I am originally from Toronto, and now reside in Montreal.I studied for two years in France in the early 1980s, which proved to be a formative learning (and political) experience, and then undertook the rest of my university studies in Canada in the areas of political science, sociology and education. I completed my doctorate in the sociology of education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in 1996, with my thesis examining anti-racism and institutional culture in education.From 2005 to 2010, I was an Assistant Professor at Youngstown State University, where I taught courses in multicultural education, the sociology of education, diversity and leadership, and qualitative methodology. I am presently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Lakehead University (Orillia), which is 90 minutes north of Toronto.My current research is broadly concerned with social justice, with specific threads related to critical pedagogy, democracy, media literacy, peace studies, intercultural relations, and transformational change.I am influenced by the critical pedagogical movement/tradition/body of work, and am intellectually, socially and politically interested in Paulo Freire's work and ideas around political literacy, transformation, conscientization, and radical love. Other scholars, such as Joe Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, George Dei, and Carl James, have further supported my thinking related to political sociology, oppression, human decency, and the quest for peace.In 2007, I co-edited The Great White North? Exploring Whiteness, Privilege and Identity in Education (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), and, in 2008, co-edited another book, entitled Doing Democracy: Striving for Political Literacy and Social Justice (New York: Peter Lang). The Great White North? has won two awards: one from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and another from the Canadian Association for Foundations in Education. Working with Darren Lund of the University of Calgary on these two projects has been a very fruitful and enjoyable experience.In 2010, I co-edited another book, Youth Culture, Education and Resistance: Confronting Commerialization and Neo-Liberalism (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers). I am working on another co-edited book with the same colleague, Brad Porfilio, which is entitled The Phenomenon of Obama and the Agenda for Education: Can There Be Hope in a Time of Neoliberalism?I have another co-edited book, Les faces cachées de l'interculturel (Paris: L'Harmattan), in collaboration with Gina Thésée and Nicole Carignan of the Université du Québec à Montréal.The culmination of my work these past few years in the area of democracy is included in a single-author book, entitled Does Your Vote Count?: Democracy and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Peter Lang), which was published in 2011.I am the co-founder and co-director (along with David Zyngier of Monash University in Australia) of the Global Doing Democracy Research Project, which aims to produce a range of studies on the international level, leading to a critical, comparative analysis of how democracy and education can be more effectively connected.For a number of years, before becoming a professor, I worked as a Senior Policy Advisor on educational policy in the Ontario Government related to anti-racism, linguistic minority rights, Aboriginal education, special education and other diversity-related matters.I enjoy travelling, and have been fortunate enough to see some of the world, especially these past several years. Meeting people within their own local contexts has helped me better understand, and de-center, hegemonic and epistemological forms of thinking that have had an effect on societal (and political) relations. In the past few years, I have visited Algeria, Romania, Italy, Brazil, Argentina and a number of cities throughout North America.I have a blog at the Paulo and Nita Freire International Center for Critical Pedagogy (http://www.freireproject.org/users/paul-r-carr) at McGill University on the theme of democracy, where I am also a Research Associate. I sit on the editorial boards of The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy (http://freireproject.org/ojs/index.php/home/index) and the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (http://www.jceps.com/).I also write poetry, and have been fortunate enough to collaborate with Spanish-speaking colleagues on several literary projects, including two anthologies with Cuban colleagues. I edited a Spanish-English anthology of poetry entitled Iguana: Exile, which included ten Canadian poets with linkages to Latin America writing in both languages. I have been involved in a range of projects and initiatives in relation to solidarity with Latin America over the years, and continue to work with colleagues there.My website is: www.paulrcarr.net