About
Dr. Carlo Handy Charles is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Windsor, and a Fellow at the CNRS French Collaborative Institute on Migrations in Paris. His research examines the intersections of international migration, identity, and inequality in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. His book project documents the formation and sustainability of queer transnational relationships among Haitian migrants and nonmigrants in Haiti, the U.S., Canada, France, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. He is the Principal Investigator on two ongoing research projects: 1) an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which brings theatre into sociology to investigate the impact of drag performances and queer monologues on the socio-cultural integration of queer migrants and refugees in Windsor and Detroit, and 2) an UWindsor-Black Scholars Institute Grant focusing on the community-building experiences of Black queer and trans migrants in Windsor-Essex County.
Throughout his career, Dr. Charles has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, the Alfred Hunter Memorial Award, the Michel Baptista Essay Prize, the CNRS Foundation Prize for Best PhD Thesis, as well as grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Sociological Association, the France-Canada Research Fund, and the Ontario Arts Council. Beyond academia, he has disseminated knowledge to the general public through theatre, manga, and op-eds in mainstream media, including The Toronto Star, Policy Options, Le Monde, and The Conversation. In 2024, he co-authored "Histoire de Louis", his first manga on Haitian queer sexuality and migration. In 2022, he co-authored the play "Kap O Mond!", which premiered in Paris and was subsequently produced in a dozen theatres in France and the Caribbean, exploring Haitian migration to France and French humanitarianism in Haiti. The same year, he co-developed a script for the film documentary project "Pigs to the Slaughter". For more information about his research, art projects, and community engagements, visit his website: https://carlohandycharles.com/.
