About
Canada Research Chair in Transnationalism and Precarious Labour
My research focuses on transnational migration, labour precarity, and new geographies of dementia care. I recently completed a book (Migration in Performance: crossing the colonial present, 2019) on the travels of Caleb Johnston’s and my testimonial play, performed in Vancouver (2009), Berlin HAU1 (2009), Manila (PETA, 2013; in collaboration with Migrante International, 2014), Whitehorse (2015), and Winnipeg (2019). I have been preoccupied with how to put stories of transnational migration and family separation into circulation, with the politics of testimony and witnessing, and the obligations of witnessing and dialogue within, beyond and across national and community borders. Two new projects are underway: one on new landscapes of dementia care, the other on conditions of precarity among migrant and undocumented workers in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Publications
2020
PRATT, G., ZELL, S., JOHNSTON, C. and VENZON, H. 2020 ‘Performing Nanay in Winnipeg: Filipino Labour Migration to Canada (Creative Intervention)’ Studies in Social Justice 14(1), 55-66 https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v2020i14.2224
SCHWITER, K., BRÜTSCH, J. and PRATT, G. 2020 ‘Sending Granny to Chiang Mai: debating global outsourcing of care for the elderly’ Global Networks 20(1), 106-125 https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12231
2019
JOHNSTON, C. and G. PRATT 2019 Migration in Performance: Crossing the Colonial Present London and New York: Routledge
JOHNSON, K., PRATT, G. and JOHNSTON, C. 2019 ‘Filipinos settle in the Canadian North: unsettling a gendered frontier’ Gender, Place and Culture 26(5), 680-699 https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1541868
2018
PRATT, G. with MIGRANTE BC 2018 ‘Organizing Filipina Domestic Workers in Vancouver, Canada: Gendered Geographies and Community Mobilization’ Political Power and Social Theory 35, 99-119
PRATT, G. 2018 ‘One hand clapping: Notes towards a methodology for debating planetary urbanization’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36(3), 563-569 https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0263775817716555
2017
JOHNSTON, C. and PRATT, G. 2017 ‘Tlingipino Bingo, settler colonialism and other futures’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 35(6), 971-993 https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0263775817730699
ANGELES, L. C. and PRATT, G. 2017 ‘Empathy and Entangled Engagements: Critical-Creative Methodologies in Transnational Spaces’ GeoHumanities 3(2), 269-278 https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2017.1364655
PRATT, G. and JOHNSTON, C. 2017 ‘Crossing Oceans: Testimonial Theatre, Filipina Migrant Labor, Empathy, and Engagement’ GeoHumanities 3(2), 279-291 https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2016.1278178
PRATT, G., JOHNSTON, C. and BANTA, V. 2017 ‘Filipino migrant stories and trauma in the transnational field’ Emotion, Space and Society 24(2017), 83-92 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2015.09.002
PRATT, G., JOHNSTON, C. and BANTA, V. 2017 ‘A Traveling Script: Labor Migration, Precarity, and Performance’ TDR/The Drama Review 61(2), 48-70 https://doi.org/10.1162/DRAM_a_00647
PRATT, G., JOHNSTON, C. and BANTA, V. 2017 ‘Lifetimes of Disposability and Surplus Entrepreneurs in Bagong Barrio, Manila’ Antipode 49(1), 169-192 https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12249
2015
PRATT, G. and JOHNSTON, C., 2015 ‘Filipina Domestic Workers, Violent Insecurity, Testimonial Theatre and Transnational Ambivalence’ Area, 15-17
PRATT, G. 2015 ‘Between colonialism and settler colonialism: Filipino youths in Canada’ Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 36(3), 305-307 https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12125
2014
PRATT, G. and JOHNSTON, C. 2014 ‘Filipina domestic workers, violent insecurity, testimonial theatre and transnational ambivalence’ Area 46(4), 358-360 https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12138_8
PRATT, G. and SAN JUAN, R. M. 2014 Film and Urban Space: Critical Possibilities (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)