The PROFile

Dr. Kimberley Ducey - Associate professor, Department of Sociology

One of Kimberly Ducey’s bookshelves with an array of socialogy themed inspirational messages.

Photo by Mike Sudoma

For Dr. Kimberley Ducey, her passion for teaching began with a note from a 19-year-old student named Elvis.

“He thanked me for challenging his classmates to recognize mainstream sociology’s heteronormative assumptions,” the sociology professor says with a small smile. “(But) it was he who was owed thanks, not me. Like countless students since, Elvis taught me more than I could ever teach him.”

Born in Bonavista, N.L., Ducey graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Queen’s University and McGill University before teaching sociology and criminology at McGill University, Brock University and the University of Windsor. She then joined the University of Winnipeg in 2008, where she is currently an associate professor and loves every minute of her job. 

Ducey’s smiling, bright face pokes out from underneath her signature scarves in the halls and you would never guess the friendly professor with the Maritime accent was actually a specialist in some brutal areas of research. She’s studied historical and contemporary entanglement of the oppression of humans and other animals. 

Ducey also teaches courses on genocide and has had her work published in such journals as Canadian Ethnic Studies, Critical Criminology, and Genocide Studies and Prevention.

“If students leave my course with only one thing, I hope it is a recognition that they are potential organic intellectuals, individuals from (or representing well-) marginalized sectors of society, whose lived experience frequently gives them better understandings to those intellectuals representing more privileged sectors of society,” Ducey says.

“Organic intellectuals – like my former student Elvis – work for liberation of marginalized groups, often in local communities, bringing into social science the actual experiences, history and culture of (the) previously excluded.”

 

FAVOURITE MOVIE: ”The Matrix film trilogy (1999-2003) resonates with me as a sociologist.”

SONG ON REPEAT: “It is tough to choose a favourite song, I am eclectic in my tastes. I often turn to Tupac’s “Ghetto Gospel” (featuring Elton John) for inspiration.”

IF YOU COULD BE ANY ANIMAL: “A giant panda.”

FAVOURITE CANDY: “Any candy that does not contain ingredients derived from animals.”

FAVOURITE PART OF YOUR OFFICE:“The pride of my office is the artwork of past students generously gifted to me, including the small scale replica of the Monument to the Weiße Rose, based on the original that sits in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.”

Published in Volume 70, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 26, 2015)

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