Dr. Vasanthi Venkatesh

Selected Presentations and Submissions

Select Invited Presentations

“Community Forum on Racialized Policing and Migrant Workers”, Justicia for Migrant Workers, 2021 (Panelist)

“Footprints Series: Seasonal and Circular Migration”, World Bank and the European Migration Network, 2021 (Panelist)

 “Lessons for Taking on Racism”, UNIFOR- Ontario Racial Justice Forum, 2021 (Panelist)

“Institutionalize and mainstream the anti- discrimination and labour rights of migrant (foreign) workers in agriculture and across the food chain”, United Nations Food Systems Summit Third Public Forum on Advancing Equitable Livelihoods, 2021

“Power in the Agricultural Economy in Canada and the Legislative Framework for migrant farm workers”, University of West Indies, 2021

“Workplace Democracy, Migrant Labour, and Movement Lawyering”, University of Toronto Law Union, 2021

 “Measuring Against the Grain: The Value and Impact of Community Lawyering and Organizing”, Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education, Northumbria University, 2021 (Panelist)

“Interrupting State Citizenship as the Source of Legal Rights”, Conference on Embodied Collaborations: Reflections on Race, Anti- Racism and Interdisciplinary Scholarship, University of Windsor, ON

“Migrant Farmworkers: Organising Before, During and After Covid-19”, Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2020

“Social Movements and Legal Mobilization in Times of Crisis: Migrant Farm Workers in Canada”, Canadian Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley

“Regulating and mobilizing unfree labour under conditions of global capitalism,” Labour Law Research Network Conference, Valparaiso, Chile, 2019.

“Towards an Agentic Citizenship- Non-Citizen Movements and Borders”, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, June 2019.

“Fertile Ground: can the Law Offer Farm Workers Protection?” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chair of Roundtable panel, Toronto, ON, June 2018.

“From Injuries to Constitutional Rights: Mobilization of Migrant Workers through Workers' Compensation,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on Migrant Rights, Civic Engagement, and Transnational Advocacy: Examining the Multiplicity of Layers and Dynamic Influences on Immigrant Rights, Toronto, ON, June 2018.

“Decolonizing Migrant Worker Frameworks: Canada and Israel in Comparison”, Conference on Decolonizing Law? Methods, Tactics and Strategies, University of Windsor, ON

“Differing Advocacy Responses to TFW Programs Around the Globe,” Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace, Faculty of Law, Queens University, Kingston, ON, April 2018.

“Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Program in Comparative Perspective,” Migrants at Work in Canada Symposium, Centre de recherche en immigration, ethnicite et citoyennete, UQAM, Montreal, QC, February 2018.

“Manufacturing Citizenship: Permanent Residence Status Claims by Temporary Foreign Workers,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on What We Owe Immigrant Workers: Around the World, Mexico City, Mexico, June 2017.

“Legal Mobilization by Migrant Workers: Destabilizing Citizenship by an Invisible Underclass,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on Laypersons, Social Movements, and the Law, New Orleans, LO, June 2016.

“Citizenship ‘From Below’: Organizing and Legal Mobilization by Workers in Precarious Status,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on The Criminalization of Immigrants: Considering Race, Space, and Place, Seattle, WA, May 2015.

“Always Strangers: Democracy and the Rights of Guest Workers,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., Aug 2014.

“Unfree Labor and Judicial Restraint: Courts and the Rights of Guest Workers from a Comparative Perspective,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on Mobility of Labor and Capital in the Global Economy Minnesota, MN, May 2014.

“Citizenship in Action: Cities and Temporary Migrant Women,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Panel on Legal Mobilization, Equality and Justice Boston, MA, May 2013.

“Race, Class, and Gender Perspectives in Legal Research,” International Legal Partnership Annual Seminar, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, ON, April 2011 and April 2010.

“International Law and Marital Rape,” Workshop on Criminalization of Marital Rape by Equality Effect, Nairobi, Kenya, Feb 2010.

“State Complicity in the Violence against Minorities in the Gujarat Riots,” Panel Discussion at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, Oct 2002.

 

Legal and Legislative Submissions

Bill 161, Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, Standing Committee Legislative Hearings, Standing Committee on Justice Policy, Ontario Legislature, 2020 (on changes to the 1998 Legal Aid Services Act)

Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2020 (Written submissions for Justicia for Migrant Workers demanding investigation on systemic racism against migrant workers during the COVID pandemic)

Clinic Funding Reconsideration Hearing, Clinic Committee of Legal Aid Ontario’s Board of Directors, 2019 (on procedural fairness of Legal Aid Ontario’s funding decision on IAVGO Legal Aid Clinic)