Yasmeen Abu-Laban is Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and she is President of the Canadian Political Science Association/Association canadienne de science politique (CPSA/ACSP).
A dual Canadian and American citizen by birth, Dr. Abu-Laban completed her PhD at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada in 1996. Dr. Abu-Laban’s research interests centre on the Canadian and comparative dimensions of ethnic and gender politics; nationalism, globalization and processes of racialization; immigration policies and politics; surveillance and border control; human rights; and citizenship theory. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals including International Political Science Review, Canadian Journal of Political Science, International Politics, Race and Class, Citizenship Studies and Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies. An article on diversity in political science is forthcoming in 2016 in European Political Science. In addition to her published scholarly articles and book chapters she is co-editor of Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power (Routledge, 2011), co-editor of Politics in North America: Redefining Continental Relations
Columbia Press, 2008), and co-author of Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity and Globalization (Broadview and University of Toronto Press, 2002). In recent years she has received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for research projects dealing with surveillance, as well as ethnicity and democratic governance, and also United Nations world conferences.
Professor Abu-Laban has been a visiting scholar at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, as well as at Queen's University and University of Toronto. A past recipient of the American Political Science Association Race, Ethnicity and Politics Best Paper Award, she has also served on the book chapter award adjudication committee of the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association, as well as on national committees to adjudicate grants for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She currently sits on the editorial board of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques au Canada. She was awarded a Killam Professorship in 2013 on the basis of “outstanding scholarship and teaching [and] a record of substantial contributions to the community.”
Prior to becoming President of CPSA/ACSP Dr. Abu-Laban chaired the CPSA/ACSP Diversity Task Force, which produced national reports dealing with the profession and departments of political science in Canada, and was also Programme Chair in 2012 for the CPSA/ACSP Annual Conference celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the organization. Additionally, she worked with others to create a new and vibrant CPSA/ACSP scholarly section on “Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples and Politics.”
