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Ann De Shalit

Ann De Shalit
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
Office: 241, 167 Ferry Street
Windsor, ON N9A 0C5
Email annde@uwindsor.ca 

Scholarly Interests

  • Anti-trafficking policy, discourse, and practice
  • Labour and migrant justice
  • Sex work and precarious labour
  • Drug policy and harm reduction
  • Prison health and harm reduction
  • Critical policy analysis
  • Community-based research

Educational Background

  • PhD in Policy Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University
  • MSW, York University
  • BA in Law & Society and Philosophy, York University

Biography

Ann De Shalit is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Windsor. She holds a PhD in Policy Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University, a Master of Social Work from York University, and is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. Prior to joining the School of Social Work as faculty, Ann was an Assistant Professor of Gender & Social Justice at Trent University. She was also a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social Work at the University of Windsor, where her research examined safe/r opioid supply programs and the rhetoric of crime, social decline, risk, and unsafety. Ann’s primary research uses labour and migrant justice approaches to expose the broadly defined impacts of anti-trafficking policy, discourse, and practice, and to assess harm and intervention. She is the co-editor of a book entitled, Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives, and Experiences (with Katrin Roots and Emily van der Meulen), and has published numerous articles and presented to all levels of government on the topic. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a SSHRC Insight Development Grant project mapping the implementation and impacts of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) in Ontario, as well as Co-Investigator on a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant and a SSHRC Connections Grant.

Ann is also involved in community-based research and campaigns advocating for improved conditions for precarious workers, especially migrant and sex workers, drug-related harm reduction, and prison health. She has worked in partnership with organizations including the HIV Legal Network, Social Planning Toronto, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and No One Is Illegal Toronto. Ann has taught courses on human trafficking; criminalizing women; gender, sexualities, and the law; and feminist and gender studies at Trent University, York University, and Ontario Tech University.

Awards

  • Royal Society of Canada’s Alice Wilson Award for SSHRC Candidates (2024)
  • Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2024)
  • Nominated, Governor General’s Gold Medal, Policy Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University (2021)
  • RBC Immigrant, Diversity and Inclusion Internship Award (2014)

Professional Membership

  • The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) – Registered Social Worker

Research Grants and Fellowships

  • SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Behind the Badge: Collaborative Research on Anti-Trafficking Policing and Its Impacts in Canada (Co-Investigator; PI: Dr. Katrin Roots) (2026)
  • SSHRC Connections Grant, Beyond the Headlines: Documentary Film on Anti-Trafficking in Canada (Co-Investigator; PI: Dr. Katrin Roots) (2026)
  • SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Beyond Protection: Mapping PCEPA Implementation and Impacts in Ontario (Principal Investigator) (2025)
  • SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Safety for Whom?: A Situational Analysis of Safe/r Supply and the Rhetoric of Crime, Social Decline, Risk, and Unsafety (Supervisor: Dr. Adrian Guta) (2024)
  • SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant, Human Trafficking or Migrant Labour Exploitation? Bridging the Knowledge Gap (Co-Investigator; PI: Dr. Katrin Roots) (2023)

Publications

Edited Books

  • Roots, K., De Shalit, A., & van der Meulen, E. (Eds.). (2024). Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives, and Experiences. Fernwood Publishing.

Journal Guest Editorship

  • De Shalit, A. & van der Meulen, E. (Eds.). (2015). Critical perspectives on Canadian anti-trafficking discourse. Special Issue Editor for Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, & Social Justice, 37.2(1).

