Dr. Kris MillettDr. Kris Millett

Assistant Professor

 

 

Contact

Office:  Evaristus Hall 441

Phone: (902) 457 6740

Email: kris.millett@msvu.ca

Please note that Dr. Millett will be working virtually until further notice.

Background

PhD, Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University

Master of Arts, Canadian and Indigenous Studies, Trent University

Graduate Diploma of Education, English and History, Charles Sturt University

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Political Science and English, Carleton University

I defended my PhD in the Fall of 2023 and began a postdoctoral fellowship at Carleton University’s Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice before joining MSVU’s SOAN faculty. Previously, I have served as a secondary school teacher, historical and litigation researcher on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada (now TRC), and as a youth worker for Inuit organizations in Nunavik.

 

Teaching  

For the 2024-2025 academic year I will be teaching SOAN 1502 (Questioning Society), SOAN 2520 (Family, Marriage & Kinship), and SOAN 3501 (Social Theory & Issues). I have previously taught courses on Indigenous Politics (University of Ottawa), Canadian Society (Concordia University), and Digital Methods/Ethnographic Podcasting (Champlain College, Vermont).

 

Research

My research contributes to the fields of critical security studies (critical terrorism studies), race and ethnicity, and analyses of the Canadian settler colonial state. My research is primarily qualitative, using ethnographic methods, however I have also published social and political theory pieces analyzing Canadian anti-terrorism laws and on the resurgence of fascism.

My PhD dissertation, The great moving Countering Violent Extremism show, critically examines through ethnography the social and political implications of Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism programs (P/CVE) which, in aiming to detect and pre-empt future terrorists, embeds security logics into health and education programming and policy. My current research investigates the position of racialized minorities who are solicited by the security state to participate in P/CVE schemes now being directed at the far-right. I am also a collaborator on a SSHRC Insight grant examining the Blackout Period (1927-51) in Canada when the Crown restricted Indigenous peoples from retaining legal counsel via the Indian Act. This was designed to limit the ability of Indigenous people to act in the settler legal system, and the project examines the political aspects of the ban, on how arguments about Indigenous rights were made, and what forms of resistance unfolded during this period.

Selected Publications

Millett, K. (forthcoming). “Islamophobia, sexual diversity, and the representation of LGBT Muslims in Canada”.
In Momin Rahman and David Rayside [eds], Queer/Muslim/Canadian: Intersectional and Transnational
Experiences and Identities, Palgrave Macmillan.

Millett, K., Lim, S.H. (2024). “Polanyi’s unorthodox contribution to the study of fascism”. In M. Cangiani and C. Thomasberger [eds], The Routledge Handbook on Karl Polanyi (pp. 137-147). New York: Routledge.

Millett, K. (2021). “Fascism and the enduring problem of the liberal individual in Polanyi”. Dewey Studies. 5(2): 93-108. http://www.johndeweysociety.org/dewey-studies/files/2022/06/DS-5.2-5-Millett.pdf

Millett, K., Swiffen, A. (2021). “Right-Wing Extremism as Terrorism and the Law’s Relation to Violence.” Surveillance and Society. 2021. 19(3): 364-368. DOI: 10.24908/ss.v19i3.15004

Millett, K., Ahmad, F. (2021). “Echoes of Terror(ism): The Mutability and Contradictions of Countering Violent Extremism in Québec”. Canadian Social Studies, 52(2): 52-67. DOI:10.29173/css25

Millett, K. (2021). “On the meaning and contemporary significance of fascism in the writings of Karl Polanyi”. Theory and Society, 50: 463-487. DOI: 10.1007/s11186-020-09428-8

Millett, K. (2020). “Conceptualizing a national threat: Representations of “Homegrown Terrorism” in the News Media, Academia, and Grey Literature in Canada”. Journal of Canadian Studies. 54(1): 25–50. DOI: 10.3138/jcs.2018-0014