The Institute of Criminology & Criminal Justice is thrilled to announce the newest addition to our team, Alexander McClelland, who will be joining us July 1st, 2020.
Alexander McClelland, is a settler from Toronto, Ontario. He recently completed a doctorate in Humanities from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Society and Culture, Concordia University, and is working on a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, with the Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa. He is a long-time activist and his work focuses on the intersections of life, law, and disease. He has developed collaborative and interdisciplinary writing, academic, artistic projects to address issues of criminalization, sexual autonomy, surveillance, drug liberation, and the construction of knowledge on HIV.
His doctoral research, supervised by Dr. Viviane Namaste, of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, was the first academic project in Canada focused on the first-hand experiences of people living with HIV who were charged, prosecuted or threatened criminally in relation to alleged HIV non-disclosure. Canada is a leading country in the world for criminalizing HIV, and McClelland’s work uniquely contributes to understanding the range of medico-legal and inter-jurisdictional forms of governance that are produced with this specific application of the Criminal Code and public health legislation. In 2019, McClelland presented findings from his doctoral research as an expert witness to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for their study on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure.
McClelland is currently completing a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship project with Dr. Chris Bruckert, examining the importance of promises of confidentiality within qualitative research projects focused on criminalized and socially sanctioned issues.
At Carleton, McClelland is committed to a critical and socially engaged study of criminology. He seeks to continue to mobilize qualitative inquiry as a means to denaturalize the various forms of violence enacted towards people who are deemed criminal and threats to public safety. His interests are: violence, including structural violence, legal and extra-legal violence; medico-legal forms of criminalization, governance and surveillance; and confidentiality, data protection, and research with criminalized people.
Welcome Alexander!