Assistant ProfessorDirector, Human Rights Program, United CollegeWaterloo, Ontarioannapurkey@uwaterloo.caMobile:(613) 606-4076 Office:(519) 885-1460 ext. 25211
Dr. Anna Purkey is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Human Rights program at United College at the University of Waterloo. Previously she worked as an Evaluation Measurement Officer at the IRB (2020), held the position of Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Refugee Studies at Yor...
Dr. Anna Purkey is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Human Rights program at United College at the University of Waterloo. Previously she worked as an Evaluation Measurement Officer at the IRB (2020), held the position of Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and was the 2019-2020 Director of the Centre’s Summer Course on Forced Migration and Refugees. Dr. Purkey taught as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo and was the 2015-2016 Gordon F. Henderson Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Purkey holds a Doctorate of Civil Law from McGill University, A Masters of Law from University of Toronto, and a B.C.L./LL.B. from McGill University. She is also a member of the Quebec Bar Association. Previously, she held the position of legal counsel at the Department of Justice Canada. She is a member of the board of directors of Action Réfugiés Montréal and is the treasurer of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. She has been an invited speaker on numerous occasions, including before Global Affairs Canada, the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and at the Canadian Council for Refugees Annual Consultation. She was also awarded the 2016 Lisa Gilad Prize by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration.
Her research focuses on both domestic and international refugee law, with a special emphasis on protracted refugee situations and themes of human capabilities, legal empowerment, human dignity, vulnerability, governance, and transitional justice.