Dr. Conely De Leon
Areas of Expertise
labour migration; gendered and racialized care work; transnational solidarities; collective grief; community-engaged research; digital storytelling; digital kwentuhan (‘talk story’); Critical Filipina/x/o Studies; Critical Race Theory; Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies; Diaspora and Transnational Studies
Biography
Dr. de Leon’s research focuses on collective grief and healing justice work among racialized migrant communities impacted by multiple losses. Dr. de Leon’s current trajectory builds on her research on transnational kinship practices among migrant care workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Canada, as well as her long-standing collaborations with migrant worker-led organizations, especially Migrants Resource Centre and GABRIELA Ontario.
Meaningful collaboration and co-creation, grounded in intersectional anti-oppressive principles, are central to Dr. de Leon’s approach to teaching and learning. Her collaborative work includes the development of a ‘Digital Storytelling for Social Justice’ curriculum, which brings together digital media and community-driven research with hands-on skills training. The curriculum aims to enhance students’ understanding of digital research in action, and create opportunities for students to anchor their broader visions for more just futures with their lived experiences and embodied knowledges.
Graduate Program Membership
Recent Publications
de Leon, C., J.T. Ko Din and I. Ferrer. ‘We Ended Up Cultivating a Community of Support’: Teaching and Learning Reflexivity and Community Building through Digital Storytelling. Under Review.
de Leon, C. and I. Ferrer. “Filipino Aging Across Geographies and Generations: Reimagining Legacy Work and Inheritance as Relational and Collective Care Work” in The Routledge Handbook of the Filipino Diaspora, (external link, opens in new window) eds. K. Aquino, E. Cabalquinto and V. Francisco-Menchavez. In press.
de Leon, C. and E. Tungohan. 2026. "On Being Lovingly Called In: Community-Engaged Research and Caring Futures" (external link, opens in new window) in Feminist Dream Labs: Practices for Caring Through Crises (pp. 72-90), eds. A. Watson and R. Faris. UBC Press.
de Leon, C. and J. Blower-Nassiri. 2024. Aging Filipina Migrants’ Experiences of Transnational End-of-Life Care and Loss over Time. (external link, opens in new window) Ethnic and Racial Studies 47(14): 3064–83.
de Leon, C. and V. Francisco-Menchavez. 2022. "Overseas Filipino Workers" in The Sage Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies, (external link, opens in new window) eds. K. Nadal, A. Tintiangco-Cubales and E.J.R David. Sage.
de Leon, C. and Pahinga Collective. 2022. A Call to Rest: Pahinga as Resistance and Refusal. (external link, opens in new window) Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies 2(2): 111-23.
Lightman, N., R. Banerjee, E. Tungohan, C. de Leon and P. Kelly. 2022. An Intersectional Pathway Penalty: Filipina Immigrant Women Inside and Outside Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program. (external link, opens in new window) International Migration 60: 29-48.
Banerjee, R., P. Kelly, E. Tungohan, P. Cleto, C. de Leon, M. Garcia, M. Luciano, C. Palmaria and C. Sorio. 2018. From ‘Migrant’ to ‘Citizen’: The Labor Market Integration of Former Live-In Caregivers in Canada. (external link, opens in new window) ILR Review 71(4): 908-36.