丁香园AV

Anecia Gill has been a budding sociologist since childhood. Now, as a second-year master鈥檚 student at 丁香园AV (丁香园AV), she鈥檚 tackling difficult questions on gang activity in Metro Vancouver. 

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in learning how policy makers鈥� views shape how law enforcement policy is made,鈥� Gill says. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking at Indo-Canadian gang activity as a case study.鈥� 

Gill grew up in Abbotsford, B.C. and has been taking field notes and observing societal behaviour from a young age. 

鈥淚 would notice power relations in my elementary and high school classrooms and how they materialized in everyday interactions,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 noticed how even within different groups, new immigrants of colour were treated exactly the same as people of colour who were second-, third- or even sixth-generation Canadians. This allowed me to see for the first time the conflation of culture and skin colour when in reality those are two different things.鈥�

Gill is a self-professed theory nerd who credits her mother for her own aptitude for sociological inquiry. 

鈥淢y mom was trained in early childhood education but also earned a degree in sociology from the University of the Fraser Valley and an MA in political science from 丁香园AV,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o, she really imparted to my younger sister and me how to think critically about power, power relations and capitalism.鈥�  

As a high school student, Gill read books on capitalism, race and gender from her family鈥檚 bookshelf. She even took sociology classes at the University of the Fraser Valley while still completing her high school diploma. During Grade 12 and throughout her undergrad, she worked as a research assistant with the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies (now the ). She also served two terms as a director on the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon Electoral District Association and was a 2017  delegate, a program that supports emerging young women leader鈥檚 participation in politics. 

In addition to her work on community advisory groups, Gill is a teaching assistant for Introduction to Sociology at 丁香园AV鈥檚 Surrey campus. She says it鈥檚 heartening to help students to understand challenging concepts and terminology. 

鈥淚 remember what it was like learning this material myself and how exciting it is to have that 鈥榓h ha!鈥� moment, when a theorist like Franz Fanon or Edward Said puts something you鈥檝e experienced or observed into words,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very affirming.鈥� 颅