Sandra Rollings-Magnusson

Grant MacEwan College

Sandra Rollings-Magnusson received two of her degrees (BA High Honours and MA) from the University of Regina and her PhD from the University of Alberta. She is currently employed as a faculty member with the Sociology Department at Grant MacEwan College. She has served on various committees, most recently as an elected Executive Member of the Canadian Sociological Association and currently as Editor of Socialist Studies: The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies.

Her research interests include issues relating to social justice and equality, social policy, and North American historical development. Sandra has published a number of articles on these topics in such journals as Canadian Public Policy, Canadian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, Prairie Forum, Canadian Journal of Higher Education, and Journal of Family History. She also has two books being published, Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders: The Labour of Pioneer Children on the Western Canadian Prairies and Anti-Terrorism: Security and Insecurity after 9 /11.

Currently, Sandra is pursuing her interest in Canadian historical development. She is working on a three year SSHRC funded project reviewing archival material from the pioneer era (1872-1914) and statistically analyzing over 15,000 homesteading records. Ethnic, gender and age analyses will also be conducted with this data in order to obtain a better understanding of early frontier social life in Canada.

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  • Anti-Terrorism

    Security and Insecurity after 9/11

    Edited by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson     March 2009

    This edited collection critically analyzes the concept of “terrorism,” the Canadian and American government responses to terrorist activity since the events of 9/11 and the problem of government policies infringing on basic human rights and freedoms. The authors direct their attention to various topics including the relationship between the capitalist economic system and the war on terror, the legality and efficacy of of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, and the insecurities created by the new security regime. The intensification of public surveillance is shown to undermine democratic values and accentuate state coercion, and tightened border controls are revealed to be thinly veiled discrimination against particular racial, ethnic and religious groups. The conclusion of this book highlights the need for an informed public debate about security and for society to question and re-examine the need for enhanced security measures, particularly when such processes counter democratic values. Suggestions for both long-term and short-term policy changes are put forward.