Dr. Reena Shadaan

Reena Shadaan is the Mustard post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Work and Health. Shadaan has a PhD in environmental studies at York University and an MA in gender studies and feminist research at McMaster University. She is a former recipient of the Canada Graduate Scholarship to Honour Nelson Mandela and York University’s President’s University-Wide Teaching Award.

Shadaan’s research intersects environmental and occupational health and justice. In her doctoral work, Shadaan used feminist and worker-centered visual methods to map the occupational health of nail technicians who contend with musculoskeletal aches and pains, routine exposure to harmful toxicants, verbal abuses, and labour exploitation. Shadaan’s work further traces common toxicants in the nail salon to their roots in petroleum extraction and petrochemical production, underscoring connections across sites of violence and harm. 

In her post-doctoral research, Shadaan will continue to work with nail technicians and other racialized newcomer and immigrant-settler workers on issues of occupational health and justice in precarious workplace settings.