Kate Bezanson

Special advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brock University

Dr. Kate Bezanson, BA (Trent), MA (York), PhD (York), LLM (Osgoode Hall Law School) is Professor, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and faculty affiliate with the Social Justice and Equity Studies program at Brock University. She is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Dr. Kate Bezanson is currently serving as special advisor on gender, rights, and social, economic and legal issues to the Office of the Prime Minister. She is on leave from her roles at Brock University, and from her role as Faculty Research Fellow at the Institute for Gender and the Economy.

She specializes and advises in the areas of social and family policy, gender, social reproduction/care, constitutional law, political economy, and federalism. She is Associate Dean (Faculty of Social Sciences), Associate Professor (Sociology), and  faculty affiliate with the MA in Critical Sociology and the MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies programmes (Brock University). Dr. Bezanson serves as a Brock University Senator, is the Chair of the Brock Senate Student Appeals Board, serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Review of Sociology and is past section editor of the Canadian Review of Social Policy.

She is co-investigator on a 7-year, $2.5 million SSHRC partnership grant investigating the best policy mix for Canadian families. Her policy research interests relate to  gender, social reproduction/care, federalism, social policy architecture, taxation, leaves to care, childcare and gender-based violence. Her legal research interests centre on public law, particularly in relation to policy, federalism and Charter equality issues. Dr. Bezanson also has training in dispute resolution and is past president of both a not for profit childcare centre and a second stage women’s and children housing centre.

She strives to bridge academic research with practicable policy approaches, and to translate this work for general audiences. Her analysis and commentary have appeared in Canadian and international print, radio and television media such as CBC, Globe and Mail, New York Times, National Post, and CTV.