Hodes, Caroline

Associate Professor

Women ＆ Gender Studies

Phone
(403) 329-2684
Email
caroline.hodes@uleth.ca

Biography

Caroline Hodes is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge and served as Chair of the department in 2022. She obtained her PhD in the department of Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies at York University under the supervision of Pat McDermott, Susan Ehrlich and Bruce Ryder. Her PhD was also partially supported by Osgoode Hall Law School's Institute for Feminist Legal Studies and funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Ontario Graduate Scholarships Programme (OGS), and the Helena Orton Memorial Scholarship (Osgoode Hall).

She has published work on settler colonialism, the material culture of law, digital memory, the Indian Residential School (IRS) system in Canada, administrative law, constitutional law, masculinities, workplace violence, and intersectionality in the Canadian courts. She has also presented papers at a number of national and international conferences. Her current projects include "Academic Freedom, False Neutrality and the University in a Time of Violent Disconnections," currently under review with Cambridge University Press's Elements in the Cultural Politics of Education Series and "Unsettling Law's Archive" currently under contract with University of Toronto Press and partially funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Explore program and the Community Research Excellence Award Program (CREDO). She also has published a collection entitled "Racism in Southern Alberta and Anti-Racist Activism for Change," co-edited by Glenda Bonifacio, with Athabasca University Press.

She is currently a member of the editorial board of Feminist Asylum, an interdisciplinary, bi-lingual journal created in collaboration with the University of Pittsburg that provides a platform for creative and transformative knowledge production. The journal welcomes aesthetic works, including photography and literary works, side by side with interviews, translated works and scholarly and academic manuscripts that explore the possibilities for scholarly knowledge production beyond the limits of established academic institutions and practice.
She was a co-founder of SNAC+, support network for students and academics of colour + allies, and has collaborated with Drs. Glenda Bonifacio (principal investigator) and Saurya Das (co-applicant) on the R.E.D., Rights, Equity and Diversity Project, funded by the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
She teaches courses in Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis, Feminist Legal Theory, Human Rights and Political Economies, The Charter, Gender and Social Change, and Feminist Critical Race and de- and anti-colonial theories. She has taught graduate seminars in Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis at the University of Lethbridge and Indigenous Law and Public Policy at Queen's University, and she supervises students at both the MA and PhD level. Her students have gone on to pursue and are currently pursuing careers in Indigenous/crown relations, public service, academics, law, municipal, provincial, federal and international politics, EDI, and anti-violence organizing. A strong advocate for academic activism, Caroline's research, pedagogy and practice is aimed at bridging distances and filling gaps in how we think about knowledge production, the relationship between theory and practice (praxis), violence, the material culture of law and institutions, pedagogy, identity, and community/university relations in settler colonial societies.

Publications

Books:
Hodes, C. (Manuscript Under Review, 2026) Academic Freedom, False Neutrality and the University in a Time of Violent Disconnections. In Elements in the Cultural Politics of Education, Kenneth J. Saltman and Alexander J. Means (Series Editors). Cambridge University Press.
Hodes, C. and Glenda Bonifacio (eds.) (2023) Racism in Southern Alberta and Anti-Racist Activism for Change. Athabasca University Press. https://www.aupress.ca/books/120315-racism-in-southern-alberta-and-anti-racist-activism-for-change/

Hodes, C. Unsettling Law's Archive. Currently under contract with University of Toronto Press.

Book Chapters:

Hodes, C. (2024) '"I make in rem--Against the World--the following order": Survivor Agency and Refusal in the Digital Memory of the IRSSA's Independent Assessment Process', in Digital Memory Agents in Canada: Performance, Representation, and Culture. University of Alberta Press. OPUS: https://opus.uleth.ca/items/8b0e0fda-84f8-4170-9db6-6cef1b535058

Hodes, C. (2023) "'This Type of Thing Doesn't Happen in Small Cities": Framing Racism and Sexual Violence in Lethbridge,' in Racism in Southern Alberta and Anti-Racist Activism for Change, Hodes, C. and Bonifacio, B. (eds.) Athabasca University Press.

Hodes, C. (2013) "Codifying Fortress North America: Receding Rights, Relative Sovereignties, and Gendered and Racialized Restructuring under NAFTA." In Anne Sisson Runyan, Amy Lind, Marianne H. Marchand and Patricia McDermott (eds.) Feminist (Im)Mobilities in Fortress(ing) North America: Identities, Citizenships, and Human Rights in Transnational Perspective. Surrey: Ashgate.

