Michael Lawler

Mike's primary research considers the mobilities and valuation of cultural products, kimchi in particular, outside of state-led interventions, with the hope of producing a more fulsome understanding of the (re)production of food as a cultural object, as it occurs in a ‘Korean transnational imaginary’. As part of this project, he engages with producers, chefs, foodies, influencers, restauranteurs, educators, academics, farmers, and state officials. More broadly, his research interests include diaspora and transnationalism, housing, street food vending and informality, diaspora foodways, institutional food provisioning, matters of food sovereignty and community engagement, as well as the transmission of culinary knowledge between generations and across locations.

He is a 2024/2025 recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship as well as a Visiting Graduate Researcher at UCLA. He is conducting fieldwork between Los Angeles, Toronto, and Seoul. Alongside his PhD research, he was part of the 'Discovering University Worlds' project (SSHRC Insight Development Grant), where he published an auto-ethnography related to food provisioning and student advocacy in student residences. He has also published in Society & Space, Briarpatch, and is contributing and co-editing an upcoming book on student food advocacy. Additionally, he is working as a Research Assistant on Ken MacDonald's project on public market infrastructure in Toronto.

Outside of school, he has managed multiple farmers’ markets throughout Toronto, including Underpass Park Farmers’ Market and the Junction Farmers’ Market, with a particular focus on ensuring access for young farmers and vendors from equity-deserving communities. Mike has also led international experiential education programs based on food and agriculture across Thailand. He cooked professionally at Cava, a long-established fine dining restaurant focused on Spanish cuisine. He has also led historical food tours — focused on themes of immigrant foodways, gentrification, and community resistance — in Kensington Market and Chinatown. He has volunteered with a wide range of NGOs and community organizations, including Friends of the Greenbelt, Community Food Centres Canada, the Varsity Blues badminton team, and the U of T Food Coalition.

Publications

Michael Lawler. (2024) "From Leader to Laggard: Reflections on Food Provisioning at the University of Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic". Working Paper #12. Discovering University Worlds, University of Toronto.

Edemariam, Y., Lawler, M. (2023, March 6). Assembling a digital dystopia. Briarpatch. https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/assembling-a-digital-dystopia

Lawler, M. (2022). Put Your Cows on Auto Control: Ruminations on the Proliferation of Precision Livestock Farming. Society & Space, Online Articles. https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/put-your-cows-on-auto-control-r...