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Jane Ku

Dr. Jane KuJane Ku, PhD, MA, BA
Associate Professor 
Sociology & Criminology/Women and Gender Studies

Office: CHS 260-2
Email: janeku@uwindsor.ca
Telephone: 519-253-3000 ext. 2228

Research: 

Jane Ku is an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies program and of Sociology at the University of Windsor and holds a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (2003).  Dr. Ku’s academic and research interests emphasize community activism, feminism and antiracism.  She approaches feminism as what we do rather than who we are, and intersectionality as a moving intersection of struggles and histories rather than of identities.  How we take up political projects and strategically make ourselves is more important than making a claim about whom we are.  Her research has included racism, immigrant settlement and postcolonial diasporic experiences of gender.  She is currently involved in research projects on African-centered community capacity and partnership building, immigrant youth resilience, and Japanese Canadian history and identity making.  She is undertaking an autoethnographic approach to explore biographical narratives, social identities and activism.  Her publications have appeared in Canadian Ethnic Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of International Migration and Integration, Journal of International Women’s Studies, Atlantis, and Social Identities. 

Teaching Philosophy:

For Jane, teaching is about unsettling students from their taken-for-granted perspectives about everyday life so that they are able to unlearn the colonial, patriarchal and generally oppressive worldviews and practices.  It is important then that students are able to apply theoretical concepts to the world around them and be self-reflective about their role and responsibility as engaged citizens in their social networks and in the larger community. 

Opportunities for Students to Work with Dr. Ku

Undergraduate Students 

Through Work Study Ignite or research grants, Dr. Ku sometimes hires undergraduate students as research assistants to work to collect research information through the library, internet or community meetings and participation. 

Graduate Students:

Dr. Ku has graduate students working in projects in community capacity building and partnership building.  Graduate students working with her include those interested in antiracism, intersectional feminist analysis, immigrant settlement, ethnoracial identities and communities, community activism or building political alliances.

Education:

  • PhD (University of Toronto - Sociology and Equity Studies)
  • MA (University of Toronto - Community Psychology)
  • BA (York University - Psychology and Sociology)

Recent Publications:

  • Chin, M; Ku, J; Sakamoto, I, (Re)storying Japanese Canadian Histories: Artistic Engagements, Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 21(3), 264-275, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708620987260. 
  • Ku, Jane, Intentional Solidarity as a Decolonizing Practice, Intermédialités, 34, https.//doi.org/10.7202/107087ar, 2019. 
  • Ku, Jane.  “Journeys to a Diasporic Self”, Canadian Ethnic Studies 51(3), 2019.
  • Ku, Jane. “Immigrant Organizing and the Community” in Sarah Todd and Sébastian Savard (eds), Canadian Perspectives on Community Development, University of Ottawa Press, 231-253, 2020
  • Ku, Jane; Rupaleem Bhuyan; Daphne Jeyapal; Izumi Sakamoto and Lin Fang. “‘Canadian Experience” and Anti-Racialism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(2): 291-310, 2019.
  • Bhuyan, Rupaleem; Daphne Jeyapal; Jane Ku; Izumi Sakamoto and Elena Chou. “Branding ‘Canadian Experience’ in Immigration Policy: Nation Building in a Neoliberal Era”, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18(1): 47-62, 2017.
  • Ku, Jane; “Welcoming Initiatives and Immigrant Attachment: The Case of Windsor”, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18(1): 29-45, 2017.

Grants and Awards:

  • CI. 2022-2025, Research Inter-weaving dialogues across generations and differences: (Re)braiding identities and activism of Japanese Canadians for anti-racist and decolonial futures.  SSHRC Insight, $227,702, (PI Izumi Sakamoto) 
  • CI. 2022-2023.  Exploring the social service needs of LGBTQ newcomers, immigrants, and refugees in Windsor-Essex.  SSHRC Engage Grant. $25,000. (PI: Merrick Pilling).  
  • PI. 2021- 2022, Racism Solidarity and Interdisciplinary Scholarship University SSHRC Connection, $22,461.  
  • CI. 2020- 2021, SSHRC Connection, Critical Diasporic South Asian Feminisms in Canada. $19,616 (PI Amina Jamal). 
  • PI 2020-2021, Race and Interdisciplinary Research. FAHSS Collaborative Research Grant, $4,000,  
  • CI. 2019-2021, Research Cumulative Risk Resilience Among Immigrant and Refugee Youth. SSHRC Insight. $62,876 (PI: Jayashree Mohanty).
  • CI. 2019- 2020. Building Bridges Across Difference: African-Centred Community Services. Canadian Heritage (Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program Community Capacity Building). $99,442. With African Community of Windsor (ACOW). 

Community Service:

Recently served as board members for Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women and Aids Committee of Windsor.