I received my PhD from the interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Religion, at the University of Toronto, in 2001. My MA is from the University of Winnipeg (1992). I joined the Department of Sociology as a full-time faculty member in 2001.

My research is focused on various social justice issues and movements, often as they are related to religion (and especially Roman Catholicism). I am interested in the social and political implications of Catholic social teaching and liberation theologies, and am also interested in both official and popular expressions of Catholic thought and practice in relation to older adults and aging. Another area of my research involves the intersections of aging, gender and activism, particularly as they have been embodied in the social movement activists known as the Raging Grannies.

Alongside these research pursuits, I am very interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and in experimenting with innovative ways to engage students in the undergraduate classroom.

• Faculty of Arts Teaching Scholar Award, Wilfrid Laurier University (2006).
• Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University (2005).
• Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University (2016)

I am willing to supervise or sit on the committees of graduate students in the areas related to my research interests in the sociology of religion, sociology of aging, and the sociology of social movements.

• Sawchuk, Dana.  “Peace Profile: The Raging Grannies.” Peace Review (2013).
• Sawchuk, Dana. “The Raging Grannies: Defying Stereotypes and Embracing Aging through Activism.” Journal of Women & Aging (2009).
• Sawchuk, Dana. “Horkheimer and Adorno on Social Change: Problems and Potential in Light of ‘History from Below.’” Critical Sociology (2005).
• Sawchuk, Dana. The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-1996. Wilfrid Laurier University Press and Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion (2004).