Carlo Charles

Carlo Handy Charles is pursuing a joint doctoral degree in sociology at McMaster University and in geography at the Université des Antilles. His doctoral research examines the interplay between social liberalism and sexuality in the socio-spatial and political integration of Haitian immigrants and refugees in Canada, the United States, and France. He is a Doctoral Fellow at the Institute Convergence Migrations (Paris, France), a Graduate Student Researcher at the Centre for Research on Empirical Social Sciences (CRESS), a Researcher affiliated to the Laboratoire Caribéen de Sciences Sociales of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-LC2S). He is a Session Co-Organizer for the Race and Ethnicity Research Cluster and a member of the Anti-Black Racism Subcommittee at the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA). He is the Sociology Graduate Caucus Chair and a Teaching Assistant at McMaster University. Using his plurilingual skills (English, French, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese), Charles works as a Co-Investigator on publicly funded research projects in Canada, France, the United States, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

He is appointed as an Advisor on the City of Toronto’s 2019-2022 Francophone Affairs Advisory Committee. His professional background includes over 15 years of experience in several leadership positions as the Founder of his own Theatre Troop in Haiti; the Creator of a French linguistic workshop and a full-time French teacher in Venezuela; an Intercultural Project Coordinator in France, an Event Organizer for the NGO Africa-France Solidaires in Cameroon; a GSA's Vice-President and a Chief Steward for CUPE 3903 at York University in Canada. He has won over 17 awards for his research, leadership, and academic accomplishments, including 3 entrance and recruitment scholarships, 2 doctoral fellowships, 4 best essay awards, 5 research travel awards, York’s Outstanding Global Engagement Award, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the Trudeau Foundation Scholarship. He is currently nominated to the 2020 Ed Finn Award for excellence in writing.  

Carlo Handy Charles has used his current Ph.D. research on the socio-cultural and political integration of landed immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers to contribute to public debates on how border closures, in response to COVID-19, have raised concerns about the legal status, human rights, and dignity of many temporary foreign residents. He is a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s COVID-19 Impact Committee.