Aida Parnia
PhD Candidate · Sociology University of Toronto
I am a critical demographer and sociologist who uses quantitative methods to study migration, health, and labour, with close attention to how populations are counted—what the data capture, and whom they leave out. I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Toronto, where my dissertation, The Archives of Expendable Labour: A Critical Quantitative Study of Labour Migration in Canada, examines the lives of temporary residents and labour migrants in Canada. My earlier work addressed socioeconomic, racial, and gender-based inequalities in health.
I am an R.F. Harney Graduate Research Fellow in Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. I received the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship for my doctoral research, following a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship at the master’s level. On completing my master’s in Sociology at the University of Toronto, I received the Canadian Sociological Association’s Outstanding Graduating Sociology Student Award. My other honours include an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, a fellowship with the Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3) at McGill University, and the Barbara Frum Memorial Award in Canadian Scholarship.
In my teaching, I am committed to demystifying statistics for students who think numbers aren’t for them and giving them the confidence to engage with, critique, and use data. Since 2020, I have taught statistics for the social sciences as a course instructor and teaching assistant in undergraduate and graduate courses. In 2026, I received the University of Toronto Department of Sociology’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.
Research
Selected Publications
- 2021
- Shahidi, F. V. & Parnia, A. Unemployment Insurance and Mortality Among the Long-Term Unemployed: A Population-Based Matched-Cohort Study. American Journal of Epidemiology.
- 2020
- Parnia, A. & Siddiqi, A. Socioeconomic disparities in smoking are partially explained by chronic financial stress: marginal structural model of older US adults. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
- 2020
- Shahidi, F. V., Parnia, A. & Siddiqi, A. Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in premature and avoidable mortality in Canada, 1991-2016. CMAJ.
- 2018
- Parnia, A. et al. Environmental factors associated with blood lead among newcomer women from South and East Asia in the Greater Toronto Area. Science of the Total Environment.
Full list on Google Scholar ↗
Teaching
Courses Taught
- Intro to Quantitative Data Analysis (SOC 411)
- Intermediate Quantitative Methods
- Statistics for Sociologists
- Intermediate Data Analysis
- Theories of Stratification
- Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Sociology
- Intermediate Quantitative Methods in Sociology
- Advanced Topics in Sociology: Sociology of Emotions
Workshops
- Quantitative Boot Camp for Graduate Students
- Introduction to R
Selected Honours
- 2026–27
- R.F. Harney Graduate Research Fellowship in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- 2026
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
- 2025
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 2023–24
- CAnD3 Fellowship in Population Analytics in an Aging Society McGill University
- 2022
- Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship—Doctoral Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
- 2022
- Barbara Frum Memorial Award in Canadian Scholarship University of Toronto
- 2022
- Outstanding Graduating Sociology Student Award (Master’s) Canadian Sociological Association · University of Toronto
- 2020
- Canada Graduate Scholarship—Master’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)