Lori Lee Oates
Teaching Assistant Professor (Ph.D. Exeter)
Research Interests
Resource Curse; Gender and Climate Justice; Indigenous Land Displacement; Colonialism in Policing; Colonialism in Media; Decolonizing Research Methods; Orientalism and Race; Nineteenth-Century Social Theory; Sociology of Religion.
Contact Information
Office: AA4067
Email: loates@mun.ca
Ph: 709-864-7445
Personal Profile
Dr. Oates holds degrees in Sociology, Political Science, and an M.Phil. (Humanities) from 91亚色 She worked in senior roles in the provincial government before returning to university full time in 2011 to pursue a Ph.D. After being awarded an international doctoral studentship from the University of Exeter, she researched the transnational movement of occult philosophies, as driven by British and French imperialism. This research was conducted at the British Library, Oxford Special Collections, the Gladstone Library, Knebworth House, Hertfordshire County Archives, and Biblioth猫que Nationale. At present, this research is being published as her first monograph with SUNY Press. It has also been presented in multiple locations across Europe including Latvia, Paris, Gothenburg, London, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam.
In 2024, Dr. Oates was awarded an SSHRC Insight Development Grant to research the resource economy of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project is aptly titled Cursed: How the Resource Curse Manifests in Newfoundland and Labrador. A frequent commentator in local and national media, she has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Hill Times, and Canada檚 National Observer. She has also worked as a Senior Policy advisor in the Office of the Minister of Status of Women with Government of Canada. There she held files on decriminalization of sex work, women檚 entrepreneurship, and pay equity.
Teaching
Dr. Oates regularly teaches courses in Sociology of Policing, Social Inequality, Deviance, Qualitative Research Methods, and Introduction to Sociology.
Affiliations
International Studies Association
Canadian Sociological Association
Research
淚mperial Occulture: The Theosophical Society and Transnational Cultures of Print, The International History Review, 2021, Vol. 43(4), 815-835.
Gender and Climate Justice, Special Section on Gender and Climate Justice, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, & Social Justice with Sritama Chatterjee. Vol. 45:3.
楥ursed: How the resource curse manifests in Newfoundland and Labrador, Network in Canadian History and Environment, February 10, 2025.
楾he problem with Axe the Tax, Network in Canadian History and Environment, October 9, 2024.
楾he neocolonialism of using police to enforce problematic environmental policy for The Network in Canadian History and Environment, RCMP 150 series, May 10, 2023.
楳ega Dams Part 3: The Atlantic Loop and the Green Energy Transition, Network in Canadian History and Environment, October 27, 2022.
楳ega Dams Part 2: The Global Contexts and Canadian Mega Dam Failures, Network in Canadian History and Environment, October 14, 2022.
楳egadams Part 1: A Tale of Muskrat Falls and Gull Island, Network in Canadian History and Environment, October 7, 2022.
楳eghan Markel and the colonial roots of tabloid media, Imperial and Global Forum, March 25, 2021.
榃hen is colonialism a genocide? The case of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, Imperial and Global Forum, July 4, 2019.
Book Reviews
Review of Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World by Marc-William Palen for the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 25: 3 (2024).
Review of Empireworld: How Imperialism has Shaped the Globe by Santhnam Sanghera on 楲SE Review of Books, July 25, 2024, found online at .
Review of Eugene Lindon檚 Fire and Flood: A People檚 History of Climate Change from 1979 to present, for Environmental History, 2023, Vol. 28(3), 594-595.
Review of Imperial Encore: The Cultural Project of the Late British Empire by Caroline Ritter. Published on 楲SE Review of Books, July 2021, found online at .
Review of The Contamination of the Earth: A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age, by Fran莽ois Jarrige and Thomas Le Roux (Translated by Janice Egan and Michael Egan). Published in 楪lobal Environmental Politics, 2021, Vol. 21(3), 197-199.
Media
The Signal: Is the 榬esource curse hindering the Newfoundland and Labrador economy?
Niche Conversations 2.9 Lori Lee Oates on 楥limate change is colonialism
Interview with Ross Lord, Global National regarding the Bay du Nord oil and gas development, ran June 9, 2022.
楾he global rise of the far right is coming home to Canada, Canada檚 National Observer, December 19, 2024.
極il and gas approvals spell ecocide, Canada檚 National Observer, August 18, 2023.
榃ildfire in N.L. are yet another sign we must move faster on climate change, Canada檚 National Observer, August 15, 2022.
楴ew research says leave 40 percent of existing fossil fuels in the ground, Canada檚 National Observer, June 24, 2022.
楴ewfoundland and Labrador oil is neither low carbon nor ethical, Canada檚 National Observer, June 6, 2022.
楥anada could be the first country on Earth to pay international royalties, Canada檚 National Observer, May 11, 2022.
楴ewfoundland and Labrador檚 culture helped it to achieve Canada檚 highest vaccination rate, The Globe and Mail, January 21, 2022.
楧aughters of the Vote and gender equality in Canadian politics: The journey continues, The Hill Times, March 3, 2021.
楨verything old is new again in Newfoundland and Labrador, The Globe and Mail, February 10, 2021.
楴ewfoundland and Labrador has a new premier: It is time to get real about how our money is being managed, The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2020.