Articles:
Hodes, C. (2023) "A Settler Colonialism Induced Feminist Snap: A Case Study in IRS Denialism and Institutional Violence in Canada," Feminist Asylum, 1(2) doi.org/10.5195/faci.2023.107 OPUS: https://opus.uleth.ca/items/dde47207-3e1e-43f5-bedf-72b98a96193c

Hodes, C. (2023) "Living Under Right Wing Populism in Alberta," CAUT Bulletin, https://www.caut.ca/node/12351 

Hodes, C. (2022) "Honoring Gülden Özcan: All That You Touch, You Change," Feminist Asylum, 1(1) doi.org/10.5195/faci.2022.79

Bonifacio, G. T., Das, S., Hodes, C., & Cheruiyot, J. (2021). RED Project report: Rights, equity, and diversity in postsecondary campus in Lethbridge 2019-2020. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10133/5859

Hodes, C. (2020) "The Limits of Dignity at the Intersection of Autonomy, Identity and Affect: A Cautionary Tale from the Supreme Court of Canada," (2020) 28 (1) Feminist Legal Studies, doi: 10.1007/s10691-020-09425-3

Hodes, C. (2020) "Do you have a right to protest? The coronavirus's impact on freedom of assembly," The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/do-you-have-a-right-to-protest-the-coronaviruss-impact-on-freedom-of-assembly-139363

Hodes, C. (2019/2020) "The Case, The Registry and The Archive: Reflections on Truth, Reconciliation and Retrieval," Settler Colonial Studies, doi: 10.1080/2201473X.2019.1677135.

Hodes, C. (2018)  "Gender, Race and Justification: The Value of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in Settler Colonial Contexts," Journal of International Women's Studies 18 (3), 71.

Hodes, C. and J. Sandoval. (2018) "RuPaul's Drag Race: A Study in the Commodification of White Ruling Class Femininity and the Etiolation of Drag," Studies in Costume and Performance 3 (2),149.

Hodes, C. (2017) "Colonial Legacies and Competing Masculinities: The Supreme Court of Canada's Return to Reason in R. v. Kapp," 34 (2) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, 34 (2), 129.

Hodes, C. (2017) "Intersectionality in the Canadian Courts: In Search of a Decolonial Politics of Possibility," Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 38 (1), 68.

Hodes, C. (2010) "(Re) Producing Nation: Race, Gender, Sexuality, the Sovereign and the Living Constitution," Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice, 34 (2), 168.

Hodes, C. (2007) "Dignity and the Conditions of Truth: What Equality Needs from Law," Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 19 (2), 273.

Hodes, C. (2006) "Recognizing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Canada: One Step Toward Eliminating Violence Against Women in All Its Forms," Canadian Woman Studies Special Issue: Ending Woman Abuse, 25 (1&2), 195.


Research Interests

Feminist Constitutionalism, Constitutional Law, Settler Colonialism
Gender, Race, Space, Sexuality and the Law
Postcolonial, Indigenous, Queer and Critical Race Feminisms
Human Rights and Political Economy

In The Media

Hodes, Caroline. (30 October 2026). 'Much Ado About Gerrymandering? Why numbers are the least important part of establishing electoral boundaries,' Lethbridge Herald, https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2026/10/30/letters-much-ado-about-gerrymandering-why-numbers-are-the-least-important-part-of-establishing-electoral-boundaries/

Hodes, Caroline, Crystal Fraser, Kathleen Smith. Deirdre MacLean. (30 June 2021). 'Living the Lie: Racism, Responsibility and Colonialism,' Women of ABPoli. https://audioboom.com/posts/7896639-living-the-lie

Jason Laurendeau, Caroline Hodes, Dustin Fox (7 October 2020) "Harm-reduction efforts fill important role, too," Lethbridge Herald.

O'Riley, Ainsley, (10 September 2020) "U of L Staff Participates in Scholars Strike," Bridge City News, https://www.bridgecitynews.ca/news/u-of-l-staff-participates-in-national-scholar-strike

Hodes, Caroline (23 June 2020) "Do You Have a Right To Protest COVID-19 Rules," Interview with David Moses, Moment of Truth. https://soundcloud.com/user-323951800

Walker, Jaise (11 June 2020) "Fund Social Programs, Not the Watch," Lethbridge Herald. https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/opinions/2020/06/11/fund-social-programs-not-the-watch/

Mabell, David (9 March 2017) "Canadians unwilling to challenge income gap," Lethbridge Herald.

Hodes, Caroline. (2017). 'The Wage Gap'. Shaw TV.

Hodes, Caroline. (2017). 'The Wage Gap'. CKXU88.3FM.

Mabell, David (18 November, 2016) "Judge's sexist comments not isolated, SACPA told," Lethbridge Herald, A3.

Hodes, Caroline. (2016). 'Judging Sexual Assault: Lessons from the Robin Camp Debacle'. Shaw TV. https://sacpa.ca/index.php?p=38&action=view_session&ID=1228.

Hodes, Caroline. (2016). 'Judging Sexual Assault: Lessons from the Robin Camp Debacle'. CKXU88.3FM.

"Noteworthy Courses: MPA859-Indigenous Law & Public Policy Taught by Dr. Caroline Hodes," Equity Talk, The Newsletter of the Sociology Equity Committee at Queen's University, Melissa A. Forcione and Sarita Srivastava (eds.), February 2015.

Links