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Rai Reece

Dr. Rai Reece

Associate Professor
EducationHonours BA (York University), MES (York University), PhD (York University, Women’s Studies)
OfficeJOR-301
Phone416-979-5000 x556154

Areas of Expertise:

abolition & activism; anti-Black racism, canadian black feminism; carcerality; community-based ethnography; critical race theory; equity as social praxis; misogynoir; prison health

Research:

Dr. Rai Reece is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist. Her work examines how carceral processes in Canada are organized and maintained by historical and contemporary narratives and practices of colonial violence specific to anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. More broadly, her work explores the intersection of punishment and misogynoir as legally and socially enacted via governance and white settler capitalism. A central feature of her work explores how community-based ethnographic pedagogy can be a tool for social activism and the limitations of that praxis. She conducted the first research project in Canada to exclusively examine the intersections of race, incarceration, and the meaning of Canadian citizenship as it pertained to federally sentenced Black women. Dr. Reece’s work also focuses on community-based collaboration, and she has conducted numerous anti-racism facilitations with organizations at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. In 2016 she participated in the Walls to Bridges (W2B) Instructor Training program with incarcerated women at Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI). Since then, she has continued to provide anti-racist training during the annual W2B Instructor training course held at GVI and she has helped train the alumni collective at GVI in facilitation skills. In 2018, Dr. Reece received the Humber College Research Excellence Award; in 2020 she was honoured as one of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women; in 2022 she was the recipient of the TMU Faculty of Arts New Faculty Teaching Award, and in 2023 she was the recipient of the TMU Viola Desmond Faculty Award.

Websites:

ryerson.academia.edu/RaiReece (external link, opens in new window) 

ORCID iD icon  orcid.org/0000-0003-1736-9114   (external link, opens in new window) 

Courses:

  • SOC 105 Introduction to Sociology
  • SOC 490 Capstone: Specializing Your Knowledge
  • SOC 507 Understanding Racism in Canada
  • SOC 576 Colonialism and Anti-Blackness
  • SOC 705 Law, Justice, and Abolition
  • CC 8849 Everyday Abolition: Activism, Practice, and Policy

Graduate Program Membership:

  • Communication & Culture
  • Policy Studies   

Community & Professional Service:

Recent Publications:

Eizadirad, A., and R. Reece. 2025. Decolonizing Community Re-entry: Case Studies of Effective Programs and Services for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals in Canada. (Forthcoming).

Fleras, A., and R. Reece, R. 2024. Unequal Relations: A Critical Introduction to Racism, Gender, Immigration, and Coloniality, 9th edition. (external link, opens in new window)  Toronto, Ontario: Pearson.  

Reece, R. 2024. Critical race theory: A multicultural disrupter. (external link, opens in new window)  Genealogy 8(3): 103. 

Reece, R., and D. Edwards. 2024. Critical collaboration: black feminist methodology and praxis with (formerly) criminalized black women. In Sage Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research. (external link, opens in new window)  SAGE Publications. 

Alexander, M., D. Edwards, H. King, L. Pinnock, and R. Reece. 2023. Walls to Bridges: Evolving Our Work Within Carceral Spaces by Rupturing Racism and Oppression Through a Participatory Process. (external link, opens in new window)  Journal of Prisoners on Prisons 32(1): 27-45.

Bannon, K., E. Cagulada, M. Chowdhury, r. hampton, R. Reece, V. Sztainbok, and S. Tecle. 2023. Education and the Carceral State (external link, opens in new window) . www.rabble.ca.

Reece, R. 2022. "Black and racialized women and the canadian criminal justice system" in Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian Perspective (external link, opens in new window)  (pp. 87-107), edited by J. Barker and D. Scharie Tavcer. Emond.  

Knight, M., R.N. Ferguson and R. Reece. 2021. “It’s Not Just about Work and Living Conditions”: The Underestimation of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Black Canadian Women. (external link, opens in new window)  Social Sciences 10: 210.

Reece, R. 2020. A reflection on racial injustice and (black) anticipatory grief compounded by COVID-19. (external link, opens in new window)  Journal of Concurrent Disorders 2(3): 55-71.

Gillies, K, E. Lam, T. Law, R. Reece, A. Sterling and E. van der Meulen. 2019. “Understanding the Work in Sex Work: Canadian Contexts” in Working Women in Canada: An Intersectional Approach (external link, opens in new window)  (pp. 359-379), edited by L. Nichols. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.