Mary-Kay Bachour

Areas of Interest

• Refugee and migration studies
• Feminist geographies and critical geographies of race and gender
• Transnational and antiracist feminism
• Critical urban studies
• Service provision and housing access
• Housing crisis, equity and justice
• Geographies of labour

Biography

Dr. Mary-Kay Bachour is a postdoctoral fellow in the Women & Gender Studies Institute conducting critical housing research under the supervision of Dr. Marieme Lo. In her current research project, “The intersectional politics of housing (in)access among racialized refugee claimant women in Toronto,” Dr. Bachour investigates the shelter and housing experiences of racialized refugee women in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Dr. Bachour completed her Master’s Degree in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, where she unpacked the impacts of the civil war on the Lebanese diaspora in Toronto, Ontario. She continued her studies and received her Ph.D. in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, where she examined access to housing among government-assisted refugees based on the intersections of race, class, language, and citizenship status. Dr. Bachour has also worked on several research projects, including “Urban Mobilities and Spatialities” at the Asian Pathways Research Lab. She most recently collaborated on the “Independent Refugee Youth Project” with a team of principal researchers at the University of Toronto, where she explored access to housing and wraparound services for young refugees who arrived in Canada alone before the age of 24.

In addition to her research expertise, Dr. Bachour has supported several community organizations, including the Migrant Women’s Coordinating Body and the Aboriginal Women and Women of Colour Reading Circle at the University of Toronto. She has also volunteered for North York Community House, an organization that delivers essential settlement services to newly arrived refugees.
Dr. Bachour approaches her research from an antiracist feminist lens. Her research interests and expertise include transnational feminism, antiracist feminism, refugee studies, migration theories, transnational and diasporic studies, service provision and housing access, equity and justice, and critical urban studies. In addition to her research experience, Dr. Bachour has taught several courses at the University of Toronto, the University of Guelph-Humber, and Humber College.

Dr. Bachour has presented her scholarship at the American Association of Geographers’ annual meeting. One of her prior publications is Bachour, M. (2015) Disrupting the myth of maquila disposability: Sites of reproduction and resistance in Juarez. Women’s Studies International Forum, 48:174-184. Dr. Bachour looks forward to continuing her research and teaching practices as a postdoctoral fellow in the Women and Gender Studies Institute and as an affiliate at the School of Cities, University of Toronto.

Education

PhD, University of Toronto
MA, University of Toronto
BA, University of Toronto

Postdoctoral Fellowship Project

My postdoctoral fellowship research is focused primarily on unpacking the intersectional politics of the housing crisis in Toronto through engagement with racialized refugee claimant women’s lived experiences and their embodied and intersecting subjectivities. The central question that frames this study is: What are key barriers experienced by racialized refugee claimant women in accessing safe, secure and long-term housing in Toronto? With this underlying question, this study investigates the relationships between the changing landscape of housing and shelter service provision for refugee claimant women and the broader context of deepening inequality to accessing affordable, safe and secure housing in Toronto. I draw on critical feminist frameworks and intersectional analytics to enrich current conceptualizations and theorizing of housing (in)access and inequality in Canada and their intersections with gender, race, class, immigration status, language, and family size.

 

Postdoctoral Supervisor: Marieme Lo

Selected Works

Bachour, M. (2015) Disrupting the myth of maquila disposability: Sites of reproduction and resistance in Juarez. Women’s Studies International Forum, 48:174-184.

Honours and Awards