Irene Boeckmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2014. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany, she joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 2016. She teaches courses in the area of gender, family, work and inequality, public policy and quantitative methods. Her current research project examines the gendered processes that shape how different-sex couples organize paid work before and after the transition to parenthood in four different welfare state contexts. Part of this project focusses on couples where the woman has labor market advantages relative to her partner before they have children and asks how these couples engage in employment after the transition to parenthood in different labor market and policy contexts. She is also engaged in collaborative research projects examining the relationship between fatherhood and earnings. One of these projects investigates how this relationship varies cross-nationally and whether labor market characteristics and public policies can account for some of this variation. A related project examines whether changes in fatherhood ideals, patterns of partnership and family formation and the labor market have changed fathers’ earnings advantages in the U.S. labor market over time.

Cultural/ Creative/ Community Sectors; Research; Producing; Evaluation; Facilitation; Experienced in Creative Action Research

Professor, Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science

I am a sociologist with extensive experience in international development research and practice focusing on human development, inequality, and environmental sustainability. I am currently a Senior Sustainable Development Officer with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the Division for Sustainable Development Goals. In this role I lead research and analysis to identify new and emerging issues relevant to sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda with an emphasis on interlinkages across Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Previously, I was a senior researcher with the UN Development Programme's flagship Human Development Report. I co-authored six Reports and led analysis on globalization and the digital frontier, sustainability and inequality, poverty, gender gaps, and social exclusion among others. I also calculated composite indices including the Human Development Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Other experience at the UN has included work with the Statistics Division, compiling environmental statistics and drafting a handbook for countries to monitor progress toward the MDGs; and with UNDP Mongolia assessing the economic, social and environmental impacts of different types of energy efficient technologies in housing. I have also worked in the private sector as a transportation engineer and in academia, including fieldwork in Sudan and Indonesia. I hold a PhD in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University as well as a B.S. in Civil Engineering. I was also a Postdoctoral Research Scholar with the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University.