Ali H. Bhagat



︎ International Political Economy
︎ Global Displacement
︎ Race and Identity

As of 2022, I have started a post at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia where I am Assistant Professor in Global Development Studies. Concurrently, I am also a Visiting Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previous to this, I was appointed as an Lecturer at the University of Manchester in the Department of Politics (2019-2022).

I received my PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University (Fields: IR and Comparative), where my research on forced displacement was informed by extensive, fieldwork in Paris and Nairobi. The project was funded by IDRC, the W.C Good Memorial Fellowship, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. I have transformed this dissertation into a book manuscript (in contract with Cornell University Press) titled The Displaced: Race, Refugees and Ambivalence under Capitalism. My work sits at the intersection of International Political Economy and Urban Geography.

I am working on my second book project with Professor Genevieve LeBaron called ‘Prison Labour: State Imposed Unfreedom in the United States and South Africa’. We ask why the US still uses prison labour (entertwined in the supply chain of mega corporations) while a former apartheid state has mostly discontinued this practice. We engage in theories of racial capitalism and examine the various forms of labour exploitation taking place in both historical and contemporary contexts.