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Research Interests

Welfare; poverty; Basic Income; gendered & racialized violence; Canadian social policy; marginalized women’s activiism

Margaret Little would be interested in supervising graduate students in the areas of poverty in Canada, marginalized women’s activism in Canada, gender/race/indigeneity/sexuality and Canadian social policy.

Brief Biography

I like to think of myself as an anti-poverty activist and academic who works in the area of poverty, welfare reform, anti-poverty activist politics. I am jointly appointed to Gender Studies and Political Studies. In my spare (?!) time I am currently working on a 5-year SSHRC funded project exploring Indigenous, racialized, immigrant and low-income women’s political organizing in Canada during the 1960s-1980s.  We are conducting archival and oral interviews to explore how their political strategies and agendas were quite distinctive from white mainstream feminist activism in the same era.  Don’t ask me about it unless you want to hear a steady stream of excitement for 30 minutes!

I am most interested in supervising students in the areas of poverty, Canadian social policy, and marginalized women’s activism. 

I am very fortunate to have been the recipient of a number of research awards including my current SSHRC Insight Grant (2018-23) entitled “Alternative visions: the politics of motherhood and family among Indigenous, immigrant, racialized and low-income activist women’s groups in Canada, 1960s-1980s”; a SSHRC Standard Grant (2006-2009) entitled "Who's Hurting Now? A Race, Class and Gender Analysis of Neo-Liberal Welfare Reforms in Canada", and the Chancellor's Research Award (2000-2005) to study the impact of welfare reforms under the Ontario Mike Harris Government.

Teaching

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages. 

Service (2024/2025)

• Departmental Committee
• Field Convenor (Gender and Politics) - Winter 2025