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St. Lawrence University
 
 

Madeleine Wong

Madeleine Wong

Madeleine Wong

Assistant Professor, Global Studies
Faculty Affiliate, African Studies Program

Education

PhD, York University, Toronto, 2003

Research Areas and Interests

  • Regional and demographic consequences of economic restructuring and globalization in Africa: particularly the socio-economic effects of development/underdevelopment in Ghana; the connection between remittances and development in Ghana
  • International migration and the contemporary African Diaspora: particularly transnational experiences of Ghanaian migrants and non-migrants, the creation and maintenance of social networks across borders, and the articulation of gender and ethnicity with transnational processes
  • Demography and Immigration: how immigration policies structure social relations and social stratification across intersections of race, ethnicity, class and gender, and inform immigrants’ strategies.
  • Contemporary postcolonial African migration with its urban focus and its transnational character challenges established notions of citizenship, belonging, identity, diaspora and ‘home’.

Current Research

My current and future research interests focus on three broad but interrelated areas.

My first area of current research examines how diaspora Ghanaians - in England, Canada and the U.S. - negotiate and engage in citizenship claims and practices, and how they make meaning of their experiences in different places. This research examines the gendered ways migrants are enacting different levels of citizenship and belonging at multiple scales and at multiple sites.

A second interrelated research project entails comparative analyses of the processes and experiences underlying the increase of African and Ghanaian (specifically) migrant labor (particularly nurses) in caring work in England, Canada and the U.S. It examines the gendered processes underlying their recruitment, work experiences, and livelihood strategies that transpire transnationally.

A third focus of my research interests examines the perceptions of and interactions within and between members of the older and post-colonial African diaspora, particularly how first and second-generation African immigrants cope with and negotiate their identities in different places and spaces of the diaspora in their everyday lives, and how the different but overlapping diasporas engage with Africa in meaningful ways, through cultural and educational exchanges, remittances, entrepreneurial investment, tourism, and political transnational activism.

Current Projects

Working on Chapter “From Africa to America (Ghanaian migrants)” for Book Diasporas: Concepts, Identities, Intersections (Knott and McLoughlin)

Working on project “Translocal Geographies of Care Work in the Ghanaian Diaspora” to be presented at the Royal Geographical Society annual conference, London, UK.

Publications

Wong, Madeleine. 2006. “The Gendered Politics of Remittances in Ghanaian Transnational Families.” Economic Geography, V. 82(4): 355-382.

Preston, Valerie and Madeleine Wong. In Press. “Geographies of Violence: Women and Conflict in Ghana” In: Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman (eds.), Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones.

Preston, Valerie and Madeleine Wong. 2002. “Immigration and Canadian Cities: Building Inclusion.” In: Caroline Andrew and Katherine A Graham and Susan D. Phillips (eds.), Urban Affairs: Back on the Policy Agenda, p. 23-44.

Wong, M. 2000. “Ghanaian Women in Toronto’s Labour Market: Negotiating Gendered Roles and Transnational Household Strategies.” Canadian Ethnic Studies, 32(2): p. 45-74.

Courses Taught

GS101: Introduction to Global Political Economy
GS247: Global Population Issues Africa
GS247: Cities and Globalization