Meet Dr. Carlo Handy Charles

Dr. Carlo Handy Charles is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Windsor, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, and a Fellow at the CNRS French Collaborative Institute on Migrations in Paris.

His research examines the intersection of international migration, sexualities, race, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. He is currently working on his first monograph on queer Haitian transnationalism.

In addition to academia, he is a creative writer in theatre and manga, actively disseminating knowledge to the general public through research-based art. He is also a public scholar and policy advisor, and a community-based researcher.

Areas of Expertise

Research

Migration

Dr. Charles’s research examines how migration shapes the identity, lived experience, and life outcomes of migrants and refugees in the techno-capitalist context of our globalized world. He holds a dual B.A. in Sociology and Psychology (Université Lumière Lyon II), an M.A. and Maîtrise in Sociology (York University and Lyon II), and a dual Ph.D. in Sociology and Geography (McMaster University and Université des Antilles). He has developed additional research skills in the United States, Canada, and France through his various visiting positions at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Toronto, Concordia University’s Digital Intimacy, Gender, and Sexuality Lab, and the French Collaborative Institute on Migrations (ICM-Paris). His research has won multiple awards, grants, and prizes, including the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship by the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, the France-Canada Research Fund, Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Sociological Association’s Outstanding Graduating Sociology Student Award, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Foundation Prize for Best PhD Thesis at the Université des Antilles, The Michael Baptista Essay Prize, McMaster University’s Alfred Hunter Memorial Award for Academic Excellence in Sociology, and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Congress Graduate Merit Award.

Arts

Theatre and Manga

Dr. Charles uses creative writing to disseminate knowledge to audiences outside academia through research-based art. In 2022, he co-authored the play ‘Kap O Mond!‘, which opened in Paris and has since been produced in nearly a dozen theatres in France and the Caribbean. In 2024, he launched Histoire de Louis, his first manga on queer sexuality in Haiti. He is currently working on his next play on queer transnational relationships in Haiti and Canada.

Kap O Mond! addresses contemporary Haitian migration issues in France and French humanitarianism in Haiti. In Kap O Mond!, Charles uses his sociology and geography background to show how global issues, such as colonialism, global capitalism, and the North-South divide, affect everyday decisions that ordinary citizens make in their personal and professional lives in both the Global North and South.

llustrated by Raphy, Histoire de Louis is an original story inspired by his ethnographic field research on transnational migration and queer sexuality in Haiti. It tells the story of Louis, a twenty-two-year-old queer Haitian man, as he negotiates his sexual and gender identity while navigating a transnational intimate relationship with his migrant partner in the homophobic and precarious socioeconomic and political context of Cap Haitian – the second-largest city of Haiti.

Community

Serving Communities

Dr. Charles has been actively involved in service to university communities, the sociology discipline, and community-based organizations. He has served as both a member and chair of multiple committees to help advance equity initiatives at various universities and professional organizations in Canada, the United States, and France. He has also worked with community-based organizations to develop their research and evaluation capacities. Please see his CV and contact him for more information about his community engagements or inquiry about new collaborations.

Policy

Informing Public Policy

As a researcher of social issues, Dr. Charles is passionate about transformative research that directly contributes to policy and practice. As a public policy advisor, he has served on the Toronto City Council’s Francophone Affairs Advisory Committee since 2019 and has advised multiple governmental initiatives. Over the years, his interest in public policy has motivated him to publish several op-eds and give numerous interviews to mainstream media, including The Conversation, Policy Options, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, CBC, Radio-Canada, La Presse, Le Devoir, Le Soleil, Radio France Internationale, BFM-TV, and M6, among others, which have significantly impacted university and marginalized communities in Canada and internationally.