Dr. Erin Dej is committed to enacting social change for people experiencing homelessness

Feb. 17, 2022

We are excited to highlight the work of Dr. Erin Dej, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, who joined the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences in 2018. Since joining us, Dr. Dej has received nine internal and external grants which have supported her research projects exploring the social exclusion and criminalization of people experiencing homelessness and how to build more inclusive communities. In 2021, Dr. Dej was awarded the Early Career Researcher Award which recognizes faculty members for their outstanding scholarship and commitment to training and mentoring students.

Further to her formidable contributions to research, Dr. Dej is committed to providing exceptional mentorship to her students as demonstrated by her advocacy to have her student’s work highlighted by CBC News. As a final project, students from her Homelessness and the Criminal Justice System in Canada course (CC430) developed a blog post, action paper, and infographic demonstrating how the lives of people experiencing homelessness could be improved through policy and practice. Five students were asked to participate in interviews with CBC News to discuss the solutions they described in their final project. They also had their blog post featured on The Homeless Hub, Canada’s largest repository for research on homelessness 

Dr. Dej’s commitment to enacting social change for people experiencing homelessness is evident not only in her outstanding research outputs, but also in her dedication to educating the next generation of students who will continue to destigmatize homelessness throughout society. The Faculty of Human and Social Sciences congratulates Dr. Dej on her successes over the past 3 years and are excited to see the amazing accomplishments yet to come!