Photo of Keynote speaker, a white woman with short brown hair and a dark blue button up shirt. Text overlaid the figure of hands punching up in solidarity. orange-beige border. Logo for the Institute of Political Economy. Text describes the keynote's presentation: "Back to 'normal'? Prospects for a more just post-pandemic world" February 25, 2021, 9:00-10:30AM - With the end of the Covid-19 global pandemic crisis presumably in sight, this moment is one of hope for a better world. In this talk I survey how long-standing inequalities have deepened, the concurrent rise of racism, and consider the prospects of social protection responses ensuring after we return to 'normal.' I do this in two steps. I start with the role of crises in bringing about change and how we might think anew about public health and the state. Then I delve into one policy area, parental leave, as one example of socially protective pandemic policy change that, if enduring and expanded, could improve social justice."

Dr. Lindsey McKay is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Sociology, Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Colombia. She is a sociologist/political economist of health, medicine, and care work focused on social relations of power and inequality. While teaching dominates her daily work, she publishes on care work, specifically parental leave, and organ donation for transplantation. She is a co-investigator on “Reimagining Care/Work Policy,” a SSHRC Partnership grant (2020-2027). Dr. McKay completed her MA at the Institute of Political Economy (2000) and her PhD in Sociology in the Collaborative Political Economy Specialization (2015) at Carleton. We are thrilled to have Dr. McKay return to the Institute (virtually) to kick off our conference the morning of Thursday, February 25 to share her research relating to care work, parental leave and the pandemic.

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