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After completing a BA and MA in Sociology from the University of Windsor, I continued my doctoral studies in Sociology at York University. I joined Laurier in 2011 after spending some time as a postdoctoral fellow with the CHSRF/CIHR Chair of Health Services Research at York University. I have held visiting positions as a PECAN Fellow at the Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK) and as a Visiting Research Fellow at Newcastle University (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) and the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Oñati, Spain). Since 2024, I have been a Co-Director of the Walls to Bridges Program, which brings incarcerated and non-incarcerated students together for semester-long courses inside correctional institutions. Founded at Laurier in 2011, the program now runs in six provinces and in France, and has reached over 2,000 students.
My research covers a range of themes at the intersection of global governance, sexuality and gender, and inequality and justice, including moral conservatism and neoliberalism in HIV/AIDS development practices; new governance regimes and civil society; and conservative Christianity and antigay activism in Uganda. I have also conducted research on rape culture on Canadian university campuses (with D. Langan and R. Godderis) and international development and humanitarian responses to refugee populations in Uganda and Namibia (with S. Ilcan).
I am currently working with Dr. Rashmee Singh (U of Waterloo) on a SSHRC-funded project that examines cultural representations of sex trafficking and the role of the penal voluntary sector in governing the sex trade, and I am a co-applicant on a community-based project with the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant developing resources for a sexual abuse prevention program for children, families, educators, and service providers. My current passion is higher education in prison, particularly supporting Collective and lived-experience leadership and abolitionist feminism in practice.
- 2025. Co-Applicant Ontario Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services: Ontario Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (Applicant: Sexual Assault Centre of Brant). "Taylor the Turtle: A Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program.
- 2022. Co-Applicant SSHRC Connections Grant (Applicant: Dr. K. Gallagher-Mackay). "Law and (In)Justice in Times of Crisis. Mid-Winter CLSA Meeting, Laurier Brantford.
- 2021. Co-Applicant SSHRC Connections Grant (Applicant: Dr. S. Pollack). "Building Educational Bridges Between Universities and Prisons."
- 2020. SSHRC Insight Grant (with Dr. R. Singh). "The Role of the Penal Voluntary Sectory in the Governance of the Sex Trade."
- 2019. SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. "Knowledge Sharing as Resistance: A Collective Project with the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant."
- 2013-2015. CIGI Research Grant (with Dr. S. Ilcan). “Governing Displacement: Global Development Aid and Refugee Camps in Namibia and Uganda.” CIGI.
- 2015, 2014. Women’s Campus Safety Committee Research Grant (with Drs. D. Langan and R. Godderis). "Confronting Rape Culture and Resistance to Anti-Violence Discourse." Wilfrid Laurier University.
I welcome the opportunity to supervise graduate students in the areas of socio-legal studies, gender and sexuality, international governance, education and critical pedagogies, anti-oppressive theory, and social inequalities and resistance.
- Oliver, M., and Singh, R. (2027). Film as Governance: Settler Colonial Aesthetics and Carceral Common Sense in Honey Bee. In Menaka Raguparan (Ed.) Blurred Lines: Media, Sex Work, and the Trafficking Conflation. (Accepted)
- Oliver, M., Pollack, S., Pinnock, L., and Alexander, M. (2026). Abolitionist Feminist Praxis in Carceral Classrooms: Rethinking Teaching and Research. Canadian Journal of Law and Society (Forthcoming).
- Godderis, R., D. Langan, and M. Oliver (2024). The Messiness of Applying Feminist Research Principles: Reflections on Researching Rape Culture on University Campuses.” In Carter, C. and C. Jones (Eds.), Contemporary Vulnerabilities, Plans Unravelled: Reflections on Social Justice Methodologies. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
- Oliver, M. (2022). “Anti-Homosexuality Legislation and Religion Viewed from a Transnational Frame.” In N. Fischer, L. Westbrook, and S. Seidman (Eds.), Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, 4th Edition. London and New York: Routledge.
- Oliver, M., Godderis, R., and Langan, D. (2020). "Alternative Practices and Politics of Care: Women Students' Experiences of Rape Culture and Sexualized Violence on Campus." In D. Crocker, J. Minaker, and A. Nelund (Eds.), Violence Interrupted, pp. 69-86. McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Oliver, M. and Boyle, P. (2019). "In and Beyond the Camp: The Rise of Resilience in Refugee Governance." Oñati Socio-Legal Series.
- Boyle, P. and Oliver, M. (2019). "Emergencies and Resilient Subjects." In D. Brock (Ed.), Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times, pp. 224-241. UBC Press.
- Oliver, M. and Ilcan, S. (2018). “The Politics of Protection and the Right to Food in Protracted Refugee Situations.” Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37: 440-457.
- Oliver, M. and Tassen, S. (2017) “Manag(erializ)ing AIDS in Uganda.” In F. Kurasawa (Ed.), Interrogating the Social: Essays from the Canadian Network for Critical Sociology. Palgrave MacMillan.
- Ilcan, S., Oliver, M. with Connoy, L. (2017). “Humanitarian Assistance, Refugee Management, and Self Reliance Schemes: Nakivale Refugee Settlement.” In L. Good Gingrich and S. Köngeter (Eds.), Transnational Social Policy: Social Support in a World on the Move. London and New York: Routledge.
- O’Connor, D., Boyle, P., Ilcan, S. and Oliver, M. (2016). “Living with Insecurity: Resilience, Food Security, and the World Food Programme.” Global Social Policy, 16 (3): 1-18.
- Oliver, M. (2016). “Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Reflections from a Transnational Frame.” In S. Seidman and N. Fischer (Eds.), Introducing the New Sexuality Studies (3rd Ed.) New York: Routledge.
- Oliver, M. (2014). “In the Name of Human Rights: Governing and Representing Non-Western Lives in Post 9/11.” In D. Brock, A. Glasbeek, and C. Murdocca (Eds.), Criminalization, Representation, and Regulation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Oliver, M. (2013). “Trans/national Sex Politics, Conservative Christianity, and Antigay Activism in Uganda.” Studies in Social Justice, 7 (1): 83- 105.
- Oliver, M. (2012). “The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: Gendering the Intersections of Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 14 (2): 226-246.
Undergraduate Courses:
- Introduction to Law and Society I (LY 100)
- Introduction to Law and Society II (LY 101/LY 200)
- Feminist Socio-Legal Theories (LY 214)
- Law and Society: International Perspectives (LY 306)
- Gender, Sexuality, and the Law (LY 411)
Graduate Courses:
- Theories of Social and Environmental Justice (SJ 601)
- Social Justice and Community Placement (SJ 621)
- Social Justice Research and Professionalization Forum (SJ 690)