer support. As the Co-Chair of the GPC International Secretariat, I work tirelessly to promote our connection with the Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Américas (FPVA) and the Global Greens. In the Global Greens, I have roles in the Biodiversity and Climate Working Groups, and the Strengthening Democracy Network.
In my role as the Ontario Chair of the Security and Defence wing of G100, I created a podcast called 100 Sisters on Security, covering such important gender justice issues as Indigenous rights and forest defence, peace and the Canadian Armed Forces, marginalization of Muslim im/migrants, and climate and gender-responsive financing. Guests have included the only Canadian woman military observer to actively verify the ceasefire in Guatemala in 1997, as well as a Ha-ma-yas Stewardship Network Guardian for the Da’naxda’xw/Awaetlala First Nation.
Research Interests
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Socio-environmental citizenship and global political activism
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Institutional ethnography, analytic and critical autoethnography
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Sex work advocacy and gender justice
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Green republicanism and ecological democracy
Education
2023-Present
PhD Student
Adult Education and Community Development
*
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Toronto, ON
2019-2023
MEd
Adult Education and Community Development
*
Collaborative Specialization in Workplace Learning and Social Change
*
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Toronto, ON
2012-2013
Executive MBA
Kellogg School of Management
Chicago, IL
*
Schulich School of Business
Toronto, ON
2001-2002
MA
Department of French
*
Queen's University
Kingston, ON
1996-2001
BAH, BSc, BA
French
*
Life Sciences
*
Political Studies
*
Queen's University
Kingston, ON
Recent Experience
2024
Presented paper on "Green Transformation: Organizational Change through Political Cleavages" at Researching Work and Learning (RWL13)
"Researching
Work & Learning
in times of change"
2024
Presented paper on "Redefining Consumption and Sustainable Planning: Freetown and the City of Darkness Through a Green Lens" at OISE Graduate Research Conference “Despite and Because of Difference”:
Cultivating Critical Conversations for the Future of Education.
2023
Speaker at Global Greens Congress on the outcomes of COP15 and the Kunming-Montréal Biodiversity Framework during the plenary session entitled Global Greens - COP, UN and International Impact.
Alison Lam
Department of Adult Education and Community Development
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto