We are delighted to welcome our newest cohort of Stone Centre Faculty Affiliates, joining us from 2025–2027. Drawn from across UBC’s departments of Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Law, Business, and Economics, these scholars bring diverse expertise spanning political economy, migration, gender and family dynamics, law, corporate finance, and moral philosophy. Each of them contributes unique perspectives on the causes, consequences, and remedies of wealth and income inequality—ranging from how technology and globalization reshape labour markets, to how law and governance structure access to housing, to how social rights, family formation, and immigration status shape opportunities and life outcomes. Together, they expand the interdisciplinary strength of the Stone Centre and enrich our mission to foster rigorous, policy-relevant research on inequality.
Learn more about our new faculty affiliates below, and visit the ‘Affiliated Faculty‘ tab for more details about their work.
Department of Philosophy
- Dr. Kimberley Brownlee is a Professor of Philosophy at UBC and holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political & Social Philosophy. Her research spans moral, political, and legal philosophy, with a focus on social human rights, belonging, and freedom of association, as well as conscience, civil disobedience, climate activism, and restorative justice. Her current work defends a revisionist account of human rights that prioritizes our social needs, highlighting how housing, health, and economic security gain much of their meaning from social connection. She also examines how inequality and poverty affect girls’ rights, including access to abortion care, developing a framework to understand “anti-girlism” as a form of social injustice. By centering social rights, her research offers new insights into how inequality undermines human well-being and democratic inclusion.
Department of Political Science
- Dr. Irene Bloemraad is the President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration at UBC, with a joint appointment in Political Science and Sociology. Her research examines the political and civic incorporation of immigrants into Western democracies and the consequences of migration for politics and national belonging. She investigates how migrants gain voice in political systems through citizenship acquisition, community-based organizations, and participation in electoral and protest politics, as well as how national identities, including multiculturalism, evolve in response to migration. Her work also explores how non-immigrants’ attitudes shift depending on whether migration is framed through rights, family unity, or national values. By highlighting legal status and migrant background as critical sources of inequality, her research broadens core understandings of inequality beyond class, race, and gender.
- Dr. Sophie Borwein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at UBC. Her research sits at the intersection of political economy, political behaviour, and public policy. Her work explores how local contexts and communities shape political behaviour and policy preferences, and how individuals respond to economic disruptions tied to technological change and other labour market shocks. Much of her research highlights the role of technological change and geographic sorting as drivers of income and wealth inequality, examining how these forces influence citizens’ political preferences and contribute to dynamics such as place-based polarization and the rise of populist and radical-right leaders. By uncovering these relationships, her work informs the design of redistributive and other policies to mitigate economic inequalities.
- Dr. Alan M. Jacobs is a Professor of Political Science at UBC, specializing in comparative political economy, public policy, political behaviour, and qualitative and mixed methods. His research examines the political causes and consequences of economic inequality in advanced democracies, with a focus on how rising disparities shape citizens’ political choices, policy preferences, and trust in democratic institutions. His work has shown that low- and middle-income voters often reward, rather than punish, governments presiding over growing inequality, in part due to the ways economic performance is framed in the media. His current projects investigate how prolonged inequality affects citizens’ willingness to contribute to collective goods, such as public education, health care, and pensions, and how downward mobility fuels support for far-right parties. By uncovering how inequality reshapes democratic accountability and collective action, his work highlights the challenges rising disparities pose for contemporary governance.
Department of Sociology
- Dr. Elizabeth Hirsh is a Professor of Sociology at UBC. Her research examines work, employment, organizational policies, and the law, with a focus on gender and race inequality in the workplace. A central aim of her work is to identify regulatory and workplace policies that minimize bias and expand career opportunities for historically underrepresented groups. She has demonstrated, for example, the effectiveness of corporate diversity policies in expanding the representation of women and racialized workers in management, the impact of flexible work arrangements on closing motherhood wage gaps, and the potential of pay transparency programs to reduce disparities. By evaluating the implementation and impact of equity initiatives, her research directly informs policy debates and contributes to the design of strategies to reduce inequality in the workplace.
- Dr. Kimberly R. Huyser is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UBC. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and grew up on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, USA. The central intellectual motivation driving her research agenda is to gain a deeper understanding of the social conditions that undermine health, as well as to identify the economic, cultural, and social resources leveraged by racial and ethnic groups in order to further their individual and collective health and well-being. Her current and future research contributes to our understanding of the social determinants of health problems faced by Indigenous peoples and it furthers our comprehension of the social and economic mechanisms that undergird population health.
- Dr. Yue Qian is a Professor of Sociology at UBC. Her research examines gender, family, work, and inequality in global contexts, with a particular focus on North America and East Asia. Her work highlights how marriage and family act as key mechanisms that amplify and reproduce economic inequality, as individuals with similar socioeconomic backgrounds are sorted into the same households, deepening income and wealth divides. By analyzing the causes and consequences of partner selection and family dynamics, her research uncovers how intimate choices shape broader structures of inequality.
Peter A. Allard School of Law
- Dr. Alexandra Flynn is an Associate Professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law and the Director of the Housing Research Collaborative where her teaching and research focus on municipal and property law. Her research sits at the intersection of municipal law, housing policy, and property rights, with a particular focus on how legal and governance structures shape access to housing and urban space. By examining how law and governance contribute to these dynamics, her work helps uncover both the causes and the lived consequences of inequality.
Sauder School of Business
- Dr. Jan Bena is an Associate Professor of Finance and the Bank of Montreal Chair in International Finance at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. His research sits at the intersection of corporate finance, innovation, entrepreneurship, and labour markets, with a particular focus on how technological change and financial frictions shape firm dynamics, labour outcomes, and inequality. His current work examines the impact of generative AI on entrepreneurship, bargaining power, and venture financing, highlighting its potential to lower barriers to entry, shift bargaining power toward workers and founders, and alter the structural forces driving income and wealth inequality. More broadly, his research traces how globalization, ownership, and culture influence inequality, offering new insights into the policies and practices that can mitigate its consequences.
- Dr. Elena S. Pikulina is an Assistant Professor of Finance at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Her research sits at the intersection of behavioural finance and economics, examining how human preferences, biases, and authority structures shape decision-making and contribute to inequality. She has shown how subtle biases in promotions can entrench disparities in income and opportunity, how differences in beliefs and identity affect investor behaviour and wealth accumulation, and how preferences for power influence the use of authority within organizations. Her work highlights how inequality emerges not only from differences in resources, but also from the ways individuals evaluate financial decisions and exercise power within institutions.
Vancouver School of Economics
- Dr. Miguel Ortiz is an Assistant Professor at UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics. His teaching and research focus on political economy, development economics, and behavioural economics, with a particular emphasis on conflict and intergroup relations. His work examines how income and wealth inequality intersect with social identity, exploring how economic divides often map onto group identities and shape intergroup dynamics. By studying these relationships, his research sheds light on the ways inequality contributes to conflict and group-based divisions, highlighting the broader social consequences of economic disparities.