Manoj Dias-Abey, PhD’16, who says, “Both the research and teaching experience I obtained at Queen’s were instrumental in me getting my first academic position,” has joined the University of Bristol School of Law. (Photo by Greg Black)
Manoj Dias-Abey, PhD’16, who says, “Both the research and teaching experience I obtained at Queen’s were instrumental in me getting my first academic position,” has joined the University of Bristol School of Law. (Photo by Greg Black)

When Manoj Dias-Abey chose to pursue his doctoral studies in labour law at Queen’s back in 2012, it was for two big opportunities: to join the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace (CLCW) and work with professors Kevin Banks and Bernie Adell – “excellent and internationally renowned scholars in the field.”
 
Before long, Dias-Abey had proven his rationale was accurate. “Being based at a research centre brings with it all sorts of advantages – being surrounded by a critical mass of scholars interested in similar issues, the opportunity to participate in collaborative research activities, and the resources to organize projects such as symposia and conferences.”

Dias-Abey’s doctoral experience at Queen’s taught him the skills and habits of mind to be a scholar. In writing his dissertation, Sandcastles of Hope: Civil Society Organizations and the Working Conditions of Migrant Farmworkers in North America, he learned how to manage a large research project and produce writing that could make a contribution to the literature. He did just that as a postdoctoral fellow with the CLCW following convocation in June 2016, when he became the first doctoral graduate in labour law from Queen’s. His publications include “Justice on our fields: Can ‘alt-labor’ organizations improve migrant farm workers’ conditions” in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and “The promise of utilizing civil society to achieve citizenship for migrant farm workers in Canada” in the peer-reviewed Mondi Migranti.

Queen’s also gave Dias-Abey some invaluable teaching experiences. He was a teaching assistant to Dean Bill Flanagan on two separate occasions for the Business Associations course. During his postdoctoral fellowship, he taught International Labour Law to a JD cohort, and designed and taught an online Workplace Law course as a part of the Certificate in Law program for undergraduate students. 

“My experience teaching International Labour Law was a particular highlight because I had the privilege of teaching a small and engaged group of students who were keen to learn and think critically about work and its regulation from an international perspective,” he says. “I feel both the research and teaching experience I obtained while at Queen’s were instrumental in me getting my first academic position.”

On July 1, he moved to the U.K. to start his new appointment as Lecturer at the University of Bristol Law School. It’s a perfect fit for him as the school just launched the Centre for Law at Work, which brings together over 20 scholars interested in issues relating to work and the law.

“The research culture in the U.K. is vibrant and dynamic and I am looking forward to being a part of it,” says Dias-Abey. “I want to continue with my research on new labour organizations in the agricultural sector and expand my analysis to incorporate the U.K. and Europe. 

“I have recently opened up a new, related line of inquiry on the law and political economy of labour migration and I also want to pursue that further in the next little while,” he continues. “This will be a very salient issue in the post-Brexit context.” According to Dias-Abey, it is likely that migration from the European continent will be reduced if the U.K. leaves the European Union. “The U.K. will then have to develop new channels to obtain workers to satisfy both real and contrived labour shortages – likely through an increase in permanent migration from elsewhere and the development of temporary migrant worker programs.”