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Mills Suzanne, Associate Professor

photo of Suzanne Mills

Suzanne Mills

Associate Professor

Faculty
School of Labour Studies

Area(s) of Interest:

Biography

Dr. Mills has been recognized as a University Scholar.

Suzanne Mills adopts a spatial lens to the study of identity, work and labour unions. Over the past 15 years, Mills has developed an expertise on resource and construction employment in northern Canada and has worked with Indigenous communities to critically examine Indigenous employment plans. Suzanne’s research has asked diverse questions such as: How are unions engaging with Indigenous governments and Impact Benefit Agreements? and, How do gender and Indigenous identity influence workers’ experiences of work related mobility? Currently, Mills is leading a research project examining the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers in northern and southwestern Ontario in partnership with Unifor, the United Steelworkers and the Windsor Workers Centre.

Teaching

  • Labour and the Environment
  • Gender, Sexuality and Work
  • Geography of the North American Political Economy
  • Class, Gender & Race: Theorizing Work, Home & Society
  • Contemporary Issues in Labour Studies

Research

LGBTQ2S+ Work & Inclusion

THE LGBTQ2S+ Work & Inclusion Study brings together unions, worker centres, and LGBTQ2S+ people in Sudbury and Windsor to investigate the experiences of LGBTQ2S+ workers.

Mapping the Void

Mapping the Void: Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Experiences in Hamilton. The LGBTQ+ Needs Assessment Survey is the result of years of grassroots, volunteer community organizing and was developed and implemented through extensive consultation of our diverse communities and with support from McMaster University and The AIDS Network. 

Selected Publications

  • Lewis, N. & Mills, S. 2016. Seeking security: Gay labour migration and uneven landscapes of work. Labour Mobilities. Environment & Planning A. doi: 0308518X16659773 48(12): 2484-250.
  • McCreary, T., Mills, S. & A. St-Amand, 2016 Lands and Resources for Jobs: How Aboriginal Peoples Strategically Use Environmental Assessments to Advance Community Employment Aims. Canadian Journal of Public Policy. 42(2):212-223
  • Cox, D. & Mills, S. 2015. Gendering Environmental Assessment: Women’s Participation and Employment Outcomes at Voisey’s Bay. Arctic 68(2) June:141-282.
  • Mills, S.E. & McCreary, 2013. Negotiating neoliberal empowerment: Aboriginal people, educational restructuring, and academic labour in the north of British Columbia, Canada. Antipode 45(5): 1298-1317.
  • Mills, S.E. & Sweeney, B. 2013. Employment Relations in the Neo-Staples Resource Economy: IBAs and Aboriginal Governance in Canada's Nickel Mining Industry. Studies in Political Economy, Spring 91: 7-33.
  • Mills, S.E. 2012. Restructuring in the forest sector and the re-shaping of women's work identities. The Canadian Geographer. 56(1):39-57.
  • Mills, S.E. & McCreary, T. 2012.  Social unionism, partnership and conflict: union engagement with Aboriginal peoples in Canada.  In: Ross, S. & Savage, L. (eds.) Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada.  Black Point, Nova Scotia & Winnipeg, Manitoba, Fernwood, pp. 116-131.
  • Mills, S.E.  2011. White and Aboriginal women workers’ perceptions of diversity management practices in a multinational forest company.  Labour/Le Travail 67: 45-76
  • Mills, S.E. 2011. Beyond the blue and green: the need to consider Aboriginal peoples relationships to resource development in labour-environment campaigns. Labour Studies Journal. 36(1): 104-121.
  • Mills, S.E. & Clarke, L. 2009 “We will go side by side with you.” Labour union engagement with Aboriginal peoples in Canada.  Geoforum 40(6): 991-1001.
  • Mills, S.E.  2007.  Limitations to inclusive unions from the perspectives of white and Aboriginal women forest workers in the northern prairies: interrogating anti-union sentiment. Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society. 11: 66-79.
  • Mills, S.E.  2006.  Segregation of women and Aboriginal people within Canada’s forest sector by industry and occupation.  Canadian Journal of Native Studies 26(1): 147-171.
  • Mills, S.E. & McCreary, T.  2006.  Culture and power in the workplace: Aboriginal women’s perspectives on practices to increase Aboriginal inclusion in forest processing mills.  Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development 5(1): 40-50.
  • Mills, S.E. & Macdonald, S.E. 2005. Factors influencing bryophyte assemblage at different scales in the western Canadian boreal forest. The Bryologist 108(1):86-100.
  • Mills, S.E. & Macdonald, S.E. 2004. Predictors of moss and liverwort species diversity of microsites in conifer-dominated boreal forest. Journal of Vegetation Science 15:189-198. 

Book Chapters

  • Mills, S.E. & McCreary, T. 2012. Social unionism, partnership and conflict: union engagement with Aboriginal peoples in Canada. In: Ross, S. & Savage, L. (eds.) Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada. Black Point, Nova Scotia & Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fernwood, pp. 116-131.
  • Reed, M. & Mills, S.E. 2007. Renewable resource use. In: Thraves, B.D., Lewry, M.L., Dale, J.E. and Schlichtmann, H. (eds.). Saskatchewan: geographical perspectives. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, pp. 385-397. 

Technical Reports

  • S. Mills, J. Tuglavina, D. Simmons & Claus, R. 2017. Food security and mining in Nunatsiavut. Northern Public Affairs. April 2017, 39-41 http://www.northernpublicaffairs.ca/index/magazine/volume-5-issue-1/food-security-and-mining-in-nunatsiavut/
  • S.E. Mills and R. Claus. 2015. Women’s Perspectives on Voisey’s Bay and the Future of Economic Development in Nunatsiavut. Prepared for: Nunatsiavut Government. October 15th, 2015. http://yukonresearch.yukoncollege.yk.ca/resda/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/12/Nunatsiavut-Focus-Groups-Draft-Mills-Nov-9.pdf
  • Claus, R. and S.E. Mills. 2015. Voices from Voisey’s Bay: Indigenous Worker Perspectives about Labour Relations at Voisey’s Bay Mine. Prepared for: United Steelworkers Canada. October, 2015. 31pp.
  • Mills, S.E., and St-Amand, A. 2015. “I Wanted a Career Not a Job: First Nations and Métis Employment in the Construction of the Lower Mattagami River Project. Moose Cree First Nation and McMaster University. August, 2015. Hamilton. 83pp. https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/MillsAmand_FirstNationsEmploymentLMRPFINALlarge2015.pdf
  • Mills, S.E., St-Amand, A. & T. McCreary. 2014. Aboriginal employment in resource development projects: assessing the influence of Environment Assessments. Ontario Human Capital and Innovation Fund, Final Report. June 15th, 2014. Hamilton, Ontario.
  • Mills, S.E., Dowsley, M. and Cameron, E. 2014. Gap Analysis Report #14: Gender and Resource Development Gap Analysis. Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic. http://yukonresearch.yukoncollege.yk.ca/resda/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/09/14-Gender-and-Res-Dev-Chapter-May-31-20132.pdf
  • Mills, S.E., & B. Sweeney. 2012. Effecting change in long-standing institutions: Inuit employment and labour relations at Voisey's Bay. Final project report presented to the Nunatsiavut Government, 36 pages, March2012, Hamilton, Ontario.