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • De Shalit, A., Michaud, L., & Annett, M-L. (2026). From drug trafficking to human trafficking: Expansion of carceral and racialized governance through protectionist rhetoric. Contemporary Drug Problems, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509261445118
  • Perri, M., De Shalit, A., Rudzinski, K., Kryszajtys, D. T., Guta, A., & Strike, C. (2025). Representations of safer opioid supply programs in Ontario media sources from 2021-2022: A narrative policy analysis. Contemporary Drug Problems, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509251385604
  • De Shalit, A., van der Meulen, E., Orsini, M., Laforest, R., & Guta, A. (2025). “We like to be in the tent”: How charitable organizations navigate political advocacy for health equity. Social Science & Medicine, online first. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118145
  • Michaud, L., Stöver, H., van der Meulen, E., De Shalit, A., Chu, S. K. H., Thomas, R., & Pont, J. (2025). Securitizing prisoner health: A realist review of Canada’s Prison Needle Exchange Program. Health & Justice, online first. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-025-00332-w
  • De Shalit, A., van der Meulen, E., Chu, S. K. H., & Thomas, R. (2024). Drug use stigma and reprisal: Barriers to prison needle exchange in Canada. The Prison Journal, 104(3), 344-364.
  • De Shalit, A., Guta, A., van der Meulen, E., Laforest, R., & Orsini, M. (2024). Discursive positions on charitable sector advocacy in Canada: A situational analysis. Critical Policy Studies, 18(2), 227-246.
  • De Shalit, A., & Roots, K. (2024). The anti-trafficking security assemblage: Examining police and NGO cooperation, negotiation, and knowledge production in Ontario, Canada. Feminist Legal Studies, 32(3), 309-329.
  • De Shalit, A., Roots, K., & van der Meulen, E. (2023). Knowledge mobilization by provincial politicians: The united front against trafficking in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Human Trafficking, 9(4), 568-586.
  • De Shalit, A., van der Meulen, E., & Guta, A. (2021). Social service responses to human trafficking: The making of a public health problem. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 23(12), 1717-1732.
  • van der Meulen, E., De Shalit, A., & Chu, S. K. H. (2018). A legacy of harm: Punitive drug policies and women’s carceral experiences in Canada. Women & Criminal Justice, 28(2), 81-99.
  • van der Meulen, E., Watson, T. M., & De Shalit, A. (2017). Insights on prison needle and syringe programs in Canada: Research with former prisoners in Canada. The Prison Journal, 97(5), 628-643.
  • Roots, K., & De Shalit, A. (2015). Evidence that evidence doesn’t matter: Human trafficking cases in Canada. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, & Social Justice, 37.2(1), 65-80.
  • De Shalit, A., & van der Meulen, E. (2015). Critical perspectives on Canadian anti-trafficking discourse and policy. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, & Social Justice, 37.2(1), 2-7.
  • De Shalit, A., Edmonds, S., & Sidhu, N. (2015). Towards public access and inclusion for non-status migrant residents: Research from Social Planning Toronto. Transnational Social Review: A Social Work Journal, 5(1), 69-72.
  • De Shalit, A., Heynen, R., & van der Meulen, E. (2014). Human trafficking and media myths: Federal funding, communication strategies, and Canadian anti-trafficking programs. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39(3), 385-412.

Book Chapters

  • Roots, K., De Shalit, A., & van der Meulen, E. (2024). Understanding human trafficking: An examination of discourses, laws, policing, and migrant labour. In K. Roots, A. De Shalit, & E. van der Meulen (Eds.), Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives, and Experiences (pp. 1-31). Fernwood Publishing.
  • De Shalit, A., Guta, A., Sibblis, C., van der Meulen, E., & Voronka, J. (2022). Troubling police and social work collaborations. In S. Pasternak, K. Walby, & A. Stadnyk (Eds.), Disarm, Defund, Dismantle: Police Abolition in Canada (pp. 138-144). Between the Lines.

Select Presentations and Invited Lectures

  • De Shalit, A. (2026, May). The politics of labelling: ‘Human trafficking’, ‘migrant labour exploitation’, and carceral consequences (with Katrin Roots and Jessica Templeman). Connecting Paths: The 15th National Conference on Critical Perspectives in Criminology and Social Justice, St. Catharines, ON.
  • De Shalit, A. (2025, September). Legal fictions: Exploitation, human trafficking, and Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (with Katrin Roots and Jessica Templeman). 25th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Athens, Greece.
  • De Shalit, A. (2025). Safe supply and the rhetoric of unsafety: Political discourse, media framing, and program delivery in Ontario (Invited Talk). The Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric Speaker Series, Department of Philosophy, University of Windsor.
  • De Shalit, A. (2024). Sex work and trafficking harms (Invited Talk). The Shirley E. Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession Speaker Series, Common Law, University of Ottawa.
  • De Shalit, A. (2023, September). Recommendations. Presented to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Toronto, ON.
  • De Shalit, A. (2021, May). Bill 251, Combating Human Trafficking Act, 2021. Presented to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Toronto, ON.
  • De Shalit, A. (2018, May). Human trafficking in Canada. Presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON.