Dr. Emily van der Meulen

Emily van der Meulen is a Professor in the Department of Criminology. She received her PhD in Women’s Studies from York University in 2009 and subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships with the Center for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Comparative Program on Health and Society, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. She joined the Department in 2011.

Her areas of expertise include community-based and participatory methodologies, gendered surveillance studies, prison health and harm reduction, the criminalization and stigmatization of sex work, and the effects of anti-human trafficking policy and policing.

Among other projects, she has conducted research on diverse women's experiences with  (PDF file) CCTV surveillance;  Asian and migrant  (PDF file) sex workers’ access to health and social services (with Butterfly); the  (PDF file) Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, which offers some legal protections for people who call 911 to report an overdose (with the HIV Legal Network); and how exploitative labour practices are framed and rationalized in literature on  (PDF file) Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

She has also been engaged in a long-term and multi-phase undertaking on the need for effective  (PDF file) carceral syringe distribution programs, which recently included an examination of the current  (PDF file) federal prison needle exchange (with the HIV Legal Network and PASAN).

Based on these and other of her research projects, she received TMU's Faculty of Arts Scholarly, Research, and Creative Activity Award in 2013, 2019, and 2022.

Edited Books

• Trafficking Harms: Critical, Politics, Perspectives, and Experiences (external link)  (Fernwood Publishing, 2024 with Katrin Roots and Ann De Shalit);
• Disability Injustice: Confronting Criminalization in Canada (external link)  (UBC Press, 2022 with Kelly Fritsch and Jeffrey Monaghan);
• Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories  (external link) (University of Toronto Press, 2019 with Robert Heynen);
• Red Light Labour: Sex Work Regulation, Agency, and Resistance (external link)  (UBC Press, 2018 with Elya M. Durisin and Chris Bruckert);
• From Suffragette to Homesteader: Exploring British and Canadian Colonial Histories and Women’s Politics through Memoir (external link)  (Fernwood Publishing, 2018);
• Expanding the Gaze: Gender and the Politics of Surveillance (external link)  (University of Toronto Press, 2016 with Robert Heynen);
• Selling Sex: Experience, Research, and Advocacy on Sex Work in Canada (external link)  (UBC Press, 2013 with Elya M. Durisin and Victoria Love).

Peer Reviewed Articles (past 6 years)

• Michaud, L., van der Meulen, E., Chu, S.K.H & Janet Butler-Mcphee, J. (2024). 'The law is too grey': Liminal Legality and Moral Injury in Encounters with Drug Law Enforcement. Social & Legal Studies. Online First. (external link) 
• De Shalit, A., van der Meulen, E., Chu, S.K.H. & Thomas, R. (2024). Drug Use Stigma and Reprisal: Barriers to Prison Needle Exchange in Canada. The Prison Journal. 104(3), 344-364. (external link) 
• Michaud, L., van der Meulen, E., & Guta, A. (2024). Therapeutic Alignments: Examining Police and Public Health/Harm Reduction Partnerships. Policing and Society. 34(4), 290-304. (external link) 
• De Shalit, A., Guta, A., van der Meulen, E. LaForest, R., & Orsini, M. (2024). Discursive Positions on Charitable Sector Advocacy in Canada: A Situational Analysis. Critical Policy Studies. 18(2), 227-246. (external link) 

• Michaud, L. & van der Meulen, E. (2023). ‘They’re just watching you all the time’: The Surveillance Web of Prison Needle Exchange. Surveillance & Society. 21(2), 154-170. (external link) 

• Michaud, L., van der Meulen, E., & Guta, A. (2023). Between Care and Control: Examining Surveillance Practices in Harm Reduction. Contemporary Drug Problems. 50(1), 3-24. (external link) 

• De Shalit, A., Roots, K., & van der Meulen, E. (2023). Knowledge Mobilization by Provincial Politicians: The United Front Against Trafficking in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Human Trafficking. 9(4), 568-586. (external link) 

• Sibley, M. & van der Meulen, E. (2022). Courting Victims: Exploring the Legal Framing of Exploitation in Human Trafficking Cases. Canadian Journal of Law and Society. 37(3), 409-429. (external link) 

• van der Meulen, E. & Chu, S.K.H.  (2022). ‘The law doesn’t protect me’: Examining the Effectiveness of Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Legislation. Substance Use & Misuse. 57(9), 1392-1399.  (external link) 

• Heynen, R. & van der Meulen, E. (2022). Anti-Trafficking Saviors: Celebrity, Slavery, and Branded Activism. Crime, Media, Culture. 18(2), 301-323. (external link) 

• van der Meulen, E. & Omstead, J. (2021). The Limits of Rehabilitation and Recidivism Reduction: Rethinking the Evaluation of Arts Programming in Prisons. The Prison Journal. 101(1), 102-122. (external link) 

• Durisin, E.M. & van der Meulen, E. (2021). Sexualized Nationalism and Federal Human Trafficking Consultations: Shifting Discourses on Sex Trafficking in Canada. Journal of Human Trafficking. 7(4), 454-475.  (external link) 

• van der Meulen, E., Chu, S.K.H., & Butler-McPhee, J. (2021). ‘That’s why people don’t call 911’: Ending Routine Police Attendance at Drug Overdose Calls. International Journal of Drug Policy. 88, article 103039. (external link) 

• De Shalit, A., van der Meulen, E., & Guta, A. (2021). Social Service Responses to Human Trafficking: The Making of a Public Health Problem. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 23(12), 1717-1732. (external link) 

• Watson, T.M., Kolla, G., van der Meulen, E., & Dodd, Z. (2020). Critical Studies of Harm Reduction: Overdose Response in Uncertain Political Times. International Journal of Drug Policy. 76, article 102615. (external link) 

• Watson, T.M. & van der Meulen, E. (2019). Research in Carceral Contexts: Confronting Access Barriers and Engaging Former Prisoners. Qualitative Research. 19(2), 182-198. (external link) 

• Sterling, A. & van der Meulen, E. (2018). ‘We are not criminals!’: Sex Work Clients in Canada and the Constitution of Risk Knowledges. Canadian Journal of Law and Society. 33(3), 291-308. (external link)  Awarded Honourable Mention for the CJLS’s annual Article Prize - English language

• van der Meulen, E., Reece, R., & Chu, S.K.H. (2018). Building Dialogue on Prison Health: Improving Access to Harm Reduction in Federal Prisons. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice. 60(3), 299-313. (external link) 

• van der Meulen, E., De Shalit, A., & Chu, S.K.H (2018). A Legacy of Harm: Punitive Drug Policies and Women’s Carceral Experiences in Canada. Women & Criminal Justice. 28(2), 81-99. (external link)