Andrew Michel Thomas

Andrew M. Thomas is an early career scholar in human geography working in the fields of Queer, Black, Emotional, and Psychoanalytic Geographies. Andrew is pursuing a Ph.D. in Human Geography under the supervision of Natalie Oswin at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, and Rinaldo Walcott at the University of Buffalo. His full supervisory committee includes Dr. Emily Gilbert in the Department of Geography and Planning, St. George, and Dr. Kamari Clarke at the University of Toronto in the departments of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. Furthermore, he is completing collaborative specializations in women and gender studies, diaspora and transnational studies, and sexual diversity studies. For his dissertation research proposal, entitled "Geographies of Exclusion, Affective Cities, and Urban Spatial Production: Bodies that Matter, Queering the Afro-Black "Migrant" Body/ies in the Community" in 2023, he was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarships - Doctoral Award. As a member of the Equitable Planning team, he was a part of Dr. Steven Faber's multi-year Mobility Justice research project. A project that examines how mobility infrastructure is built and distributed inequitably across Canada, where Andrew demonstrated exceptional qualitative research and methodological skills.  

Through this project, he garnered valuable insights from research participants into how transportation infrastructure is inadequately constructed and distributed throughout Canada. His ability to work in diverse settings, which also accounts for inter and cross-disciplinary perspectives, can be seen in his work under Dr. In his work as Professor of German Literature at Humboldt University, Andreas Krass developed anti-racist, sexist and decolonial language for the Naomi Wilzig Art Collection on Sexuality, which he implemented with other researchers across the collection. He was awarded the Ontario Graduate Scholarship twice in 2022 and 2023 during his coursework. As a PhD student, he received a fellowship at the School of Cities in 2021. He also presented his research paper, “Neoliberalism and Necropolitics: Spatial and defensive (hostile) architecture, planning and posture during COVID-19.” As a former sociology student, he completed a one-year quantitative research project with another student, examining how Canadian media portray men of various races and ethnicities who are accused of the same crime.  Currently, Andrew is conducting fieldwork for his dissertation in Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on the lived experiences of gay and queer men of African heritage in the city of Berlin and their experiences in making the city “home,” by examining how implicit understandings of “belonging” to a spatial community shape and provide access the resources within that city; the cultural, economic, and social necessary for their material and biological reproduction; which, in turn, shapes the possibilities of making the city a more equitable space and "home" for these men.

Cohort

2021