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Matthew Light
- B.A. (Harvard), M.A. (Chicago), J.D., Ph.D. (Political Science, Yale)
- Assistant Professor of Criminology
- Email Address: matthew.light@utoronto.ca
Recent Publications:
- "Policing Migration in Soviet and Post-Soviet Moscow." Post-Soviet Affairs 26 (4): 275-313.
- "The Russo-Georgian War of 2008: A Conflict Announced in Advance?" (Review article based on Ronald D. Asmus, A Little War that Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West, and Svante E. Cornell & S. Frederick Starr [eds.], The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia), Europe-Asia Studies 62 (9): 1579-1582.
- Forthcoming: "What Does It Take to Control Migration? Lessons from the USSR," in Law and Social Inquiry.
- Forthcoming: "Migration Controls in Soviet and Post-Soviet Moscow: From 'Closed City' to 'Illegal City'", in Russia on the Move: Essays on the Politics, Society and Culture of Human Mobility, 1850-Present, Eds. John Randolph and Eugene M. Avrutin (University of Illinois Press).
- Forthcoming: "Regulation, Recruitment and Control of Immigration," in International Handbook of Migration Studies, eds. Steven Gold and Stephanie Nawyn (Routledge).
Research Interests
Professor Light's doctoral and post-doctoral research has focused on issues of migration control, individual rights, and policing in post-Soviet Russia. His dissertation (2006) was a study of migration controls in four regions of post-Soviet Russia. The motivation for his research was the persistence of extra-constitutional residence restrictions in at least some regions of the Russian Federation, notably Moscow, despite the legal right to internal mobility guaranteed by the constitution of the Russian Federation. The preparation of this study entailed extensive field research in Russia, conducted between 2002 and 2004, with a further post-doctoral visit on a fellowship from IREX in 2005 to 2006. Sources of data included government and NGO publications, the press, Russian published works, and interviews with officials, NGO representatives, and migrants themselves. The major findings of the study are that residence restrictions in contemporary Russia are not simply a continuation of Soviet-era policies, but rather result from the devolution of state control over migration management to regional governments, which in turn results from the Russian central government's reorientation toward the monopolization of rents from natural resources, as well as the related phenomenon of the informalization of centre-regional relations in Russia, including de facto control over the police and other law enforcement activities.
Professor Light has also studied and written on the legal and political regulation of Muslim religious institutions in Russia.
He has also written on the political situation in several regions of Russia, including Belgorod Oblast and the highly unstable North Caucasus (Krasnodar and Stavropol provinces, and the autonomous republic of Adygeia).
He is currently revising his dissertation and post-doctoral research for publication as a monograph.
His most recent project is a study of the causes and effects of police reform measures in the Republic of Georgia, former USSR, which have dramatically reduced the problem of police corruption in that country.
Teaching
Professor Light is currently teaching an advanced undergraduate course, "Comparative Criminal Justice," which introduces students to the historical evolution of criminal justice and law enforcement, with particular attention to the divergent traditions of the English-speaking world and continental Europe; as well as to contemporary problems of crime and law enforcement in different regions of the world, including the post-Soviet region and developing countries.
In winter 2009, he will be repeating this undergraduate course, and also will be teaching the graduate course on policing.
In his previous appointment at the University of Massachusetts, Professor Light also taught advanced undergraduate courses on U.S. constitutional law, criminal justice policy, immigration policy, and democracy and democratization.
